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Alternatives to Google Analytics

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Put down your Doritos and stop moaning about GA for 5 mins.
Yes we know it’s turned into a pile of botwank, but there are much better alternatives on the scene.

Here is a quick list with pricing if you can’t be arsed to read the rest.

AlternativePricing OverviewLink
Matomo (formerly Piwik)Free for self-hosted; Cloud-hosted starts at $23/month for 50,000 page viewsMatomo
Adobe AnalyticsCustom pricing, typically starts at several thousand dollars per yearAdobe Analytics
MixpanelFree up to 100,000 monthly tracked users; Growth starts at $25/month; Enterprise custom pricingMixpanel
Plausible AnalyticsSelf-hosted: Free; Cloud-hosted starts at $9/month for 10,000 monthly page viewsPlausible Analytics
Fathom AnalyticsStarts at $14/month for 100,000 monthly page viewsFathom Analytics
HeapFree up to 10,000 monthly sessions; Growth custom pricing; Premier custom pricingHeap
ClickyFree for one site with up to 3,000 daily page views; Pro starts at $9.99/monthClicky
Open Web Analytics (OWA)Free (self-hosted)Open Web Analytics
Simple AnalyticsStarts at $19/month for 100,000 monthly page viewsSimple Analytics
Snowplow AnalyticsCustom pricing based on enterprise needsSnowplow Analytics
KissmetricsStarts at $299/monthKissmetrics
StatcounterFree for up to 500 page views/day; Paid starts at $9/month for 100,000 monthly page viewsStatcounter
MatelsoCustom pricing based on usage and featuresMatelso

Sure, here are the alternatives to Google Analytics with hyperlinks and an overview of their pricing:

1. Matomo (formerly Piwik)

  • Pros: Open-source, customizable, privacy-focused, and can be self-hosted or cloud-hosted.
  • Features: Real-time data, heatmaps, session recordings, A/B testing, and extensive data ownership and privacy options.
  • Pricing:
    • Self-hosted: Free (with optional paid plugins).
    • Cloud-hosted: Starts at $23/month for 50,000 page views.

2. Adobe Analytics

  • Pros: Advanced segmentation, comprehensive reporting, strong integration with other Adobe products.
  • Features: Predictive analytics, cross-channel attribution, and robust customer journey tracking.
  • Pricing: Custom pricing based on business needs; typically starts at several thousand dollars per year.

3. Mixpanel

  • Pros: Strong focus on user behavior and product analytics, real-time tracking, and advanced segmentation.
  • Features: Funnel analysis, cohort analysis, user retention reports, and A/B testing.
  • Pricing:
    • Free: Up to 100,000 monthly tracked users.
    • Growth: Starts at $25/month.
    • Enterprise: Custom pricing.

4. Plausible Analytics

  • Pros: Simple and privacy-friendly, lightweight script, open-source, and can be self-hosted.
  • Features: Easy-to-understand reports, real-time data, and straightforward integration.
  • Pricing:
    • Self-hosted: Free.
    • Cloud-hosted: Starts at $9/month for 10,000 monthly page views.

5. Fathom Analytics

  • Pros: Privacy-focused, simple interface, GDPR compliant, and easy to set up.
  • Features: Real-time data, straightforward reports, and lightweight script.
  • Pricing: Starts at $14/month for 100,000 monthly page views.

6. Heap

  • Pros: Automatic event tracking, retroactive data analysis, and user-friendly interface.
  • Features: Behavioral analytics, funnel analysis, and comprehensive user journey tracking.
  • Pricing:
    • Free: Up to 10,000 monthly sessions.
    • Growth: Custom pricing based on usage.
    • Premier: Custom pricing.

7. Clicky

  • Pros: Real-time analytics, heatmaps, uptime monitoring, and customizable dashboards.
  • Features: Detailed visitor logs, goal tracking, and strong emphasis on real-time data.
  • Pricing:
    • Free: Basic features for one site with up to 3,000 daily page views.
    • Pro: Starts at $9.99/month for 30,000 daily page views.

