Merging and advanced filtering of GSC and GA data with Search Console Helper

<tl;dr>

Search Console Helper merges GSC and GA data and applies multiple condition filters

It is not an advertising!

It is a kind recommendation to all of my colleagues - the tool is of an outstanding nature, i was waiting for it since i'm doing SEO!

Search Console Helper allows, among others:

• To work with up to 5.000 daily data rows,
• To work with 24 months of GSC data (not maximally 16, like GSC allows)
• Filter GSC data with multiple conditions for keywords and urls. There are including and excluding filters, supporting the kind of regular expressions,
• One-click merging of GSC and Google Analytics data,
• To export data on any way you need,
• and much more unique stuff you can't imagine ;)

</tl;dr>

Let us look, what happens with the Google's Search Console, previously Google Webmaster Tools, and on the market around of it.

Google Ads manager account (MCC) hacks your Chrome browser and shares your personal data

Suddenly i realized a funny bug/feature of current stable Chrome 69.0.3497.100 (Official Build) (64-bit) and Google Ads manager account:

1. If there are some people logging into one after one from own Chrome into MCC,
2. If syncing of personal data in their Chrome is ON,
3. If no one of them has a syncing passphrase...

then:

the user, who currently logs in into MCC, gets all personal data (bookmarks, passwords - yes, passwords!) into the own Chrome of the user, who was logged in into MCC previously.

Testing structured data of the current URL with one click

Any SEO know about benefits of structured data. Google offers a special structured data testing tool to test the existence and quality of the structured data on the certain URL.

But what, if you want to test some URLs? Copy URL, switch the tab, go to the Google Structured Data Testing Tool, paste URL, press Enter. And again, and again...? Annoying!

I've coded a solution for this kind of routine task.

What's wrong with image dimensions?

Yes, what's wrong? I say you - pretty much is wrong. I've completed a kind of little study for our firm about how well is image optimization in times of mobile first. You know what! I was disgusted twice:

1. roughly 85% images are oversized - this is not a dark secret, we are used to this in the meanwhile,
2. roughly 20% images are oversized in terms of dimensions: it means 20% of original images are higher than their displaying dimensions.

Read further: study setup, detailed results, toolchain and scripts

Screaming Frog 9.0 exports screenshots, original and rendered HTML code

If rendering Javascript and storing/rendering HTML options are activated, you are able to export screenshots of rendered URLs, as like as their original and rendered HTML code:

Screaming Frog 9.0 renders websites with Chrome 60

The new but not obvious thing in Screaming Frog 9.0 is the rendering engine. You should know - it isn't Chrome 41 (41.0.2272.118), which is used by Google's web rendering service (WRS). With it Screaming Frog can't render websites to 100% as Googlebot. But approximately identically to ;)

It is rather Chrome 60 (60.0.3112.113). This Chrome version was choosen by Screaming Frog developers as more stable AND with fewest rendering differences to the Chrome 41. You can compare both versions more detailedly at https://caniuse.com/#compare=chrome+41,chrome+60.

According to Screaming Frog support Chrome 60 version was selected due to working stability with the spider engine at scale, rather than because of rendering issues.

You can see the current Chrome version in the debug window:

How to disable Excel preview in Windows Explorer on Windows 7 and Windows 10.

Preview of Excel tables, specially of bigger size, can go pretty hard on the system performance. Some ressources recommend to use setting of Windows Explorer - but on this way one can only disable ALL previews.

With any file extention there is a Preview Handler associated. To disable only Excel previews, but to keep all other, which aren't so performance hungry, like previews of images or PDFs, one should edit (better as delete) one key in Windows registry.

• Start registry editor with regedit: Start → Run → regedit
• Find under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx\ShellEx\ the key called {8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}
• Edit it (i don't recommend to delete it), like on screenshot:

• Close regedit,
• Restart Windows Explorer: (Start → Run → Type cmd →Enter → Type taskkill /f /im explorer.exe → Enter → Type explorer.exe → Enter)
• Enjoy (tested on Windows7 and Windows10)

Three perfect image optimizers for SEO

What is this - a perfect image optimization tool for SEO?

For me the perfect image optimization tool must have following features:

• This image optimizer is not a kind of hipster online tool, but the old good installable software,
• This image optimizer is free - not a kind of shity shareware, which means it would be free, but indeed isn't,
• User can setup an optimization level,
• The tool must do batch image compression - real SEO ninjas don't have much time,
• This image optimizer must, no - it MUST understand nested folders and
• it MUST be able to save optimized images in the same nested folder/subfolder structure,
• This tool, again, MUST be able to save optimized images without to change the file type,
• This tool should be able to resize images saving the width/height ratio.
• And, of course, it must do its compression job well ;)

Do i want too much? No, i believe, it isn't too much.

