Today I’ll let you in on a little secret. I used to be a massive nerd for the SEO tactics and strategies that push web pages up through the ranks of Google and other search engines. The thrill and journey of taking a website that had either low grade rankings or was brand new and getting on the Google leaderboard (Page 1) for my targeted keywords was a pure satisfaction that not many people can understand.
It adds gravity of the accomplishment when money starts to correlate with those rankings. As an affiliate operator I would be looking to rank pages that help promote my product offers and have web traffic on my pages where I am running display ads. This all adds up and makes it highly valuable to focus on SEO instead of paid advertising for clicks.
So now let me take you on a journey to the depths of Search Engine Optimisation.
Title tags
These tell both search engine spiders and human visitors what your page is about. Your title tag should definitely include your main keyword.
This is what goes into your <title></title> HTML. Also known as your Title Meta. Most people use the popular WordPress Plug-In’s “SEO Framework” or “RankMath” to create individual titles for each page.
You want it to be readable to the user and you want to use the keywords sparingly
# Example: Apple Computers – Buy Them Here
Keep your title short, and to the point and each page should have a unique title.
Meta Description
This specific html element falls under the category of a “meta tag,” and gives specific infomation about what your page is about. You should use the meta description to convince people to click through your site. Here’s what a meta description looks like in the Google search results:
Meta tags – these html elements live in the <head> of a web page, and basically tell the search engines what you page is about. Meta tags can also entice people to choose your page, over another page in the SERPs.
H Tags
These tags are used to structure the information on your page. The search engines definitely use this as a ranking metric. These are better known as “heading” tags, like <h1>, <h2> <h3> these are used to classify the topic h1 and sub topics h2 OnPage.
My preference is to use the plurals of the keyword example Hairdresser & Hairdressers
and use the one with higher search vol in the critical spots with the lower search vol in H2, image titles, content.
Here’s how to take advantage of H tags:
H1 – The role of the H1 tag has changed over the years. Previously, “best practices” would tell you to always put your main keyword in the H1 tag. But now, it depends on whether or not your are doing any link building. Let me explain. If you are NOT doing any link building (such as, you’re not using our RankBOSS service), then you should put your main keyword in the H1 tag.
If you are doing link building (a.k.a. using our service), you should Not put your main keyword in the h1 tag.
Why?
This will likely lead to an over-optimization penalty.
So, with that being said, the rest of this email will be under the assumption that you ARE building links. For the examples below, I’ll be using the “Apple Computers” keyword example.
–back to that H1 tag… since you are building links to this page, you want to keep your H1 tag generic. Use “branding” or “generic” keywords in the H1. For example:
<h1>Check Out Our Full Selection Below</h1> — notice there is no mention of “Apple” or “Computers.”
H2 Tags – These are for the main sub-headings within your content. This is where I’d recommend using your main keywords. For example:
<h2>Our Apple Computers On Sale</h2>
<h2>The Macbook Air</h2>
<h2>Macbook Pro Retina</h2>
<h2>Desktops</h2>
H3 Tags – Sub-sub headings. Examples:
<h3>13”</h3>
<h3>15″</h3>
Other tags – You don’t really need them, but feel free to use them if you have an actual need for the structure. If nothing else, they look good!
Here’s how you might structure a page targeting the “Apple Computers” keyword.
IN DEPTH HEADER TAGS
Use Heading tags to organise the ideas in a page of content. The overall idea of the article can be expressed in an H1. Then major “sub-ideas” in H2. Ideas that are part of an individual H2 Topic can be expressed under an H3 heading, and if that idea goes more granular then that sub-topic can be titled with an H4 and so on
I always imagine it as a folder structure. Here’s how I visualise it:
The red box is H1
Yellow folders are H2
Blue folders are H3
Green folders are H4.
You can arrange these in a visual way, then make them linear as you put them down the page, planning your article.
For example:
H1. How to write an article
H2. Intro
Content
H2. Section 1 – Folder A
Content
H3. Folder A1
H4. Folder A1a
Content
H4. Folder A1b
Content
H4. Folder A1c
Content
H3. Folder A2
Content
H3. Folder A3
Content
H2. Section 2 – Folder B
H3. Folder B1
Content
H3. Folder B2
H2. Conclusion
Adding some structure helps readers and Google bots read and understand the hierarchy of your articles. This makes the experience on the front end more enjoyable and easier to follow along with.
Optimise Pages For Multiple Keywords:
When it comes to OnPage optimisation, certain places are more valuable to have your keywords in than others. Based on my tests, in order of impact, from most valuable keyword real-estate to least valuable:
URL
SEO Title Tag (i.e.: <TITLE></TITLE>)
H1 (i.e.: Page title)
H2, H3, H4…
Content
Alt text
We can use this knowledge to our advantage, if we have multiple keywords that we want to target on a single page, which in our profession is standard operating procedure.
Let’s say we have the following keywords we want to target on the homepage in order of importance:
dog training
dog obedience
puppy school
potty training for dogs
dog walking training
We’ll start with our URL, making a branded domain, with an inner page targeting however many keywords we can fit in the URL without looking spammy. The following URL covers our two most important keywords.
Now for the SEO title tag. Again, let’s try to get as many keywords as possible in there, remembering the rules from the above.
SEO Title Tag: Dog Training and Obedience School | Pet Pros
Next comes our Page Title. Definitely get our top keywords in there, and lets also try to get some of the words that we haven’t included so far. Additionally, we’ll use a synonym “Canines” to get some semantic advantage.
Page Title: Dog Training School for both Puppies and Adult Canines Whatever we can’t fit, whether it be to length issues or it just not making sense for our sales copy, we can fit on
H2’s and H3’s. H2: Potty Training
H2: Walking your Dog Lastly, in the event that we have a long list of keywords, make sure to put them in the content somewhere.
Pro tip: Let’s say you’re trying to rank for the keywords “____ review” and “____ reviews”. You’ll need to include both ‘review’ and ‘reviews’ somewhere on your page. If these are important keywords, then definitely drop them in the URL, SEO Title Tag, or Page Title.
Keyword Density:
There is varied opinion about the exact number to aim for. My thoughts are between 1-1.8% for your main keyword. There is no magical number that is and represents the secret sauce every niche and keyword has competitive values that differ from others.
Pro Tip: Individual words of a keyword phrase matter too
Many people come to me and ask if they’re over-optimised. They only have “dog training” on their page 4
times, but “dog” is used 40 times and “training” is used 30 times. This has Panda-penalty written all over it.
Pro Tip: Keep keyword phrases down to only 2-3 occurrences:
once in a <header tag> and 1-2 times in the body of the content on the page.