8. Open Web Analytics (OWA)

  • Pros: Open-source, self-hosted, customizable, and supports privacy regulations.
  • Features: Page view tracking, e-commerce tracking, and click heatmaps.
  • Pricing: Free (self-hosted).

9. Simple Analytics

  • Pros: Privacy-focused, GDPR compliant, simple to use, and no cookies.
  • Features: Real-time data, simple reporting, and easy integration.
  • Pricing: Starts at $19/month for 100,000 monthly page views.

10. Snowplow Analytics

  • Pros: Highly customizable, supports large-scale data collection, and strong focus on data ownership.
  • Features: Real-time event tracking, data modeling, and advanced analytics capabilities.
  • Pricing: Custom pricing based on enterprise needs.

11. Kissmetrics

  • Pros: Focus on customer engagement, retention analysis, and advanced cohort analysis.
  • Features: Funnel reports, A/B testing, and user segmentation.
  • Pricing: Starts at $299/month.

12. Statcounter

  • Pros: Real-time data, user-friendly, and simple setup.
  • Features: Visitor paths, detailed visitor information, and custom alerts.
  • Pricing:
    • Free: For up to 500 page views/day.
    • Paid: Starts at $9/month for 100,000 monthly page views.

13. Matelso

  • Pros: Strong call tracking capabilities, integration with various marketing tools.
  • Features: Call tracking, lead scoring, and detailed analytics.
  • Pricing: Custom pricing based on usage and features.

These pricing details provide an overview of the costs associated with each platform, although specific needs and customizations may influence the final price.

Enjoy, you lovely people.

SEO Basics: Key Components and Best Practices for 2024

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SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of enhancing a website to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.

Key Components of SEO:

  1. On-Page SEO:
  • Content Quality: High-quality, relevant, and engaging content that provides value to the user.
  • Keywords: Researching and using relevant keywords that users are likely to search for.
  • Meta Tags: Including meta titles, descriptions, and header tags that help search engines understand the content of a page.
  • URL Structure: Clean and descriptive URLs that include keywords.
  • Internal Linking: Linking to other relevant pages within your website to enhance user navigation and distribute page authority.
  1. Off-Page SEO:
  • Backlinks: Earning high-quality backlinks from reputable websites to increase site authority.
  • Social Signals: Engagement on social media platforms that can indirectly affect SEO.
  • Brand Mentions: Being mentioned on other websites even without a direct link.
  1. Technical SEO:
  • Site Speed: Ensuring fast load times for web pages.
  • Mobile-Friendliness: Ensuring the website is accessible and performs well on mobile devices.
  • Sitemap: Creating an XML sitemap to help search engines index the site.
  • Robots.txt: Optimizing the robots.txt file to guide search engines on which pages to crawl and index.
  1. Local SEO:
  • Google My Business: Optimizing your business profile on Google My Business.
  • Local Keywords: Using location-specific keywords to attract local traffic.
  • NAP Consistency: Ensuring your business Name, Address, and Phone number are consistent across all platforms.

SEO Goals:

  • Increase Organic Traffic: Attracting more visitors to your website through unpaid search results.
  • Improve Search Engine Rankings: Achieving higher positions on search engine result pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords.
  • Enhance User Experience: Providing a better user experience through relevant content, faster load times, and easy navigation.
  • Boost Brand Visibility and Credibility: Establishing your website and business as a credible source of information and solutions within your industry.

SEO Best Practices:

  • Stay Updated: SEO is dynamic, with search engines frequently updating their algorithms. Staying informed about these changes is crucial.
  • Monitor and Analyze: Regularly monitoring your website’s performance using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to make data-driven decisions.
  • Ethical Practices: Avoiding black hat SEO tactics like keyword stuffing, cloaking, and link schemes which can lead to penalties.

By implementing effective SEO strategies, businesses can achieve long-term growth and a competitive edge in their respective markets.