I will not explain, why image compression is substantially important for your website's rankings. Just one sentence: images are the most heaviest static asset type on ANY website. Do you still don't want to compress them? No prob, just as you wish. But why are you still here?

For non-ignoramuses among us: yes, such tools actually exist - they aren't just a subject of SEO fable tales. I know even three tools, which are able to accomplish every single task i listed above. Want to know more? Let's go →

HowTo guide: filter Search Console for multiple values at once

Setting of multiple filters in the Google Search Console is possible!

Yes, against different answers of some experts in the Google product forum, like here or there. The possibility to set multiple filters is extremely useful and works into both directions - you can include or exclude multiple keywords, urls, traffic sources - anything, what you want.

We will operate with filter settings through manipulation of urls. You'll need for this a good code editor - good means Notepad++, one magic plugin for it, and, surely, a bit of chutzpah - yeah, we'll do the big G, nothing less!

Free online SEO tools for TF-IDF calculation

First of all: what's TF-IDF? In German this content parameter is called WDF / IDF, but the subject is the same:

TF-IDF, term frequency–inverse document frequency, is, explained in short, from rookie to rookie, the relation of term usage frequency in the given document to usage frequency of this term in all documents containing it.

This relation mirrors how relevant is the given document for the given term in the manifold of all documents containing this term.

TF-IDF is successor of keyword density. Some non-demented SEO geriatrics can remind, what means keyword density: number of term's usage in the text divided through the number of all words in the text multiplied with 100. This formula is in reality both most used and wrong.

Well, i'm not your Wiki, and if you're in the full legal age and not banned by Google, you would find fast everything you need to know about keyword density and TF-IDF. I just say: nowadays TF-IDF is nearly the single numeric parameter of content quality. But this article is about something other - i've promised to share some freebies, right?

SEOtools for Excel: solutions for loosing installation folder and disappeared ribbon

My installation of SEOTools for Excel on Windows7 x64 / Excel x32 didn't want to cooperate with me from the first step. As first Excel refuses to open seotools.xll properly - it thought always it would be a text file. Then, after try to install SEOTools x64 version as addin, it wasn't not visible in the ribbon at all, but doesn't want to be deinstalled. I was forced to delete it on the hard way. Then, on trying to install SEOTools x32 version, i was pretty near success: i got the strat splash screen from SEOTools, but then an error alert raised, The Ribbon/COM Add-in helper required by add-in SeoTools could not be registered. This is an unexpected error. Error message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. And nothing more.

After some investigations it becomes clear, that the problem is in the not corresponding versions of the machine (x64), Win7 (x64) and Excel 15 (x32). BTW. if you need to get to know, what is installed on your machine - here are all the places listed, where you get needful information about your hardware, OS and Excel.

40 secret keyword research tools to find the million dollar keyword

Some of the most popular keywords, which Google suggests, regarding keyword tools are "keyword research", "keyword spy", "keyword generator", "keyword finder", "keyword discovery", "keywords search" and "keywords for SEO". I decided to tell about some tools, which i use for certain aspects of keyword research. The keyword research tools i tell about have all in common, that they aren't well-known as e. g. Übersuggest, but they accomplish exactly so good if not better the same tasks, as established commercial and free tools.

What are the main keyword research tasks a SEO and SEA use to do? The tasks are different (better optimizing, saving money, out-competing of competitor), but the primal goal of keyword research is always the same: to get more cheaper targeted traffic. A SEO is looking for keywords for optimized page or analyzes the competitor's landing page. A SEA is looking for keywords for an ad and for the landing page, or analyzes competitor's ad and landing page. Lets further look, which keyword research tools could be helping in this (only free tools and no affiliate links, promised:)

How to relaunch website avoiding main catches

How to relaunch website keeping ranking and position in SERP

In the last time the most interest to the topic "how to relaunch website", as i shortly realized, rises in Germany, whereby i don't think, that this topic is indeed interesting only there.

Fact is: any website relaunch means losses. Losses of traffic, of ranking, of position in SERP, which are finally loss of money. I've seen losses of 4% and 40%, and there aren't the final numbers. The main objective of SEO is to minimize such negative impacts.

In short each website relaunch is a change of design and / or content structure. If content structure changes, with it comes definitely the change of URL structure. So we have generally 2 possible fields, where the new website version could meet a bad acceptance and following loss of traffic:

• users could dislike the new design
• search engines could become bitchy on indexing the new URL structure and some pages will be out of searcher's scope.

So how to act on relaunch to come out as a winner from the relaunch battle against our visitors and search engines? Look:

How to bulk check pagerank of all internal pages

Although Google means, we shall in general never mind about pagerank (PR). But the substantial part of any OnPage SEO audit is to clarify, whether a site structure is built properly and spreads correctly the link juice. The sign of correct site structure is: important pages inherit PR, not important pages don't. That is the purpose of project-wide PR measuring. Surely, nobody expects to perform such measurements manually cause of eventual links amount - a tool for such mechanical turk's task is a must! I thought... Damn, the search for this tool is on of cases, when i've got demonstrated again, the internet is full of crap and how i hate some SEOs!