Pro Tip: Keep individual words down to less than 15. What to do instead? Use synonyms.
(The above recommendations are for a 500-word article.)
I also suggest writing naturally and for humans not Google robots.
Using Synonyms
Synonyms are the most under-utilised tool in the OnPage arsenal.
Use synonyms to establish semantic relevance for a page without risking over-optimisation.
In the dog training example, we can use the following words instead of “dog” and “training”:
canine
k9
puppy
pooch
obedience
learning
instruction
Since our page is going after “dog training”, we can use “canine” and “instruction” with no worry.
We don’t care if we’re over optimised for these keywords because hardly anyone is searching for “canine instruction.”
But ninja tactic is to use these words to establish a high degree of relevance for the page.
Content Word Count:
People debate over how many words per page is optimal. No one has the exact number, because this matters on a per-niche and per-keyword basis.
For example, pages in the health niche (competitive), typically require more words to rank than others.
However, based on my testing experience and recent studies, the minimum amount of words you want on a page is:
Regular page: 500+ words
Product page: 500+ words & Bullet points that highlight features
Competitive term: 1,500+ words
To be safe, I’d recommend writing any page you want to rank with 1000 words or more helping your cause.
This can not be achieved every time, some clients may have highly graphical pages.
Stuffing pages for the sake of it won’t look right, think of the UX stick to the rules above.
There are limits on how many words you want on a page and it depends on the niche.
Imagine you are working on a local landscape clients website.
You have 3,000 words on the keyword target page, but every other competing ranked page has 700 words.
You my friend, are in overkill mode. Google likes content that is concise & to the point.
URL Structure (Permalinks):
Whenever possible, keep short and simple URL slugs, and have your keyword in the URL of the page. For example:
www.yourwebsite.com/buy-apple-computers
This part is pretty dependant on your site and your CMS, but optimally you want your URLs as short as possible with as much keyword stuffing as possible.
go with /%postname%
the shorter the URLs, the better – This also remove the trailing slash from every post and page. Make sure to set your custom URLs in your posts and pages though and don’t just use the title of the post/page or you’ll end up with massively long URLs.
Breadcrumbs:
Types of breadcrumbs. I like to use location based.
Location Based Breadcrumbs
show the user where the current page is located relevant to the whole structure of the site.
example: See All Departments > Electronics > Auto Electronics >
In-Dash Stereos
Path Based Breadcrumbs
visualise the user’s path which brought him to the current page. These breadcrumbs are dynamic and are usually based on the search results. With this type of breadcrumbs one and the same page can be accessed through several paths:
Consulting > Services > Implementation > Service A
Consulting > Services > Optimisation > Service A
Consulting > Services > Upgrade > Service A
Attribute Based Breadcrumbs
list the attributes of the current page
Best Uses of Breadcrumbs
Only use breadcrumbs when they help a user: for large, multi-level websites. These are for user first of all; if they also help SEO – that’s an additional benefit. Don’t add breadcrumbs just for the sake of adding good internal anchor text.
Do not link the current page to itself (the last step in the breadcrumbs should be un-linked);
Do not replace main navigation with breadcrumbs (breadcrumbs visualise your website structure horizontally while the main navigation shows its vertical structure listing its other categories and content types);
Use breadcrumbs consistently (this makes the user browsing your website feel safer and allows him to faster familiarise himself with how the site is structured)
Do not use breadcrumbs in the page <title> tag (this makes the title too long and untargeted)
Here is a cheatsheet for building well structured web pages that will help your affiliate products get some traction with Google.
Elevate your SEO game by implementing the following advanced techniques that not only sidestep spammy practices but also leverage Google’s sophisticated semantic synonym recognition to enhance your page’s relevance to a specific topic.
Mastering URL Structure:
Incorporate your primary keyword once within the URL.
Prioritize brevity while ensuring keyword representation.
Recent experiments indicate that shorter URL slugs deliver superior results.
Opt for concise, impactful URL structures both for homepage and inner pages.
Example:
Effective: http://www.goodboyk9.com/dog-training
Less Effective: http://www.goodboyk9.com/dog-training-guide-for-new-owners-of-puppies
Strategic Title Tag Placement:
Embed your keyword in the title tag, positioning it towards the beginning.
Optimize for conciseness and relevance.
Recent studies highlight the superiority of shorter title tags.
Delay the use of “click bait” words until achieving higher rankings (#1-#5).
Example:
Optimal: Dog Training Guide for Beginners | Obedience Tips
Suboptimal: Dog Training – How to train your dog – Dog Training Tips
Maximizing Meta Description Impact:
Leverage the meta description to enhance click-through rate (CTR).
While Google doesn’t directly rank meta descriptions, they indirectly affect rankings by influencing CTR.
Craft persuasive descriptions that entice clicks from search engine results.
Employ curiosity-invoking strategies to engage users and prompt clicks.
Experiment with capitalization and trigger words to stimulate interest.
Aim for a meta description length of no more than 156 characters.
Example:
Compelling: These sneaky Dog Training Tips will work on ANY dog. You’ll DEFINITELY want to check out our FREE …
Bonus Tip: Enhance intrigue by adding a “…” (dot dot dot) to incite curiosity and drive clicks.
As you wield these advanced techniques, remember that your affiliate marketing journey is an evolving process. By harnessing the power of precise URL structuring, impactful title tags, and enticing meta descriptions, you equip yourself with the tools to amplify your affiliate efforts and rise above the competition.
Page Speed
Fast sites rank better. But even more important, your visitors will not stay on slow sites for very long waiting for the page to load. There are many things you can do to increase your site’s speed.
First, check your site’s speed. Go here: http://tools.pingdom.com, or http://GTmetrix.com. Get a baseline of where you’re at, so you’ll know how much you’ve improved. You really want to see your site loading at least 80% better than other sites (as measured by Pingdom), and a total loading time of less than 2 seconds. You can work hard to make your site even faster than < 2 seconds.
If your site is slow, Pingdom will give you suggestions on how you can improve it. If you’re on WordPress, you’re in luck! There are some dead simple steps you can take to get some massive speed improvement within three minutes.
How to drastically improve your (WordPress) site speed in 3 minutes or less:
First, do basic site clean up, ie empty the trash, delete duplicate or unused images from the media library. Install a good caching plugin like W3 Total Cache. Install a great compression plugin (I use G-Zip Ninja Compression, which is free and works great). Literally install and activate, nothing more to do for this.
1. Install the W3 Cache Plugin & Activate it.
2. Once it’s been activated, in the WordPress dashboard, go to: Performance > General Settings
3. Enable “page cache” and “minify” Save it.
4. Now check to make sure your site is working properly. “Minify” can sometimes mess up a site. If it DID, deactivate “minify” and the problem should be solved instantly.
