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Recent Posts
- Thinking About Switching From WordPress? What Should You Consider Before You Move?
- The Airtable Acquisition Raises a Bigger Question: Do You Really Own the Software Your Business Runs On?
- How to Use Google Search Console’s New Generative AI Data to Improve Your SEO
- How to Update the Same Website Content on Multiple Pages at Once
- Discovered vs. Crawled Not Indexed in Google Search Console: What’s the Difference and How to Fix Each
- The Small Business Guide to Auditing Google Ads and Website Costs
- Do Professional Writers Still Need SEO in the Age of AI?
- Search Engine First vs. People First Content: Why Generic FAQ Dumps Harm Your SEO
- Looking for a Website Builder Without AI? Which One Should You Choose?
- Keyword Cannibalization: How to Find and Fix the Pages Stealing Your Own Google Traffic
- Why Great Content Gets Stuck on Page 8 (And How to Fix It)
- Why MySQL FULLTEXT Search Returns 0 Results (And How to Fix It)
- The Reality of Domain Speculation on New TLD Launches: Is It Still Worth It?
- The Hidden Domain Name Lock-In: Which Registrars Restrict Nameservers?
- Paying $10,000 a Month for SEO? Here’s How to Tell If You’re Getting Your Money’s Worth
- Introducing New WordPress Magazine Layouts in UltimateWB 9 (With Early Access)
- How to Fix the WordPress “Critical Error” on the Widgets Page After a PHP Upgrade
- The Hidden Risk of SaaS Website Builders: Lessons from the Recent Wix Outage
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Tag Archives: google analytics
Paying $10,000 a Month for SEO? Here’s How to Tell If You’re Getting Your Money’s Worth
SEO can be expensive.
It's not uncommon for businesses to pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to well over $10,000 per month for SEO services. Large companies in highly competitive industries often spend even more.
So is that money well spent?
Sometimes, absolutely.
Other times... not so much.
The difference usually isn't the price - it's whether the work being done actually moves the business forward.
A recent discussion on an online marketing forum caught our attention. An in-house
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Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Tagged authority, backlinks, bloat, clean code, crawl errors, duplicate content, fast website, google analytics, Google Search Console, high-quality content, internal links, keyword tracking, mobile usability, mobile-friendly, page speed, search intent, search intent match, seo, seo packages, seo pricing, seo services, structured data, technical seo, third-party plugins, user experience
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Why cPanel AWStats Shows 90%+ of Website Visits as 0–30 Seconds (And Why It’s Normal)
If you have ever opened your website analytics and looked at the Visits Duration report, you may have felt a sudden wave of concern.
You see that the majority of your visits - sometimes 90% or more - appear in the shortest duration category:
0 seconds to 30 seconds.
Does that mean visitors are leaving immediately? Is your content failing? Is your website not engaging people?
Before assuming the worst, it helps to understand what your analytics system is
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Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Traffic
Tagged AI crawlers, awstats, bots, cpanel, cpanel awstats, crawlers, disables cookies, engage visitors online, engagement, google analytics, javascript, server-level vs script-based analytics, tracking script, visit duration, web hosting, website visitors
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How to Diagnose a Sudden Traffic Drop: The Technical SEO Checklist
A founder or developer logs into their website dashboard, sees a cliff-like drop in the traffic charts, and instantly panics. The immediate accusation almost always targets the exact same phantom: “Google penalized us!”
Before you start ripping apart your content, changing URL structures, or panic-hiring an expensive recovery agency, take a deep breath.
Most sudden traffic drops are not Google penalties. Jumping to conclusions usually leads to changing random SEO settings out of desperation, which can often break a
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Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Traffic
Tagged 301 redirect, 404 errors, canonical tags, data tracking glitch, database optimization, disallow, disavow toxic backlinks, email blacklist, google ads, google algorithm penalties, google analytics, google penalties, Google Search Console, Googlebot, gsc, linkedin ads, mail reputation tools, Meta advertising, migration error, MXToolbox, noindex, organic traffic, paid ads, robots.txt, seo, server failure, sitemap, thin content, traffic drop, visbility, xml, xml sitemap
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Why is the Discover tab missing now from Google Search Console?
"Ask David" question:
"I noticed today that the Discover tab is completely missing from my left-hand sidebar in Google Search Console. It used to be under the Performance section, but now it’s just gone. Did my account break, or did Google remove this feature?"
Answer:
Don't worry, your account isn't broken. If you are wondering why the Discover tab is missing now from your Google Search Console page, it comes down to a specific built-in feature of Google's
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Posted in Ask David!, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Traffic
Tagged core web vitals, discover, E-E-A-T, evergreen content, Google algorithm update, google analytics, Google Search Console, high-quality conetnt, mobile-friendly, responsive, robots, robots meta tag, search engine optimization, seo, trust, trust signals
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The Curious Case of an Internet Explorer 11 Visitor in 2025
It’s late 2025 - you’d probably assume everyone browsing the web is on Chrome, Safari, Edge, or Firefox. And for the vast majority of sites, that is true. But recently we spotted a visitor using Internet Explorer 11 - the last major version of “IE” - and it reminded us that even discontinued browsers aren’t completely gone.