15 Tips to Avoid Creative Burnout

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Creative burnout can be particularly challenging for technical writers, who often need to maintain clarity and precision while also keeping their work engaging. Here are some mental exercises and strategies to help prevent or alleviate creative burnout:

  1. Diverse Reading: Broaden your reading materials beyond just technical documentation. Dive into fiction, poetry, or non-technical articles. This can give you a fresh perspective and inspire new ways to approach your writing.
  2. Mind Mapping: Before diving into a topic, create a mind map to brainstorm ideas. This can help you organize your thoughts, identify potential sub-topics, and reveal connections between different pieces of information.
  3. Free Writing: Set aside time daily or weekly where you write about anything without editing or censoring yourself. This can help stimulate creativity and free your mind from the constraints of technical writing.
  4. Breaks and Downtime: Ensure you’re taking regular breaks. The Pomodoro Technique, for instance, suggests working for 25 minutes and then taking a 5-minute break. These short breaks can help refresh your mind.
  5. Visualization: Close your eyes and visualize the topic you’re writing about. This can help you see connections or aspects you might have overlooked.
  6. Physical Activity: Engage in physical activities such as walking, jogging, or even just stretching. Physical movement can boost creativity and help break the monotony of sitting at a desk.
  7. Meditation and Mindfulness: Regular meditation can help in reducing stress and increasing focus. Mindfulness exercises can also help you stay present and attentive to your writing.
  8. Change of Scenery: Sometimes, just changing your workspace or environment can spur creativity. Consider working from a cafe, park, or another room in your home.
  9. Collaboration: Discuss your work with colleagues or friends. They might offer a fresh perspective or suggest a new angle to approach a topic.
  10. Continuous Learning: Attend workshops, webinars, or courses. Learning something new or brushing up on the latest techniques can reignite your passion.
  11. Limit Multi-tasking: Try to focus on one task at a time. Multi-tasking can split your attention and drain your creative energy.
  12. Engage in Creative Outlets: Try painting, drawing, playing a musical instrument, or any other creative activity. Engaging in different creative outlets can cross-pollinate ideas and revitalize your technical writing.
  13. Set Boundaries: If you’re always on-call or constantly checking emails, it can be draining. Set specific work hours and stick to them.
  14. Reflect: At the end of each day or week, take some time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished. Recognizing your achievements can motivate and inspire you.
  15. Stay Curious: Ask questions, be inquisitive, and remain curious about the subjects you’re writing about. The more interested and invested you are in a topic, the less likely you’ll experience burnout.

Lastly, remember that it’s okay to seek help if you’re feeling overwhelmed or persistently burnt out. Consulting a professional or counsellor can offer coping strategies and insights tailored to your individual needs.

Photo by Tj Holowaychuk on Unsplash

The Rise of AI in SEO: Transforming Search Engine Optimization

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The impact of AI on SEO is huge. Even if some of the hype is just that, the impact on SEO workflow and processes will change how we work and that’s not a bad thing.

The fact that SEO is mostly data-driven makes it perfect for A.I., easily bringing effective and efficient improvements to implementation. As long as we don’t climb aboard the current hype wagon and understand it won’t be able to do everything. Expert human supervision will be needed. An expert SEO with years of experience and knowledge will not be out of a job just yet, it simply means they can do things faster and more accurately. Realistically it means lots of boring, repetitive tasks will be gone.

Creativity will still also be needed and this is not a strong point of A.I.

Where A.I. fails is the human factor, the ability to buy another human a drink at a bar in order to get a link for example..

What are some of the things AI can do well in SEO?

We are still in the transition period workflows and processes are currently being adjusted to take advantage of this new technology.

AISEO promises quite a bit if you believe all the current blog posts and social media posts covering it right now, you would think it could make an elephant dance the mambo, whilst making a macchiato. We are still in the transition period workflows and processes are currently being adjusted to take advantage of this new technology. We still don’t really know how this new tech will ultimately work and how it will ultimately improve the art of optimising websites for search.