5. Check your page speed again to see your improvement, and how quickly your site is loading.
Pingdom Tools or GT Metrix will show what is causing the latency and is good to run before and after to gage results.
If your site has a lot of images, they could be really slowing your site down. Here are some things to consider:
Image Size:
Make sure your image file sizes are compressed (not necessarily the size of the image, but the file size. This will make your site load fast.
Alternatively install a great image optimiser (ideally, images should be optimised before uploading to the library but let’s face it, not many of us do that). I use Tiny PNG plugin, free for up to 500 compressions per month, and it works awesome. Install, activate, leave the default settings as they are. Register as a user and insert the API code that is emailed to you into the plugin settings.
Hover over the media library in the dashboard, select “bulk optimise” and let it do its thing. I’ve brought sites down from 22 seconds to under 3 seconds with just these 3 free plugins that take maybe 5 minutes to install and run.
Something to remember: using smaller images (the size of the image, not the file) will help with load times as well. Huge images are just SLOW.
If you have a lot of images, check out the “lazy load” plugin (http://wordpress.org/plugins/bj-lazy-load). This plugin will delay the loading of an image until a visitor scrolls toward that image. So, say you’ve got a nice, long post, filled with images. By using the lazy load plugin, the page will load quickly, displaying only the images at the beginning of the post. As the visitor scroll down the page, those images further down the page will load. This means that the page can load quickly, and will load images a few at a time, instead of trying for all at once.
Alt-Text:
Adding alt text to images is often overlooked but we know better and can use these to take advantage of the extra room to describe our website images.
Important – Alt text keywords DO contribute to overall page word count and keyword density.
For example, if you had the word “dog” in your content 10 times, and “dog” was in two alt tags as well, then your total count is 12 times.
Use alt text as if you were describing the image to a blind person. Don’t keyword stuff but you can include long tail or synonyms into the description.
Avoid having images that have “_” or “|” and instead look at using “-“ to seperate words.
What are alt tags actually for? Alt tags were designed for screen readers that help visual-impaired folks read webpages.
When the screen reader comes to an image, it reads the alt tag to describe what that image is.
Essentially, Google wants us to simply describe the picture.
If it’s a picture of a girl smiling, then label the alt tag “picture of girl smiling.”
Using the alt tags as intended is another reason I mostly choose not to optimise them. Think about your SEO strategy if you do optimise alt tags or not.
Geo Tag Images:
In local search we want to provide our clients with the best local relevance that we can. Using geo tags to add location points into the exif data of images will help us do this.
There is a significant amount of traffic that comes from google images search, and google maps images just look at the GMB insights of your clients. Don’t be surprised and instead act on this as a source of traffic others may not be exploiting. In some cases 5% or less traffic will result from images so in that scenario you can de-optimise the alt text so you only worry about keyword density OnPage and not on two fronts.
The bad news is geo tagging will be stripped when you compress images, a choice needs to be made to have more geo tagged images or faster loading websites.
Tip: add geo tagged images to Google my business and maps and leave compressed images for the website.
Process > Geo tag images then upload to GMB > Then compress and upload to the website.
Images OnPage:
Opinions differ about the specifics that there should be a specific ratio of HTML code (namely images) versus raw text, in order to make the search engines happy.
Based on my tests, I have never concluded on a magic number of how many images should be present per a given word count. But I do indeed recommend a simple rule of thumb that I’ve garnered from extensive conversion rate optimisation and split test experiments:
Never have a wall of text on the page.
There should never been a segment of your page where all the reader can see is simply a top-to-bottom block of text, with no graphics or structured markup (e.g.: table or list). Following this rule will keep you within safe bounds regarding both:
1) Keeping the search engines happy
2) Keeping your visitors interested in your page
Sitemaps:
the Google XML Sitemaps plugin on WordPress sites.
To keep it simple create a sitemap, if you can go advanced then split the sitemaps into into categories, priorities & frequency aren’t a must but make sure you use change dates.
Make sure once you’ve setup this plugin, that you submit your /sitemap.xml to Google’s Webmaster Tools – This is the main sitemap, and Google will then index each sub-sitemap on it’s own, you don’t need to submit each sitemap this plugin makes.
Googlebot is on your site for a couple of seconds at max at a time. Remove any unnecessary files that don’t need to be on your site – You want the pages you want ranked to be crawled, and having files like backups & unused PDFs just hurts your crawl rate.
Each website has a crawl budget per month and its important that if a client makes a lot of updates and changes that the crawl budget be spent wisely. This means fetch and render only when you need too.
Robots.txt:
Don’t Use The Default Robots.txt
Here’s the WordPress Robots.txt file that I use to keep these pages hidden.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-content/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: http://seoguide.com./sitemap.xml
You can also add in any link checking bots you want to block via this pastebin.
You’ll have to manually upload a robots.txt file with this code in to overwrite the default WordPress one.
Pingbacks:
Turn On Pingbacks
Don’t allow people to post pingbacks to your site, but notifying other blogs when you link to them helps get traffic and visibility.
Go here: /wp-admin/options-discussion.php for WordPress.
And check the “Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article” box.
Link Functions:
An essential way to establish relevance for a page is to link out to an authority page in you niche.
What’s an authority page? Think WebMD.com, CNN.com, etc. Something with Domain Authority 70 or higher.
The ranking benefit of linking to authority sites is in the user reading enhancements. You are providing more value.
Pro tip: Don’t use Wikipedia for your authority links. This is what every other SEO on the planet is doing. Remember, Google doesn’t like SEOs, so don’t look like one.
For every page that you’re trying to rank, throw up an authority link somewhere past the fold. Putting it anywhere above the fold increases the chance that the reader will actually click on it and bounce from your page.
There’s considerable debate about whether or not to make the link dofollow or nofollow. The nofollow team wants to keep all their link juice on their site and refrain of leaking it off the page.
Since it hasn’t been empirically proven which one works better, I opt to keep it dofollow since the disadvantage of having no authority link on the page wouldn’t be worth it. If you’re worried about ranking another page, simply link to an authority page (DA 70+) that doesn’t rank higher than you already, or isn’t on the first page.
Pro tip: Create your authority links to open in a new window. This keeps your bounce rate low; in case the reader decides to click on the authority link. Example: <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/dog-training” target=”_blank”></a>
Using a Macro vs Micro OnPage Focus:
Macro – This refers to what you’re doing at the site level, such as your site structure, levels, links etc. This is the overview of your site from a crawlers perspective, as well as the perspective of the user.
