SMX London: Google Tag Manager Can Do What?

#SMX #24B @SWallaceSEO
Stephanie Wallace, Vice President, Owned Media, Nebo
Google Tag Manager Can
Do What?
G O I NG ABO VE & BEYO ND
CO NVERSI O N TRACKI NG

We are going to cover a lot!

Google Tag Manager:
The best only way to deploy Analytics tracking.

But, we’re not going to cover the basics.

Are we using GTM to it’s full potential?

GTM allows you to make
changes to code on your site…

Without touching your site’s code.

Puts us, the marketers, back in control.

We’re not relying on developers*.

We’re not relying on developers*.
*Caveat: Developers have a process for a reason…

Special features make GTM
a game changer.

7 SEO Specific
Tactics to
Leverage GTM

Add Structured Data Markup
Implement Custom Header Tags
Implement Canonical Tags
Define Metadata
Track Right Clicks
Measure Scroll Depth
Measure Dwell Time
We’ll Review
How To:

We’ll Review
How To:
Add Structured Data Markup
Implement Custom Header Tags
Implement Canonical Tags
Define Metadata
Track Right Clicks
Measure Dwell Time

Add
Structured
Data Markup

Use Schema to annotate elements on a page making it easier for search engines to
understand your content.
Structured Data Markup

Create your snippet of Schema in J-SON LD format.
Example: Organization Schema

Create a new tag using the Custom HTML type.
Implementation

Paste the schema markup into GTM to dynamically insert J-SON LD on all pages you
define.
Implementation: Tag Configuration

Define your trigger pages for this
code to fire on.
Depends on the type of Schema
you’re implementing.
Click Save and Publish your
changes.
Implementation: Trigger Configuration

Verify via Google’s Structured DataTestingTool.
Testing & QA

Implement
Custom
Header Tags

Implement directives via GTM to control crawling & indexing with the robots meta tags.
Custom Header Tags
Directive
noindex
Meaning
nofollow
noarchive
noodp
nosnippet
Do not show this page in search results
Do not follow the links on this page
Do not show a “Cached” link in search results
Do not show a text snippet or video preview in SERPs
Do not use business info from Open Directory
Project

Implement header tags with JavaScript by creating a new tag using the custom HTML
type.
Implementation

Paste your code and specify within the JavaScript to fire code in the head section.

Define a new trigger that specifies the page(s) to which the header tag will apply.

Verify that the tag is firing usingView Source or via Chrome DevTools.
Testing & QA

Implement
Canonical
Tags

Canonical Tags
Use custom variables in GoogleTag Manager to create auto generated canonical URLs
for every page.
rel=“canonical”
Canonical version
Duplicate version Parameter version

Create variables for the Page URL Canonical, Page Protocol, Page Hostname Canonical, &
Page Path.
Implementation: Start with Variables

Protocol
https://www.example.com/products/?s=seo101#results
Hostname Path Query Fragment
Quick refresher on URL components these variables are referencing.
Implementation

Again, using the custom HTML
tag copy and paste this code.
Set code to fire code in the head
section.
Trigger should fire on all pages.

Verify the tag via Chrome DevTools.
Testing & QA

Implement
Metadata

Metadata
Add title tags and meta descriptions to your site when this cannot be done any other
way.
<title>ExampleTitle</title>
<meta name="description"
content="This is an example of a
meta description.">

For a single page, implement the JavaScript as a Custom HTML tag, specified to fire in the
head section.

Does it have to be this
manual?
For a single page, implement the JavaScript as a Custom HTML tag, specified to fire in the
head section.

Add title tags and meta descriptions to your site in bulk usingVariable LookupTables.
Alternate Implementation: Create a New Variable

Testing & QA
This is admittedly pretty hacky… But sometimes it’s the only way.

Track Right
Clicks

Track Right Clicks
Track right or middle clicks with custom tags to truly measure the number of events on a
website.
Users often right click
to download or open in
a new tab.

Create a Click ListenerTag using
JavaScript to fire on all non-left
clicks on links.
Set the trigger to DOM ready
pageview.
The page is now “listening” for
the mousedown action from a
right or middle click.

Create data layer variables to match the variables to be sent by the listener tag.
Implementation: Create Variables

Define a new Custom Event trigger ready for ourGoogle Analytics tag to track users
clicking on non-left button links, right-button links, and middle-button links.

Create a new Universal Analytics
event tracking tag to fire on all
right-clicked links.
Use the defined variables to set
up the event and the defined
non-left trigger.
Now you’re tracking in Google
Analytics!
Implementation: Tracking in Google Analytics

Testing & QA
Testing has shown we are missing somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of all clicks on a variety
of links and resources.

Measure
Scroll Depth

Capture how far down a given page users scroll to improve engagement tracking.