The quick promise of SEO A.I. is to give your website a quick and easy boost, but some of the methods touted are more about creating mediocre content and may simply create an arms race of who can create the most content, rather than increasing the quality of the content and the experience of the user.

But, if Google continues to reward based on the amount of content created in the same way it may tweak the algo to boost quality more and A.I. can certainly help increase the quality of the content.

I propose not to go for the obvious of creating the same stuff, but more of it and faster. But rather, create content that is more likely to appeal to the human view and search experience. It is people after all and not an A.I. bot that reads our content and makes a purchasing decision.

Will we have bots in the future that will do our shopping for us? Possibly, correction, I should say, “probably”. However, it is not the case currently. So let’s still create content which appeals emotionally to people as we understand that emotions trigger more purchases than a rational, robotic mind.

AI SEO can perform the following tasks well:

  1. Keyword Research: AI algorithms can analyse search queries and suggest relevant keywords, including long-tail and semantic variations, for optimizing content and improving search visibility.
  2. Content Optimization: AI tools can provide recommendations for optimising on-page elements like meta tags, headings, content structure, and keyword placement to improve relevancy and user experience.
  3. Competitor Analysis: AI-powered tools can analyse competitor websites, backlink profiles, content strategies, and rankings to identify opportunities for improvement and inform SEO strategies.
  4. Content Generation: AI can generate content, such as product descriptions, blog posts, and social media updates, based on predefined templates and data inputs, saving time and effort in content creation.
  5. Natural Language Processing (NLP): Analyse and understand natural language patterns, helping optimize content for voice search and conversational search queries.
  6. User Behavior Analysis: AI algorithms can analyze user interactions, click-through rates, bounce rates, and other metrics to gain insights into user behaviour and preferences, enabling better content personalization and user experience.
  7. Data Analysis and Insights: AI tools can analyse large amounts of data, including search rankings, website performance metrics, and user engagement data, to provide actionable insights and inform SEO strategies.
  8. Link Building: AI can analyse backlink profiles, identify quality backlink opportunities, and provide recommendations for building authoritative and relevant links to improve search rankings.
  9. Rank Tracking and Monitoring: AI-powered tools can track search rankings, monitor website performance, and provide real-time alerts and reports to identify any issues or opportunities for optimization.
  10. Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms can predict future search trends, algorithm updates, and user behavior patterns, helping SEO professionals make informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition.
  11. SEO Automation: AI can automate various SEO tasks, such as crawling and indexing, content distribution, link analysis, and technical optimizations, improving efficiency and freeing up time for strategic activities.
  12. Continuous Learning and Adaptation: AI systems can learn from data inputs, user feedback, and search engine updates, continuously improving and adapting SEO strategies for better performance.

AI SEO Tools

  1. SEMrush: semrush.com
    This is a versatile tool that includes AI and machine learning components to assist in tasks such as keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink audits, and content optimization.
  2. Ahrefs: ahrefs.com
    While it doesn’t heavily market its AI aspects, Ahrefs uses machine learning algorithms to collect, process, and deliver in-depth information on backlink profiles, keyword opportunities, and competitor analysis.
  3. Moz Pro: https://moz.com
    Moz Pro offers an all-in-one suite of SEO tools, including some, like its proprietary “Page Optimization Score,” powered by machine learning algorithms.
  4. Clearscope: clearscope.io
    This tool uses AI to analyze high-ranking content for specific search terms and provides guidance on how you can optimize your content to better compete.
  5. MarketMuse: marketmuse.com
    MarketMuse applies AI to identify gaps and opportunities in your content, helping you to better align with user intent and improve your SEO ranking.
  6. Surfer SEO: surferseo.com
    This tool uses AI to analyze key factors in your website and provides recommendations for on-page SEO optimization.
  7. BrightEdge: brightedge.com
    This is an AI-powered SEO and content performance marketing platform. It’s used by many large companies to drive organic traffic to their websites.
  8. CanIRank: canirank.com
    As the name implies, this tool uses AI to predict whether or not a certain webpage can rank for a specific keyword.
  9. SEO PowerSuite: link-assistant.com
    This suite includes Rank Tracker, SEO Spyglass, Website Auditor, and LinkAssistant, all of which use AI in different ways to optimize a website’s SEO performance.
  10. Frase: frase.io
    Frase uses AI to analyze the top results for a given keyword, and then gives content recommendations based on this analysis.
  11. Pro Rank Tracker proranktracker.com
    Tool to identify current rankings with features for rank tracking, analysis, and reporting.
  12. Scalenut scalenut.com
    All-in-one marketing tool that provides keyword planning, content creation, and real-time optimization feedback.
  13. PageSpeed Insights: pagespeed.web.dev
    Google-provided tool for website owners to analyze how Google assesses their page loading speed.
  14. Nitro Pack: nitropack.io
    Optimizes page loading speed with features like caching, image optimization, and a CDN.