Good Macro on-page revolves around making good decisions for both UX and SEO. You can use data to back up a lot of your decision making here, and it’s often THE MOST overlooked aspect of on-page with some of the bigger sites.
When we’re working with eCommerce clients, this is often what we’re spending hours and hours on in the first few months.
When auditing the macro level you need a human eye to find areas that are weak, and need improvement.
Micro – This refers to what you’re doing on the page level, this is what most on-page tutorials, articles etc talks about. Using the right markup, longer content – you know the drill. This is often where most people get things right, however there’s a tendency to focus on the wrong things.
At the micro level you can improve rankings for a specific page and linked pages, opposed to macro level where you’ll often see sitewide ranking improvements.
When auditing the micro level you’ll often use tools to achieve this such as ScreamingFrog.
Broken Links and 404’s
Use browser extension (chrome) broken link checker to check your pages for broken links. 404’s and broken links are a negative ranking factor as the user experience is not enhanced but disadvantaged by the browsing problem.
Indexing:
Double check index with Screaming Frog
Finally, check your site for major errors by running a search using the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool. It’s free, and an awesome, powerful tool. There’s TONS of things you can look for, but the most important will be making sure the status codes say either “200” or “301.” If you see anything else, then you or someone you know more knowledgeable should take a look at getting those fixed. They can cause really big problems.
Ninja Tip – Embed google properties on your client website, Google loves Google and embedding a Google property on a website is one way to tell Google the page/site exists. Think Youtube videos and Google Maps.
Plugins
Check your plugins. If you have a plugin installed that you’re not using (even if it is deactivated), delete it. Plugins can slow your site way down.
For some recommended plugins (WordPress) see the resources at the bottom of this document.
Content Delivery Network
If you’re not afraid of something slightly more involved, then looking into a content delivery network (CDN), such as CloudFlare or MaxCDN. Using a CDN can give your site a big speed boost right away. Here’s how: a CDN distributes your content to multiple servers around the world. When someone visits your site, a server closer to their location can serve the page.
CDNs are not complicated; I really recommend you set one up. Seriously, the set up time will be like five minutes. If you’re running a media rich site, switching over to a CDN can cut your load time in half. HALF!
Managed Hosting
If you’re using WordPress, you absolutely should be using a service like WP Engine to host your site.
Why? An all-in-one managed WordPress host can speed up your site instantly. Caching and CDNs are built into the hosting service. It’s also completed managed for you, so you’ll never have to deal with another WordPress upgrade again.
SSL:
Should your website have SSL – Secure socket layer
If your client website takes payment online or collects personal data of its users then the answer is yes.
Note: October 2017 Google will show all http websites as insecure in the search results to add to the update from March 2017 where they began to show the browser URL as “Not Secure” for http websites where the https websites were shown with a green “Secure”.
Review Stars:
Another type of rich snippet is the review star. Having review stars on an affiliate product review page, for example, can be a significant factor in stealing clicks from the SERPs.
Example of review stars:
Getting review stars is extremely easy. I simply use the WP Structured Data Schema for WordPress. As of the time of this writing, review stars are only available for inner pages.
Warning: Google has been passing out manual penalties based on spammy structured data. As of now, most of the reports I’ve seen have been about manipulating location using schema, but I’m sure using fake ratings is a hot spot too.
Testing:
I’m a big believer of testing and having test “sandbox” sites to test techniques on that mimics real world client sites. Creating a mirror site to test on, not an exact replica but very similar but more lightweight.
BONUS: How to Rank Images in Google (Step by Step)
Ranking images in Google is very similar to ranking a Youtube video.
In fact ranking images is actually easier because the competition is lower (not many people are intentionally aiming to rank photos).
Here are the steps to rank an image…
1) Alt text: The alt text of the image needs to match or be a partial match keyword to what you’re aiming to rank for.
2) Content: The content surrounding where your image is hosted needs to be closely related to your target keyword.
3) Authority: This is relevant to the competitiveness of the keyword you’re trying to rank.
4) Syndication: Taking your image and embedding it on a network of websites, social media sites, image sharing sites and other web pages helkps boost the relevance of your keywords and image topic. This has helped me drive thousands of extra eyeballs to my product offers and view my display ads on my niche blog.
Think of sites like Flickr, Pinterest, Diig, Google Images and many more that all help push the relevance of the image. Monitor your progress and don’t stop with 1 image. If you can blanket Google Images search results with your image target thats a big opportunity that you should not waste.
SEO is a powerful strategy to use for your affiliate niche blogs, ecommerce websites and dropship stores. It might sound technical and a bit spammy but it gets results and it takes less money to start than advertising. Don’t sleep on SEO.
When it comes to purchasing niche products, navigating the unique features and specifications can be a daunting task. Whether you’re a seasoned enthusiast or a newcomer to the niche, this ultimate buying guide aims to provide you with the insights and knowledge you need to make informed purchasing decisions. From understanding the key factors to consider to tips for finding the best deals, this guide has you covered.
I always try to define the use case of the product that I’m about to review. This helps the user connect to their own problems and information seeking for solving their problems. If Im saying that the VPN I am reviewing helped me get passed geo content restrictions and the reader has that same issue then we have common ground.
The niche of the product needs to be relevant for the reader. If you have regular readers then you should stay within your niche or at least very close using shoulder niches. I couldn’t on this blog start reviewing Gym gear or supplements because it makes zero sense to connect my readers to that niche. Your product niche must be relevant to your blog topic.
Understanding Your Needs
Identifying Your Requirements
Assessing Compatibility
What are the criteria markers for evaluating this product? how have you chosen them and what weight does each one have against the final score? these are all questions you need to frame. Failing to set the scene results in the scoring not having enough weight to hook the reader.
You should call out any specifics of the product so the reader can assess their eligibility (do they have the minimum requirements) this gives the readers who may convert even more confidence in your review, it now says to them you have the right requirements if you purchase this product.
What do I mean by this?
If software what devices can it work on, what operating systems are compatible
If car parts what models and makes is the accessory compatible with
Researching Niche Products
Exploring Available Options
Reading Expert and User Reviews
Before you settle in on the actual product to review, assess what else is out there and pick a shortlist that you can review later, or use in a comparison review article. One good strategy is having 5 products that you review and then creating a master review article that compares each one for a best of article a little like this best web hosting review article.
Before I start my review articles I like to see what other people are saying by reading a handful of reviews. I also like to see what actual product reviews there are from people who purchase the product. This is key in getting pros and cons of the product. People are weird and this is a great note to never forget, everyone is different with different use cases and expectations.
This is a gold mine for you when creating review content and if you do not own the product it can help you get real insights from real owners.