Use the native Scroll Depth trigger in GTM.
Implementation: Define New Trigger

Create a trigger based on
vertical or horizontal scroll
depths of 25%*, 50%, 75% and
100%.
Define pages on which to fire.
*The 25% mark will cause
bounce rate to artificially
decrease.

Create a Universal Google
Analytics event tag to collect
scroll tracking data.
Use the Scroll Depth trigger we
just defined.

Testing & QA
To avoid affecting your site’s
bounce rate, when creating
events in GTM configure the
“non-interaction” field asTRUE
for 25%.
Or choose to exclude 25% from
the trigger altogether.
25%
50%
75%
100%

Measure
Dwell Time

Use theTimer trigger to measure quality visits based on dwell time rather than average
time on page.
Measure Dwell Time
Trigger Fires
After
X Seconds
GTM Tag Fires,
Event Passes to
Analytics
Visitor
Enters

Create theTimer trigger.
Define milliseconds between
events and set a limit on number
events to be fired.
Ideal to specify content heavy
pages, similar to scroll depth.

Calculate ideal dwell time intervals per page based on number of words on the page.
words
on the page
15 * 1000
150 words
on the page
15 * 1000 = 10 second intervals

Use thoseTimer triggers to
create Create a Universal Google
Analytics event tag to collect
scroll tracking data.
Define event tracking
parameters.
Select “Enable override settings
in this tag”.

Testing & QA
Confirm the tag data is firing in GoogleAnalytics.

We covered a lot!

We covered a lot!
http://bit.ly/SMX-GTM

Share these #SMXInsights on your social channels!
#SMXInsights
We know that a large portion of
metrics from Google Analytics are
either bullsh*t, spam or plain wrong
GTM can help improve the quality of
metrics we’re tracking

#SMXInsights
Google Tag Manager loads JavaScript
• Google may crawl these changes on a
page, but they are not the only search
engine
Remember these are hacks

#SMXInsights
Google Tag Manager Resources:
• Simo Ahava
• LunaMetrics GTM Recipes
• Moz Blog: SEO Changes Using GTM

Google Tag Manager is a
game changer.

Thank You!
Stephanie Wallace
Vice President, Owned Media
Nebo
LEARN MORE: UPCOMING @SMX EVENTS
See You at the next #SMX!

Supplement:
Custom Code
Examples

Structured Data Markup Code
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context":"http://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "NeboAgency",
"sameAs": [
"www.neboagency.com",
"https://www.facebook.com/NeboWeb/",
"https://twitter.com/neboagency",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebo-agency/"
],
"brand": "Nebo",
"description": "Nebo is a full-service agency headquartered in Atlanta,GA.We believe great work comes from a deep understanding the needs, wants and desires of your audience.
Discover more about Nebo and our human-centered philosophy.",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"addressLocality": "Atlanta",
"addressRegion": "GA",
"postalCode": "30318",
"streetAddress": "1000 MARIETTA ST NW SUITE 270" },
"telephone": "1.800.908.6326",
}
</script>

Custom Header Tags / NOINDEX Code
<script>
jQuery('meta[name="robots"]').remove();
Var meta = document.createElement ('meta');
meta .name = "robots";
Meta.content = "noindex";
docuemnt.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(meta);
</script>

Canonical Tag Code
<script>
var c = document.createElement('link');
c.;
c.href = {{Page URL Canonical}};
document.head.appendChild(c);
</script>

Metadata Code
<script>
jQuery('meta[name="description"]').remove();
jQuery((title').remove();
var md_en = document.createElement('meta');
md_en.name = 'description';
md_en.content - 'This is a test for Metadata replacement with GTM.';
jQuery('head').append(md_en);
var tt_en = document.createElement('title');
tt_en.text = 'GoogleTag Manager Can Do What? | SMX';
jQuery('head').append(tt_en);
</script>

Right Click Code
<script type='text/javascript'>
if (window.jQuery) {
jQuery('a').mousedown(function(event) {
if (event.which == 3)
dataLayer.push({ "nonleft.linkclick.href": this.href,
"nonleft.linkclick.linktext": this.text,
"event": "nonleft.linkclick.right"});
if (event.which == 2)
dataLayer.push({ "nonleft.linkclick.href": this.href,
"nonleft.linkclick.linktext": this.text,
"event": "nonleft.linkclick.middle"});
});
}
</script>

SMX London: Google Tag Manager Can Do What?

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to SMX London: Google Tag Manager Can Do What?

Similar to SMX London: Google Tag Manager Can Do What? (20)

More from Stephanie Wallace

More from Stephanie Wallace (9)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

SMX London: Google Tag Manager Can Do What?

Editor's Notes