How to create bulleted lists in Google Plus posts

Google Plus has only 3 documented formats: *bold*, _cursive_ and -strikethrough-. But it's a proven fact, that the one of the best arts to deliver information and to gain its visibility is to structure information into lists.

Good, with ordered lists it is no problem: you number each list line with bolded ascending numbers, *1. * etc. What is with unordered, bulleted lists? How to make bullets in Google Plus posts? For this purpose we utilize the computer's own capacity, namely the possibility to type and print unicode characters. This possibility is limited, but it is fully enough for creating bulleted lists in Google Plus posts. Other valuable usage of unicode characters is surely design of page titles, page descriptions, which are used in SERP as snippets, and ads texts. Designing of such text assets with unicode special characters gains their CTR enormously. About it at the end of article. Now lets create bulleted lists in Google Plus posts:

H for Header: part 1 of the HASCH OnPage SEO framework

Each website begins with the header. There are no minimal or required values inside of it: the header content fully depends from our goals and laziness:) Another cause for poor designed headers is a meaning, that Google doesn't understand meta tags or doesn't take meta tags as a ranking factor. Well, Google says, it understands just a little amount of available meta tags. Here is Google's statement about understanding of meta tags. But i say:

• use not only meta tags, which Google definitely understands,
• use meta tags extensively,
• be redundant in meta tags using.

Why? Just because the web contains much more as only Google and you. There are very much bots and spiders in the internet, their goal is to parse web contents and to create different indexes. The parsing criteria could be a bunch of existing meta tags and the parsing results on their part could be parsed from Googlebot. So Google gets into its index the content from your meta tags, which Google means not to understand.

Good, now we are agreed about benefits of meta tags using. The main SEO point is utilizing header rules to give the searchbot so much information about our site as possible. Now i list meta tags one by one and give the correct syntax, some possible values, and my point of view of the practical SEO effects.

How to surf with US IP address (or IP of any specific country)

It is the common problem: preview of an affiliate offer, which isn't valid in your country. You will be redirected from the offer you want to another offer, which is valid for your country. But you must see it - cause you want decide whether to promote it or not.

The answer is clear: you must look the offer like somebody from a country where this offer is valid. The solution which firstly comes into mind and which i never got to work is to use free proxy. I have never finded any working free proxy. Never. Don't know why. But there are 2 really working tools, which are free and easy to setup and use. They work out of the box:

2 things i hate on Facebook Ad Manager and Power Editor

HATE! HATE!! HATE!!!

1. You can't, under no circumstances, change the ad target url! You create an ad with website conversions objective. You create a bunch of them, the whole ad set with many different targeting options. Then you want just copy this ad set and point it to another target url. And you can't! You must click on EACH ad, then create a similar ad - only so you will be able to change ad target url.
2. If you want hide your affiliate urls, this works ONLY if you create your ads each one new from scratch! If you create an ad with shorten url as target, then create similar ad and input as target url your next shorten url - you mean it would work? NO, damn! Facebook is smart enough to show in the ad body the original url. And it is funny enough to show the SHORTEN url, if you run with the mouse over the opriginal url. Is it not stupid?

Shortest URL Shortener ever!

As the title said, http://v.gd is the shortest URL shortener i ever seen (and it can techically exist). I find this service super comfortable and decided to make it even more comfortabler and share the results: restartless Firefox add-on and bookmarklet.

5.04.2014 UPDATE: my Firefox addon "Shortest URL Shortener ever" was even fully approved and now available for download at https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/shortest-url-shortener/ Download and enjoy!

30 cheat sheats for successful SEO

What a SEO needs to know?

The web is flooded with infografics and cheat sheets. Somebody meant once, such giveaways are good for SEO as linkbuilding assets and now everybody makes some. At least as copy and share. I will not speculate about whether or how many of them bring real value, imo most of them are redundant, but my personal biggest problem with them was - THE cheat sheet was NEVER present, if it was really needed (at least for me). Indeed, the sense and the convenience of cheat sheets is if they are there just in time, at the moment, whem one needs them. So i decided to create a collection of all cheat sheets i ever used on my SEO activities and share it. This cheat sheets suite is an evergreen knowledge, hints and tricks, which will be always helpful. Surely this knowledge isn't enough to call oneself an expert, but for somebody who does SEO, specially technical SEO and Onpage SEO, these cheat sheets will render a great service. And for somebody who learns SEO at the moment, they will give a great summary of things which must be learned. These cheat sheets cover already all essential knowledge segments a SEO brings daily into action. Befor publishing i reviewed all cheat sheets to find eventuallya fresher version - for some of them i finded one indeed.