Comparing Features and Specifications
Highlighting Essential Features
Weighing Pros and Cons
Always call out the best features early on in your product review.
Tell people how you assess the pros and cons, why the pros work for you and why somethings a huge con. This helps set the weighting and reason.
Setting Your Budget
Determining a Realistic Budget
Considering Long-Term Value
As I go about product selection for a review I will narrow down a list and assess my own interest case. If I use the product, want to use it or have heard about it from friends or colleges Ill purchase the product and spend a week or two with it testing and pushing the limits so I know whats what. My budget for the product is anywhere from $20-$199 on average unless its something more expensive like a Playstation 5 for my tech niche site.
Note: In the day of AI that we live in right now Ive come across a lot of reviews that are incorrect, out dated since September 2021 (ChatGPTs cut off date) and don’t make sense. This is lazy marketing and poor user effort. Don’t be that guy/girl
I don’t have an endless budget for all my hobbies and to go testing every product that I have on my wish list. It would nice too but I don’t have that on standby. I like products that fill an immediate need, are personalised to me or at least come in my size and I like products that will last a year at least. Im about the long term value is the purchase is higher than $100.00.
Physical products that you get from these sellers do not typically last more than a year:
AliExpress / AliBaBa
Wish
Kogan
Finding Reliable Sellers
Checking Reputable Retailers
Examining Seller Ratings and Feedback
I consider my reviews my word, I don’t want people getting scammed or having a poor experience on something Im telling them is amazing. Thats poor behaviour on my part, I work with reputable retailers. For the most part I have contacts at the places I recommend, its part of network building and getting better deals is reaching out and being an extension of their marketing team. Check that your retailers you recommend are reliable and not scammers, read their reviews, do some background checks.
The seller reviews on marketplaces, networks and in Google can help you very quickly see that the product you want to sell is shit hot or just shit in general. Examine those reviews like you are Sherlock Holmes, no stone unturned. It takes time but it could save you a lot of headache by avoiding poor quality products or retailers.
Utilizing User Feedback and Recommendations
Tapping into Online Communities
Learning from Others’ Experiences
Ensuring Quality and Authenticity
Identifying Counterfeit Products
Verifying Certifications and Labels
Considering After-Sales Support
Exploring Warranty and Return Policies
Evaluating Customer Service
Making the Purchase
Finalizing Your Decision
Securing Payment and Personal Information
Tips for Getting the Best Deals
Watching for Sales and Discounts
Bundling Options for Savings
Maintaining Your Niche Product
Proper Care and Maintenance
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Conclusion
Purchasing niche products can be a rewarding experience when armed with the right information and guidance. By following this ultimate buying guide, you’re well-equipped to navigate the intricate world of niche products confidently and intelligently. Remember, thorough research, understanding your personal needs, and considering long-term value are all essential steps to ensure that you find the perfect niche product that aligns with your preferences and expectations.
I do not recommend fake reviews, scammy reviews or stealing other peoples reviews and passing them off as your own. People are getting smarter and you hurt the industry as a whole when you take shortcuts.
So, whether you’re delving into a new passion or expanding your collection, make your buying journey a seamless one by utilizing the insights provided in this guide. Happy shopping and here’s to discovering the perfect niche products that enrich your lifestyle!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1: What exactly are niche products?
A1: Niche products are specialized items that cater to specific interests, hobbies, or needs. These products often serve a smaller, dedicated audience and may offer unique features not commonly found in mainstream products.
Q2: Why should I consider purchasing niche products?
A2: Niche products are designed with a specific audience in mind, offering tailored solutions and features. They can enhance your experience within your chosen niche and provide a deeper level of satisfaction compared to generic products.
Q3: How do I identify the right niche product for me?
A3: Start by understanding your needs, preferences, and the purpose of the product within your niche. Research thoroughly, read reviews, and consider features that align with your requirements.
Q4: How can I be sure of the quality of niche products?
A4: Look for reputable sellers and brands within the niche. Verify certifications, check user feedback, and research the product’s authenticity to ensure you’re purchasing a genuine and high-quality item.
Q5: What’s the best way to find reliable sellers for niche products?
A5: Search for established retailers known for their expertise in the niche. Additionally, explore online forums and communities related to the niche; fellow enthusiasts often share recommendations for trustworthy sellers.
Q6: Are niche products typically more expensive?
A6: Niche products can vary in price, but they often offer unique features and customization that justify the cost. It’s important to set a budget and consider the long-term value and benefits of the product.
Q7: How do I maintain and care for my niche product?
A7: Refer to the manufacturer’s guidelines for proper care and maintenance. Regular cleaning, storage, and adherence to usage recommendations will help prolong the lifespan of your niche product.
Q8: Are there ways to save money on niche products?
A8: Yes, look out for sales, discounts, and bundle deals offered by sellers. Additionally, consider purchasing second-hand niche products from reliable sources, if applicable.
Q9: What if I encounter issues with my niche product after purchase?
A9: Familiarize yourself with the product’s warranty and return policies. Reach out to the seller’s customer service for assistance and troubleshooting steps.
Q10: How can I stay up-to-date with the latest developments in my niche?
A10: Join online communities, forums, and social media groups dedicated to your niche. Engaging with fellow enthusiasts will help you stay informed about new products, trends, and innovations.
Rethinking the Effectiveness of Affiliate Product Reviews: Challenging Assumptions
The way that affiliate marketers create product review content has changed significantly with changes with Googles policy, Artificial Intelligence and competition between other affiliates.
To set the scene, a product review or product comparison article is where you compare a product against other products highlighting its features against the others, or you do a in depth review of a single product. You create this on your niche blog and then promote the post across your network.
I would find products that had a high commission, great images and reviews and I had some knowledge about and promote that through a product comparison article between 3 or more other products.
How Ive changed my strategy:
Over the last couple of years the strategy has become more personal and focused on products that I use and want to promote. Im not rolling out a high volume of products and reviews, the strategy keeps a tight focus on a handful pf products per niche blog. I make personable content in text, video and with custom images for the reviews. I may also speak to someone at the company about the product as an extra add on for my review. Its a little more manual but this helps the reviews standout.
How to Write a Product Review
Introduction
Briefly introduce the concept of affiliate product reviews and their importance in the world of online marketing.
Highlight the dominant narrative surrounding the positive impact of affiliate product reviews on sales and conversions.
Introduce the product landscape and any name brand alternatives
The Illusion of Objectivity
Discuss how affiliate marketers often struggle to maintain objectivity due to their financial incentives.
Share examples of reviews that may be financially compensated or be a competitor bagging the product for other reason
State your stance, are you financially motivated to review this product or do you use it everyday. This is key in setting the ground that your review stands on.
