Google Tag Manager for SEO – Guide for Improving Rankings with GTM
Reading Time: 6 minutes It is 2019 and still, not many people know about Google Tag Manager. You could blame its difficult or technical nature for not being extremely popular; however, one thing is for sure which is that GTM is a great tool that provides marketers with more control over website’s tags and code snippets.
Generally, the topic of Google Tag Manager is an elaborate one and would require another article to cover the process of setting up GTM. Because of its descriptive nature, we will not divulge into details. However, if you want to understand and set it all up, then you will find this article helpful.
Now, coming back to the topic, GTM proves itself to be an excellent tool when it comes to the SEO factor of any website. By manipulating certain codes, and utilizing the tracking data provided by GTM, you can have a positive impact on your SERPs ranking. With this in mind, here are five ways through which you can achieve good SEO results.
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Table of Contents
#1. Improvement in Site’s Speed
Certain features require the integration of custom snippets of codes or uniquely developed tags on the website’s source code. More often than not, such custom codes take a toll on your website which results in overall slow load time. Additionally, these unique tags require external development help. If the necessary steps are not taken, the web pages with the custom codes could result in an error.
So instead of having your users come across 404 error pages, it is better to take help from Google Tag Manager. This tool cuts down the need for having any external development assistance since it is equipped with all the necessary code required for running the custom tags or codes.
Through GTM, you can eliminate the coding errors and improve your website’s speed which in turn enhances your rank in the SERPs.
#2. Scroll Tracking
With the help of Google Tag Manager, you can track the scrolling patterns of the visitors and get crucial information regarding how far users actually scroll down on your website. This type of information will help you make informed decisions regarding the design or enhancing the UX experience.
Marketers can also get help when it comes to the placement of website content and the selection of an appropriate font. Bringing all the suitable changes to the table will not only improve your website but will also provide a better user experience; all of which will have an impact on the SEO value of your website.
You can also take help from web design and development services if the required design changes go beyond your expertise.
#3. Self-Referential Canonical Tags
Duplicate pages can come into existence without your knowledge. They do not hurt your website until such pages confuse Google’s algorithms and end up replacing the original pages. This is why canonical tags exist since their only job is to guide the search engine’s crawlers to the original pages.
You can take the longer route and place canonical tags on every unique page individually or you can rely on Google Tag Manager. With the help of this tool, you can add self-referential canonical tags with just one click. That way, the self-referential canonical tags will guide the crawlers to the right web page.
The topic of adding self-referential canonical tags can be intricate in nature for some people. So here is a quick guide to help you navigate carefully!
#4. Structure Data with Code’s Snippets
Your website needs to make sense to the search engines and this is where structured data comes into the picture. Structured data is the method of arranging the website’s data and information in a way that makes it easy for the search engine to understand it. Usually, the structured markup is done in JSON-LD, RDFa and Microdata formats.
The process of structuring data is simple and requires individuals to integrate small codes on the website’s source code. You can do this to all or to individual pages. This makes it easy for search engines like Google to highlight important information on the SERPs; thus increasing your click-through rates.
Inserting codes into any website’s source code requires coding skills. However, Google Tag Manager can make this process a little easier and a bit faster as it can inject the snippet of codes in the source codes from one place. Here is how you can do this:
- Use any schema markup generator to generate any web page’s structured data. You can use any online generator for this purpose.
- Copy the structured data and deploy it into the Custom HTML tag in the GTM.
- In the same section, use ‘All Pages’ as your trigger so the structuring can be implemented to all the web pages.
If you want to inject structured data into any specific page, then make sure to change your trigger accordingly.
#5. Boost Site’s CRO
Google Tag Manager has tracking properties which allow individuals to track the online activity of users on their website. This means that GTM has made it possible for individuals to bring desired changes in their website by using the ‘track data’.
GTM also enables individuals to track the clicking pattern of users. Google Tag Manager gathers and provides marketers with data regarding all the pages that users have visited along with all the buttons they have clicked. This type of information is necessary since it allows marketers to switch up the position of the buttons to the most desired places; thus increasing the overall CRO.
That said, you can rely on A/B testing to remove/replace or edit content, change up your CTAs, and track users’ online activity. Through this way, you will not only improve your CRO but will also enhance user experience; both of which are capable of influencing your website’s SEO.
If you still do not understand how CRO can be affected by Google Tag Manager, then here is a case study complete with proper research and hard facts.
Conclusion
Ask any website owner, and they will provide you with a list of why SEO is crucial for them. You can use Google Tag Manager to amplify your SEO efforts. However, this should never replace other crucial SEO practices like user-friendly content, targeted keywords, mobile optimization, etc.
All things aside, Google Tag Manager can turn around things for you only if you know how to sail through its complex nature. That said, ensure that you are utilizing the specific data that is present in your GTM; otherwise, your efforts will bear no fruits.
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Anne Taylor is a serial blogger with technical and business background. She loves writing about digital marketing, IT industry and workplace productivity. She is currently the content writer for Dynamologic Solutions.