AI Content Tools

  1. Jasper jasper.ai
    AI writing assistant that produces phrases, paragraphs, or documents based on provided seed words.
  2. Pictory pictory.ai
    AI video generator that creates and edits high-quality videos based on provided scripts or articles.
  3. INK inkforall.com
    Combines AI co-writing and SEO assistant to help develop content that ranks high on search engines.
  4. Surfer SEO surferseo.com
    Content generation tool with features for outlining, topic discovery, keyword volume & search intent analysis, internal content structure, and AI writing.
  5. Neuraltext https://www.neuraltext.com Comprehensive SEO platform with tools for traffic analysis, keyword research, backlink analytics, position tracking, content audit, etc.

Conclusion

AI SEO brings automation, data analysis, and advanced insights to optimize various aspects of search engine optimization, helping businesses improve their online visibility and attract organic traffic.

The above is simply SEO techniques and strategies that A.I. is making for efficiency and less cost. There will come a time in the near future when new A.I. techniques will be discovered by A.I.

The future is interesting.

And whilst we are here, let me give you a snippet from Bing AI when asked about SEO A.I.

“AI provides several benefits for SEO. For instance, AI helps with keyword research and search engine results page (SERP) analysis¹. AI is used in SEO to predict user behavior by analyzing the user’s past searches and website visits. It can give users content recommendations that will likely be relevant to them?. AI SEO tools are available to streamline SEO optimization and boost your website’s rankings. These tools can analyze your website’s performance and provide solutions to areas that need improvement².”

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 04/07/2023
(1) How To Use AI SEO To Improve Your Website | SEOblog.com. https://www.seoblog.com/how-to-use-ai-seo-to-improve-your-website/.
(2) AI SEO: How AI Helps You Optimize Content for Search Results. https://www.datasciencecentral.com/ai-seo-how-ai-helps-you-optimize-content-for-search-results/.
(3) 16 AI SEO Tools and How to Use AI in 2023 [New Data] – HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ai-seo.
(4) AI in SEO: How Does AI Affect SEO & How to Catch Up With It? – 10Web. https://10web.io/blog/ai-in-seo/.””

What is interesting is that citations were given.
The text reads like a BORG postcard.
The spelling is in US English, even though I am querying from the UK.

Certainly enough to go on for an experienced, professional writer to polish up and with the citations it makes it very useful as a tool.

My conclusions are that A.I. currently can take on a lot of the heavy lifting, the boring stuff is you will and allows good content creators to get on with shaping the information in a ways that is interesting and useful to readers.

Note: Parts of this were created with the help of A.I. however, the juicy bits were definitely all me.

The image header was created by Bing and then dropped into Photoshop were the new A.I. feature was used to extend the image to allow it to fit the space in a more pleasing way.

What makes a good SEO writer?

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Being a good writer is not that uncommon, but rare enough that when you find a good writer you do not want to let them go. Finding a good SEO writer is gold and you have to pay them what they are worth.
SEO writing is not that hard to learn, but you do have to put the hours in to learn your craft, you have to do it a lot also, it helps if you can build up muscle memory.