Challenge the assumption that all affiliate product reviews are unbiased and trustworthy.
The Bandwagon Effect
Explain how the popularity of certain affiliate products can lead to a bandwagon effect, where reviewers promote products solely based on their popularity.
Do not just copy whats out there, competitors may have copied it from another source who got it elsewhere making your review source 5 reviews deep of copied material. Know your true competitors
Provide examples of instances where subpar products received glowing reviews due to their trending status.
Encourage readers to question whether popularity equates to quality.
Manipulation of Social Proof
Discuss the influence of social proof on readers’ decisions to trust and purchase products based on reviews.
Highlight the potential for manipulation through fake reviews and inflated ratings.
Encourage readers to critically assess the authenticity of social proof.
Overlooked Negative Aspects
Present a counterargument to the prevailing notion that affiliate product reviews solely focus on the positives.
Discuss the importance of highlighting potential drawbacks and limitations of products to provide a balanced view.
Share examples of reviews that downplay or omit negative aspects, potentially misleading consumers.
The Role of Affiliate Commissions
Dive into the financial aspect of affiliate marketing and how commissions can impact reviewers’ opinions.
Explain how higher commissions might lead to more positive reviews, regardless of product quality.
Challenge readers to consider whether reviewers prioritize products that offer better financial rewards.
Reader Empowerment Through Critical Thinking
Advocate for empowering readers to become more discerning consumers by approaching reviews critically.
Encourage the user to click through and try the product if possible, software works really well this way but physical products are much harder to do trials with. How to pack value in offers.
Provide tips on how readers can identify potential bias, distinguish authentic reviews from fake ones, and make informed decisions.
Emphasize the importance of reading between the lines and looking for balanced perspectives.
Conclusion
Recap the key points discussed in the content, emphasizing the need to question assumptions about affiliate product reviews.
Encourage readers to engage with reviews more thoughtfully, considering both the benefits and limitations of products.
Highlight the potential for more transparent and trustworthy affiliate marketing practices when both reviewers and readers are more discerning.
This thought-provoking content challenges the commonly held assumptions about affiliate product reviews, encouraging readers to think critically about the content they encounter and make more informed decisions as consumers.
Your key point of difference is to provide factual real world reviews of products over pumping and dumping content that has no value for people who buy the product. Theres enough scams and rug pulls out in the world as it stands. be thoughtful and strategic with your affiliate choices.
FAQ: Challenging Assumptions About Affiliate Product Reviews
1. Q: Why do some affiliate product reviews appear biased?
A: Some affiliate marketers have financial incentives tied to the products they promote, which can influence their reviews. They might prioritize commissions over objectivity, leading to biased or overly positive assessments.
2. Q: What is the bandwagon effect in the context of affiliate product reviews?
A: The bandwagon effect occurs when the popularity of a product leads to a surge in positive reviews due to its trending status. This can create an environment where the product’s popularity overshadows its actual quality and performance.
3. Q: How can social proof be manipulated through affiliate product reviews?
A: Social proof, such as positive reviews and high ratings, can be manipulated through coordinated efforts to post fake or overly positive reviews. This can mislead consumers into trusting a product more than they should.
4. Q: Why is it important to consider negative aspects in affiliate product reviews?
A: Comprehensive reviews that address both the positives and negatives of a product provide a more balanced perspective for consumers. Focusing solely on positives can lead to incomplete decision-making and potential dissatisfaction.
5. Q: Can affiliate commissions impact the recommendations in reviews?
A: Yes, some reviewers receive higher commissions for promoting certain products. This can lead to recommendations that are financially motivated rather than based solely on the product’s merits. Consumers should be aware of this potential bias when reading reviews.
Unless you’re Scrooge McDuck swimming through your gold vault, there are few good reasons to ever stop trying to boost the number of unique visitors your website attracts. The logic is just too obvious to ignore—the more eyeballs on your site, the more business you generate.
But running a company is hard work, and it’s easy to get distracted by other, equally important, tasks and strategies.
This article is for those business owners who want to get back to the basics—business owners who are ready to throw some money and effort at the top end of their marketing funnels.
Illustrate topical authority
Google loves serving pages that are likely to satisfy its users’ needs. The search engine is on a neverending mission to find ways to separate good content from bad.
Over the years, Google has used many techniques to do this. Keyword density and quality backlinks have traditionally been two of the biggest drivers here. But now, a new metric is starting to become increasingly influential in SEO: topical authority.
Topical authority is the ability to show expertise on a specific subject. Google is increasingly favoring sites that cover a specific topic in great depth over a series of posts rather than a single article.
More and more SEO experts are encouraging site owners to show Google that their site is an authority on a specific topic by publishing several posts on it.
In practice, Google likes seeing “depth” of coverage. For example, a single post on “The Benefits of the Keto Diet” may use keywords brilliantly and also have tons of backlinks. But if this topic isn’t covered elsewhere on the domain, Google is likely to penalize it in the rankings.
To prevent this and also see your articles get a ranking boost, write as many other meaningful articles on this topic as possible. Think about what other information readers may want about the keto diet and publish as many posts on it as you can.
The key here is not to replicate content or to create “fluff.” Use Google to see what questions people are asking about the keto diet, and answer the top five in a highly detailed article.
When displaying search results for the term “keto diet,” Google also shows some very handy content under the heading “People also ask.” For instance, “What can I eat on the keto diet?” and “Is the keto diet bad for me?”
Don’t answer this question inside your main article. This is an amazing opportunity to show topical authority by publishing a dedicated article for every single one of these questions.
Build backlinks through outreach
Backlinks are still important.
Sure, SEO tactics like “topical authority” (we’ll get to this later) may have started to hog the spotlight over the past 18 months. But, that doesn’t mean Google has completely forgotten how big a signal of quality it is when external sites link to one of your blog posts.
But how can you increase the chances of your content being referenced by a reputable third party? I’ll share two crucial tips.
It’s worth noting, though, that all of these tactics will have benefits outside of increasing the chances of landing a backlink. So try not to think about them purely from this perspective.
Create new knowledge
Websites aren’t going to link to your content if you don’t give them a reason to do so. And the best reason of all is if you’re the only site that offers information they can’t find anywhere else.
If you’re sitting on an email subscriber list or social media following that’s big enough to mine for new knowledge, consider conducting surveys and building data from responses.
Reach out and ask your followers questions about your industry. Convert their feedback into blog posts or infographics that shine a new light on an existing topic. This information could be extremely valuable for one of your peers looking to make a specific point in one of their own blog posts or marketing material.
