Tips Tuesday – Shopify for Shipping,  GA4 Key Event Tracking, AI SEO Workshops

Tips this week include:

• AI SEO Workshops coming
• Shopify for Shipping course is live!
• GA4 Key Event Conversion tracking tutorials nearly done
• EZ Metrix for Shopify course coming
• Where to get all of your e-commerce related news
• Why we’re still not updating to WP 6.7.x
• Google Ads using first-party data
• GA4 is having issues
• Google may have to sell Chrome
• How to turn off AI scraping in MS Word
• YouTube rolls out Jewel Tipping system
• Why my money will come from video marketing in 2025

It’s a short week for my U.S. peeps who are celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. And I know most all of us are preparing for Black Friday announcements to kick off your holiday sales. 

So, we’re going to keep Tips Tuesday brief this week.

Course Happenings

AI SEO Workshops Coming

I’ve asked the folks in the DIY SEO course to start tracking the AI bots that are hitting their sites.

Through December I’ll be creating a new workshop for us to start tracking how we are showing up in AI Search, and that will include SearchGPT and other AI search engines.

The AI summary is what I see at the top of any search engine I use now, and finding ways to get into it is a big goal for 2025.

And we’ll be starting our Quick Checks right on time in January to ensure our technical SEO is all up to par, and to get our new baseline for the year with how our site’s are doing in search.

If you want in on this course so you can hit the SEO ground running in 2025, reply to this email for a super discount that is so deep I’m not even making it public.

Shopify for Shipping Course is Live

Woot!!!! I’m delighted to announce the new Shopify for Shipping course is now available on eCreators Hub!!!

One of my clients asked me to help her get her Shopify site ready by Dec 1 and we got her store ready a week early – just in time for Black Friday sales.

I’m SO excited for her as the product she is selling is a real winner too. They have been ramping up production as we’ve been going through all of the settings in Shopify.

What a tremendous relief it is to know that everything is set and right on Day 1.

And y’all, she will be using Shopify for her whole site – blog included. No WP site needed because it is on the full Shopify plan that includes everything.

GA4 Key Event Conversion Tracking Tutorials Nearly Done

I seriously tried to just update my old GA4 course tutorials for the new Key Event conversion tracking reports in the EZ Metrix course.

But the interface and where things are have changed significantly, plus the names of things have changed too. And those old tutorials were specifically made to create custom Explore reports in GA4, which we won’t be using now that we have EZ Metrix.

So, I found it a lot faster to just start anew.

This week I’m testing new report pages for the things I want to track, like specific landing pages and what folks click on them.

And, I’ve asked folks in the EZ Metrix course to let me know what types of things they want to track so I can make more examples of how to do it.

I’ll be asking for a beta tester to check the layout and ensure that it meets expectations for the info they need to see, like which page/post a visitor was on when that conversion happened, and what traffic sources are bringing folks to those pages/posts the most.

These will be custom reports for each site owner, as everyone will have different things they want to track.

But, there will be a few tutorials for how to find the links and pages and such, and create the Custom Event that we’ll be using in the reports.

EZ Metrix for Shopify

Shopify gives you analytics for what happens when folks get to your store.

But it doesn’t give you in-depth details about where your traffic comes from.

That’s the job of GA4.

And you need GSC reports too.

That’s why I’m developing EZ Metrix reports for Shopify store owners.

Subscribe to eCreators Hub News

If you’re interested in e-commerce and the other courses on eCreators Hub, like EZ Metrix, be sure to subscribe to ECH News to be the first to know when courses release, and what’s happening in the e-comm world – it’s going to be SUPER exciting in 2025!!! 

In fact, I’ll be sharing my predictions for what’s coming to e-comm, and I can hardly wait!!!

WordPress Tips

Still Not Updating

WP 6.7.1 was released last week.

They decided to rush this minor release out fast to fix some serious image bugs that I’ve been hearing site owners scream about.

But, they are aware of more bugs and another release is forthcoming.

So, we’re definitely going to hold off until at least 6.7.2, and let me test that to see if it’s safe.

I’ll be sending special update instructions to my site audit Hub clients and Webmaster Training members.

SEO Tips

Google Ads Using First-Party Data

And now we know why Google just lied to us for the last 5 years about 3rd-party cookies.

They are in the midst of rolling out a beta version that allows advertisers to use 1st-party cookie data for client matching and retargeting.

Y’all, this is going to quickly spread to the selling of all 1st-party data because it is a gold mine.

Every person with ads on their site from one of the bigger ad agencies has been allowing them to collect your 1st-party data. 

You might want to look at their Terms of Service and whether they are only using that for their agency or whether they are allowed to sell that info.

In other words, they can make money selling the info they have gathered about your site’s visitors and never share that revenue with you.

If you find that is the case, please let me know.

As mentioned, this thing is in beta. So it may not be the case now, but it is something you need to keep an eye on.

GA4 Having Issues

Last week I had a client report that his GA4 went all goofy, and that happened to coincide with work that was done on his site.

We verified it was not due to the site changes.

It was indeed an issue with GA4.

It seems to be okay now.

See this article for more on what happened.

Google May Have to Sell Chrome

I don’t think this is ever going to happen, but it could.

To break up Google’s Search monopoly, the DOJ is pressing for Google to sell Chrome.

Of course, Google is pressing back saying that it would be harmful to consumers.

Bullshit.

Chrome is the #1 source for Google to collect 1st-party data on the sites you visit.

And as mentioned above, that 1st-party data is a gold mine.

I sincerely believe this is the hill Google is willing to die on.

And I bet they are willing to bankrupt their parent company, Alphabet, to do it.

So, whatever the DOJ ruling ends up being, don’t expect Google to comply. They will keep this tied up in court until the end of time.

AI Tips

Turn Off AI Scraping in Word

If you use Microsoft Word, you will want to get into your Privacy settings and turn off the option for Microsoft to scrape your content to train their AI systems.

See this TikTok for how to do it.

Video Tips

YouTube Rolls Out Jewel Tipping System

This is a play right out of TikTok.

YouTube is going to let your live viewers tip you. And they are going to share a portion of that penny revenue with you.

Okay, you may be laughing at getting half a penny.

You go ahead and laugh.

I can show you folks making $11k/mo on their live TikTok videos. They do them every other day.

And podcasters are going live on TikTok now because of it too.

This new Jewel Tipping System from YouTube is them trying to hang on to those long-form, live video creators.

My Money Will Come From Video Marketing

When I launched eCreators Hub, it was with the intent to not blog.

ALL of my marketing will be video.

I don’t even see the point of making blog posts for those videos either.

If folks are going to find me, it will be on the social/video platforms themselves, or those videos, on those platforms, showing up in Search results.

And my Link in Bio page will be on my site – you know, where they can buy things.

Getting paid for the video itself will be icing on the cake.

Are you doing videos yet?

How would you like a super fun, super short, mini course with group challenges?

We’ll use your phone and the free CapCut software.

And we’ll do it together in a safe, supportive place.

Let me know what you think.