Having the process mapped out helps, but I would encourage you as a beginner in this fine art to develop your own process, after of course learning the way how most successful SEO writers work. Learning SEO writing is like learning anything, read a lot, practice practice, it’s about grinding repetition and then you can mess with the workflow a little and adapt it to your system.

So, here are ten steps which work for me and have helped me over the years

  1. Knowledge of SEO: A good SEO writer should have a solid understanding of search engine optimization principles, including keyword research, on-page optimization, and content structure.
  2. Writing skills: Strong writing skills are essential for an SEO writer. They should be able to produce high-quality, engaging, and well-structured content that appeals to both readers and search engines.
  3. Adaptability: An SEO writer should be adaptable and able to write on a wide range of topics. They should be able to understand and adapt to different writing styles, tones, and target audiences.
  4. Research skills: Good SEO writers possess strong research skills. They should be able to gather information from reliable sources and incorporate it into their writing to provide accurate and valuable content.
  5. Attention to detail: Attention to detail is crucial in SEO writing. A good writer pays attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting to ensure error-free and professional-looking content.
  6. Understanding of target audience: A good SEO writer understands the target audience and tailors the content accordingly. They know how to write content that appeals to the readers and fulfils their needs and expectations.
  7. Creativity: While following SEO guidelines, a good SEO writer should also be creative. They should be able to generate unique ideas, craft compelling headlines, and present information in an interesting and engaging way.
  8. Time management: SEO writers often work on deadlines, so time management skills are essential. They should be able to deliver quality content within the given timeframe.
  9. Continuous learning: SEO is an ever-evolving field, and a good SEO writer stays updated with the latest trends, algorithms, and best practices. They are open to learning and improving their skills.
  10. Communication and collaboration: Effective communication skills are important for an SEO writer, especially when working with clients, editors, or other team members. They should be able to collaborate and incorporate feedback to refine their work.

It’s worth noting that the list above is based on the provided information and may not encompass all possible qualities of a good SEO writer. Different perspectives and requirements may exist in the industry.

Will AI EAT SEO for breakfast?

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It makes sense to use AI content to reduce SEO costs.

And it seems that every SEO is doing this, even if it’s a crafty rewrite here or a behind-the-counter tweak there. Although I doubt the quality will increase, you still need an expert human for that. Even if that human is simply prompting, you still need a content creator who knows their eggs and bacon.

But some are going hard and pumping out 200+ posts a day and it seems to be working for them. I am sure you have noticed these types popping up on Twitter, most are selling bottles of prompting justice, but a few seem to be having genuine success farming A.I.

Some people are loving the fact they can create more, let’s face it, mediocre content works as a ranking factor, so why not? Why not indeed, as other people are hating the fact that more mediocre content and it was already too much, is being created

The problem is not the lack of mediocre content

If you can rank low-level, mediocre content produced by AI and flunkey SEO types What does that say about the Google SERPS? Does it improve the search experience? C’mon

@JohnMu You have to be planning something 😉
And it looks like they are with Google SGE.

If you are doing 200+ posts a day, generated by AI then my advice is to go at it hard, very hard It won’t last The problem is not the lack of mediocre content. The problem is a distraction and trust Trust has always been important, but now more than ever

Will Google SGE stop AI spam?


Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) is a cool feature that brings generative AI-powered results right into your Google search results. It’s like having a smart assistant helping you find what you need.

You know Google, right? It’s that amazing search engine from Alphabet’s Google division. Whenever you have a question or need information, you can count on Google to give you the answers (cough). They’ve been doing this for a while, using web crawlers to visit websites and collect all sorts of information.

Google’s search engine algorithms constantly evolve to make sure they provide you with the most relevant information possible. And now, with SGE, they will incorporate generative AI-powered results to try to enhance the search experience.

Although it seems that the focus is more on the shopping experience than the informational experience and it is unclear how this will affect sites currently using a heavy dollop of AI generation.

Some of this post was aided by A.I. but I’m not going to tell you which, and it wasn’t the line about drinking bottles of prompting juice, that came from my brain.