Data is immensely referenceable – a fact evidenced by the WyzOwl domain having close to 20,000 backlinks, according to Uber Suggest.
Another way to create “new” knowledge is to interview reputable industry experts and thought leaders. Get them to weigh in on an issue closely related to your industry.
These articles, often called “expert roundups,” take a lot of time to complete and require a ton of legwork, but the payoff can be immense. A well-populated roundup post is packed with highly referenceable quotes that support claims made by your peers.
In most cases, you’ll also score backlinks for roundup posts because the person being quoted wants to show their contribution.
Make the right people aware of your amazing new knowledge
If you’ve spent weeks creating a 4,000-word blog post packed full of awesome referenceable material, you’d be crazy to just sit and wait for people to find it organically.
This is where “outreach” comes into play—the assertive, diplomatic act of suggesting to someone that a link to your data would benefit them.
A word of warning: this is not a simple undertaking. It’s not rocket science, but it’s also not something you’re going to implement over a long weekend.
There’s a ton of great content online about the finer points of outreach, but a quick summary of the process won’t go amiss:
Use Google to find blog posts that cover the same keywords as your blog post. These are your competitors’ posts.
Using a tool like Ahrefs Link Explorer, find the sites that have backlinks to your competitors’ posts. These are your prospects.
Prepare and make email contact with your prospect. Your job here is to make a solid case for them to link to your content. This is a delicate process that needs a lot of preparation and communication. Do your homework before taking this step.
Forget, just for a minute, the marketing industry’s understandable preoccupation with creating content that ranks on Google.
Sure, it’s madness to completely overlook this aspect of SEO-focused content marketing. Your blog post means very little if it’s never going to be found using a search engine. Having said that, Google rankings shouldn’t be your only concern. When you publish a post that offers exceptional, evergreen value, you’re creating a marketing asset that will attract visitors for as long as it’s on your blog.
SEO concepts like keyword density and search volume should heavily influence your marketing strategy. However, it’s fine to occasionally put these aside in favour of creating content that delivers extremely helpful, evergreen information.
Certain subjects are just always popular amongst the citizens of the web. People always want to get healthier. They always want to find interesting things to entertain themselves with. Business people always want to find strategies to become more successful.
Everyone wants a better night’s rest. It’s a matter of mental and physical health that affects literally everyone on the planet. Sleep isn’t a “seasonal” activity either. It’s an unavoidable part of the human experience. Until people evolve out of their need to sleep, this is as evergreen as content gets.
Focused Niche Down Approach
The internet is a big place. It’s everything—all the information.
When fishing for traffic with content, casting your net wide means you’re trying to attract hundreds of millions of people. If you succeed… fantastic. You’re going to see an overwhelming influx of traffic.
But success here means you need to beat some pretty stiff competition for Google’s ranking. And the average small business website has virtually no hope of doing something like that.
A feasible alternative is to throw several smaller nets into very specific areas of the digital ocean. In practice, this means aiming for smaller niche audiences with your content’s topics and keywords.
Rather than aiming for the biggest possible audience pool with a topic like “How to Grow Your Small Business” or even something slightly less ambitious like “The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your E-Commerce Business,” the blog post aims for a very specific audience.
By creating information in this specific niche, Finli is making two outcomes very likely.
Firstly, their chances of ranking on Google are much better than if they’d aimed for a more saturated topic.
Secondly, the chances of their content being shared on social media are higher. That’s because online communities typically form around very specific topics, like the business of martial arts.
Worth noting is that you won’t achieve these two goals simply because you choose a niche topic. Even a very specific subject is still going to have a ton of competition. You’ll still have to apply the fundamentals of SEO to ensure your content ranks. And to increase the chances of your content going viral, focus on delivering genuinely exceptional information.
Use Social Media to Promote Your Website
Some brands have done an excellent job at building an audience on social media. This isn’t an easy thing to do. Like generating traffic for your website, you face tons of challenges when growing a following on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
But persistence and following proven strategies will pay off in the long run. People are hungry for excellent content on social media, and if you deliver, they will come.
But that’s not what this section of our piece is about. We’re here to talk about how your social media presence can be used to channel traffic to your website.
Skillcrush usesits Instagram account brilliantly to direct traffic to its website. The brand uses a super simple, highly effective tactic. Directly above the website link on their Instagram bio, the folks from Skillcrush were smart to tell users about the benefit of visiting their home page: “Take our free 3-minute quiz to find out if tech is right for you!”
They’ve attached a compelling hook to their website link.
Sure, some Instagram users may click on your website link purely out of curiosity or because they want to find out more about your company. But if you give them a solid reason to go down the rabbit hole, you’re getting the most out of this element.
On Facebook and Twitter, Skillcrush chooses to adopt a slightly different approach. Instead of using a functional CTA (the quiz), the brand opts to appeal to users’ emotions.
“Digital skills are job skills. Learn the web development & design skills you need to get the money and freedom you deserve.”
“Skillcrush is an online platform and community for learning coding and design skills to change your career.”
Both of these passages aim for the visitor’s heart by using emotive language. More than half of workers in the United States are unsatisfied with their jobs. Skillcrush leverages this fact to channel traffic to their product—a product capable of changing lives.
When creating your company’s social media profiles, make sure to give compelling reasons why followers should click through to your site.
How to Dropship on Facebook Marketplace (Free & Paid)
Breaking Down Google Analytics 4 For Affiliate Marketers
Google has announced the release of Google analytics 4. The last time Google Analytics had an update was some time ago. This latest update comes with a laundry list of powerful upgrades and from the chatter I hear from my network, this has my marketing colleges worried.
The key point is that this free tool that’s been so beneficial to my business has just provided an even more powerful feature set that provides even more data and metrics to be used for marketing my business online. Yew that’s music to my ears.
Google’s analytical tool is the most widely used tool by marketers, websites, and business owners to track the performance of their website. There are alternatives but this Google Analytics platform is the most used platform in the world.
This updated version of the tool will allow marketers to analyse performance and trends even more in-depth as they happen. Harnessing the power of AI this instal of the popular data platform will be a marketer’s best friend.
The user interface is much cleaner and easier to navigate than the previous version. For bigger data sets you need a clean interface. I feel having a wider feature label on the left-hand nav panel helps access the right tool for the job much faster.
It is still the early days of the rollout and many third party tools have not yet adapted and added integrations to collect and work with the data in GA4.
The big switch is moving from a UA – universal analytics to a G – Google analytics property label. UA properties deal with cookies rules where the newer version has less reliance on cookies.
Why Should You Switch to Google Analytics 4?
