WiscWeb - Google Tools

The following document aims to differentiate between the various Google tools that are currently offered as integrations for the UW Theme in WiscWeb.

Important

  • Note: The apps listed below are not “core apps” under UW-Madison’s Google Privacy Policy or Terms of Service (with the exception of Google Calendar).
  • Support: Support is not available from the UW-Madison Google team for non-core apps. We recommend the following for assistance:
  • Consideration: While service accounts can be used for non-core apps, consider that these have a 0GB quota in My Drive.

Google Analytics

Vendor Documentation | Vendor Training

Area of Focus: Website Usage Metrics

Why You Should Use It: Google Analytics generates detailed statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources. It is intended for learning more about how people use your website. It helps you make decisions about changes you may need to make to the site in order to improve the overall user experience.

Google Calendar

Vendor Documentation | Vendor Training

Area of Focus: Events Management

Why You Should Use It: Google Calendar allows for creation and sharing of simple events. A calendar can be embedded in a WiscWeb webpage and you can also share the calendar on multiple sites. 

Google Custom Search (AKA Programmable Search Engine)

Vendor Documentation | No Training Certificate Offered

Area of Focus: Website Search Function

Why You Should Use It: Google Custom Search allows you to provide your users with more robust search capabilities so that they can more easily find what they need on your website. The results provided by this tool are more fine-tuned and all-encompassing than the native WordPress search.

Google Search Console

Vendor Documentation | Vendor Training

Area of Focus: Search Engine Optimization (specifically, for Google)

Why You Should Use It: Google's Search Console tool allows users to monitor and optimize their site's performance in Google search results. This tool is helpful in keeping Google up-to-date with what exists on your site. Connecting your site to it allows Google to better-track things you’ve added or removed, and helps ensure that the content displayed in their search results are accurate.

Google Tag Manager

Vendor Documentation | Vendor Training

Area of Focus: Tracking Website Usage Metrics

Why You Should Use It: Google Tag Manager is used to track events that users trigger when visiting your website. Most groups don’t need to go this deep with their metrics but it is helpful for those that have very marketing-specific website goals.



Keywords:
google, google analytics, google custom search, google search console, google tag manager, seo, search engine optimization, metrics, data, tracking, crawl, recrawl 
Doc ID:
113646
Owned by:
Jenna K. in WiscWeb
Created:
2021-09-13
Updated:
2024-07-30
Sites:
DoIT Help Desk, WiscWeb