Earlier this year, we shared how someone landed on our website using IE9 - a browser from 2011! That visit
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Posted in Announcements
Tagged accessibility, awstats, browser compatibility, Browser usage trends, chrome, clean code, compatibility, cross browser compatibility, css, edge, fast load times, fast website, firefox, google analytics, html, ie 11, IE11 traffic, internet explorer, Internet Explorer 11, javascript, Legacy browsers, mobile-friendly, outdated browsers, polyfills, Progressive enhancement, responsive, safari, security risks, web browser, web standards, website compatibility
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Webpage direct visits: bots, crawlers, or real visitors?
"Are webpage visits coming from a direct visit (vs a search) from bots or crawlers vs real visitors, or perhaps AI scrapers?"
Yes - a significant portion of direct webpage visits can come from bots, crawlers, and AI scraping content, not just real human visitors. But how much depends on the site, traffic level, and what kind of page you’re looking at.
Below is a clear breakdown.
1. What “Direct” Traffic Really Means
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Posted in AI, Ask David!, Website Traffic
Tagged ai, AI crawling, ai scrapers, analytics accuracy, bot traffic, bots, bots vs humans, content scraping, crawlers, direct traffic, fake direct traffic, fake traffic, google analytics, matomo, raw server logs, real visitors, robots, seo, SEO analytics, server logs, traffic analysis, web crawlers, website analytics, website monitoring
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Why Google Search Console’s 24-hour report suddenly shows all zeros
If you rely on Google Search Console to keep an eye on your site, you may have noticed something unsettling recently: the “last 24 hours” view showing flat zeroes - no clicks, no impressions, nothing. You might be thinking... Google Search Console is broken!
Or, if you are not in tune with your traffic stats via another channel, your first thought might the obvious one:
“Did Google drop my site?”
Short answer: no.
Long answer: this is a Google
Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Traffic
Tagged analytics, analytics issues, google analytics, Google indexing, Google Search Console, GSC data delay, GSC reporting issue, hosted website builders, raw server logs, search engine optimization, SEO reporting, seo tips, SEO troubleshooting, website analytics, website performance, website traffic
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How to Check How Your Web Page or Blog Post is Ranking in Google
If you’ve published a web page or blog post, knowing how it’s performing in search engines is key to improving traffic and SEO. Fortunately, there are several ways to check your ranking. This guide will walk you through the most effective methods.
1. Use Google Search to Check Rankings: Manual Tracking
The simplest way to see how your web page or blog post is performing is to search for it directly. This also allows you to track rankings over
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Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Traffic
Tagged ahrefs, average position, backlinks, blog post ranking, boost traffic, clear cache, click-through rate, clicks, content marketing, content strategy, ctr, featured snippets, google analytics, Google Search Console, google search engine ranking, gsc, impressions, incognito, keyword performance, keyword rankings, keyword tracking, keywords, moz, organic traffic, personalized search, private browsing window, queries, semrush, seo tips, seo tools, target keywords, ubersiggest, web page ranking, website traffic
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How to Check if Your Website is Showing Up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Other AI Answers
AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini are quickly becoming the go-to search method for many users. Instead of typing queries into Google, people are getting instant answers directly from AI - sometimes with source links, sometimes without.
If you run a website, the question is simple:
Is your content showing up in those AI answers?
Here’s how you can find out.
1. Manual Testing (The Direct Way)
The most straightforward way to check is to ask
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Posted in AI, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Security
Tagged ahrefs, ai, ai answers, aio, analytics, ao optimization, authority, brand visibility, branding, chatgpt, evergreen, ga4, gemini, google analytics, llm, matomo, niche, perplexity, referral traffic, search engine optimization, semrush, seo, similarweb, target audience
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Beginner’s SEO Guide: Step-by-Step Process to Promote Your Business Online
Step 1: Set Up Website Analytics and Tracking
- Why? To understand who visits your site, where they come from, and how they interact with your pages.
- How?
- Create a Google Analytics account and install the tracking code on your website.
- Set up Google Search Console to monitor your website’s presence in Google search results and detect any issues.
Follow these Guides:
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Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Tagged ahrefs, alt tag, alt text, authority, backlinks, bloat, bounce rate, broken links, clean code, compress images, conversions, drive traffic, fast load times, fast website, fresh content, google analytics, Google Business Profile, google keyword planner, Google Search Console, headers, headings, https, keyword research, keyword stuffing, lazy-load images, long-tail keywords, meta description, mobile-friendly, plugins, ranking factor, redirect, redirect url, responsive, responsive app, search engine optimization, search engine ranking, secure, seo, short-tail keywords, sitemap generator, sitempa, target audience, target keywords, technical seo, title, tracking, trust, trustworthy, ubersuggest, user experience, webp converter, website analytics, website visitors, xml
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