The future of website performance monitoring is Google Analytics 4. The insights that can be reviewed and integrated from the dashboard will power the strategy behind marketers decisions to construct campaigns.
Gleaning insights from performance tools is real enjoyment for me and GA4 provides that extra look behind the curtain.
I do like the way this was rolled out, you are presented with an option to run the UA version and the G version side by side without any double handling. When you build a new property the option is only to set up GA4 but once that’s set up you can come back in and build a UA property if you need to integrate any third-party tools that have not yet adapted.
I don’t suggest rushing ahead and just using the new GA4 property without a good reason. I do suggest running parallel monitoring with a Google Analytics 4 property and a Universal Analytics property.
How Google Analytics 4 Properties Work
Key Features of Google analytics 4 (GA4)
GA4 will permit advertisers to alter and adjust to how events and marketing campaigns are followed in analytics without any coding required.
Importing data will now be easier as it incorporates getting information from a wide variety of non-website sources (example:- Apps) all with just one property.
With Google Analytics 4 cross-domain tracking of the website is easier. It can be done without codes (adjusting codes) and can be done inside UI.
The biggest and predicated to be the most impactful change in GA4 is “The Life Cycle Report” for all accounts and focuses on showing the visitor or user journey on site. The feature “Templated reports for e-commerce funnels” gives advertisers an approach to show and view information – a component of analytics that was earlier accessible to only Analytics 360 accounts.
GA4 will work with AI as the fundamental process for collecting information and analysis, utilizing “machine learning and modeling” for measuring data, that can extrapolate from existing information and make suggestions about site traffic/client conduct. A new feature of AI-controlled “insights” will analyze on its own and will suggest relevant and supportive data for advertisers.
It’s centered around giving advertisers a “more complete comprehension of the client venture and behavior on various devices.” And it appears to be that it’s more focused on estimating a start to finish customer venture, and not simply focus on singular measurements across gadgets or pages.
The design intends GA4 to be “future immune” and work in a world with no cookies or distinguishing information.
Google Analytics 4 highlights “streams of data” rather than the “views” and fragments utilized by Universal Analytics properties.
The “view” level part is removed in GA4. While conventional Universal Analytics broadly has three levels (Account, Property, and View). As it might show biased data hence “view” hence removed and GA4 just has Account and Property levels.
While “tracking events” in conventional Analytics required Analytics code, editing, or gtag.js content, Google Analytics 4 professes to empower editing, following, and adjusting of events inside the UI. This implies interactions like page scroll, clicks, and more, that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
GA4 is focusing on “events”. These events are the principal way in which the information is introduced in the new Google Analytics.
AI handling the procedures in this new Analytics implies that it can fill in gaps that organizations can’t comprehend and are not able to deliver to their best abilities. A lot of their customers and traffic that visit websites are choosing without cookies and hence companies are not able to get all data about their visitors it will be resolved with GA4 and its AI-driven process. Users and even browsers are getting more protective and do not allow analytics to collect data. For instance, Mozilla Firefox has moved to introduce “Block Analytics”, and a lot of sites are beginning to prioritize visitor agreement to characterize their Analytics. People are opting out of consent for using cookies and analytics is changing it hindering organizations to collect all data and keep track.
The requirement for something like Google Analytics 4 to a great extent comes from new security assurance laws (like the GDPR and CCPA) and the falling apart of universal analytics. Many organizations are utilizing Universal Google Analytics which could frequently run into issues with mistaken or missing information because of consent issues by users for cookies because of these privacy laws.
Google stated that the reason for the new Google Analytics is the advancement of new technologies and the rise in demand for “privacy as a priority”, following, x-channel estimation, and AI-based usage in information collection at the same time. By applying Google’s AI models, the new Analytics can fill data gaps for website traffic and client/customer behavior without depending on having “hits” coming from each page.
Google Analytics 4 is based on the “Mobile Application + Web” framework that they delivered in 2019. The App + Web adaptation of Analytics was fundamentally developed around cross-channel information, implying that it gave advertisers an approach to follow clients across applications, programming, and a site.
This implies that its fundamental objective is to change how information is presented to customers from the beginning to their conversion as clients.
How To Setup Google Analytics 4
Setting up Google Analytics 4 follows the same path as if setting up the Universal Analytics but with some small twists to the end setup. I’ve been using Google Tag Manager for the instal process. GTM allows for an easy configuration of the GA4 platform.
A neat feature that GA4 has is some out of the box conversion elements like tracked link clicks and scroll depth pre-filled when you set it up. This saves me a good 30 minutes setting that up manually.
Another change is instead of picking a web or an app tracking selection you can now track both web + app as one.
Let’s take a look at how you can set “GA4 property” with your existing Universal Google analytics:
Sign in to your Analytics account within your website’s existing property.
Search for the Admin section.
Now, in the Account column, you can see “account” select the account. Choose the account in which you want to create the GA4 property.
Click in the Property column, select the Universal Analytics property for your site that you desire.
Now here you will see the ‘GA4’ option and select “Upgrade to GA4” and follow the steps. If you can not see any such option fear not as in some cases this button is not visible.
Now you have to select “Create a property” and then follow the steps and create a new property for “Web + App”. Using this default setting you will be taken to the new “Google analytics 4” property and your account will upgrade to GA4.
Once this step is completed you will have the new version of Google analytics-GA4. There will be few others steps to follow before the property start appearing in your account.
Now for activating “enable data collection” there are two ways: link the existing tracking data from your conventional Analytics, or you can start with new tags. You can add these tags to your website in a similar way as in traditional analytics.
Head over to Google Tag Manager when prompted and start to configure the new GA4 tags and triggers. The GTM template library already has a template for GA4 built in so its really easy to set up.
Once you have set all the options that suit your business best remember to publish the changes.
Test that you have real live activity or events by reviewing your GA4 dashboard and by being on your website just to confirm tracking is working. If it is you are done.
This is my first round guide for getting set up with Google Analytics 4. This will change as I’ve got more data on best practices for affiliates and eCommerce marketers to use this powerful platform. I hope it helps put some more insight into how to use GA4 for your benefit.
![The Ultimate Buying Guide for [Niche] Products](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCAxNDk2IDk2NiIgd2lkdGg9IjE0OTYiIGhlaWdodD0iOTY2IiBkYXRhLXU9Imh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGY2xpY2tidWNrcy54eXolMkZ3cC1jb250ZW50JTJGdXBsb2FkcyUyRjIwMjMlMkYwOCUyRk5pY2hlLW1hcmtldHMtLnBuZyIgZGF0YS13PSIxNDk2IiBkYXRhLWg9Ijk2NiIgZGF0YS1iaXA9IiI+PC9zdmc+)
