Lesson 12: Google Analytics

This week we studied Google Analytics and evaluating a website in general. I learned how important it is to continually study my website's statistics so my business can grow. In the video, "Getting Started with Google Analytics" they (Google) offered the analytics cycle to follow which is a loop of Measuring>Learning>Taking Action. This can also be thought of as the ABC cycle where A=acquiring visitors; B=behavior studies of traffic patterns on the site; and C=conversions or the bottom line. 

General instructions for getting into data on Google Analytics starts with making sure your website and Google account are linked to Google Analytics. Then under the Reporting tab are various and sundry options for studying all kinds of patterns like traffic and referral sources. Another site that helps implement these stats is Google.com/Webmasters. Again, it's important to have all of your Google web tool sites linked together so that numbers can shows up from across the board. 

Besides studying analytics, it's important to remember there needs to be conversion goals. I liked the outline offered in the lesson that suggested focusing on first Destination, then Duration, Pages, and Events. Focusing on each step of a conversion goal will make it easier to understand what I am trying to do and give an event the best chance possible. 

The best thing I learned this week is that there are all kinds of SEO videos online to learn how to improve my website traffic and ranking. I used Woorank to see what I could do to improve my site, and although I couldn't accomplish all of the suggestions because of my limited coding abilities, I was able to figure out how to do some things to improve the site and even take advantage of SEO functions from my webhost I didn't know were available.

Lesson 11

This week we studied social media and how we can use it to help improve search engine optimization. The reading lessons listed 4 steps for SEO success. First, listening and monitoring your market and analytics. Second, developing content, third, socializing and networking to build a following and a brand name, and fourth measure. Measuring is one of the most important steps in SEO optimization because you can't make improvement if you don't know where the weak links are in your marketing strategy. Along with these steps are 16 rules that are important for the best optimization. Some of the best that stuck out to me included:

#1 Increase your linkability

#2 Make tagging and bookmarking easy

#3 Reward inbound links

#4 Help your content travel

#5 Encourage mashup and re-use content

#6 Be a user resource

#7 Reward helpful users

#8 Participate

#9 Target your audience

#10 Create content

#11 Be real

#12 Be humble

#13 Stay fresh

#14 Strategize

Notes that I took for using these rules focused on my need to repurpose my blog content, be a resource for others, make sure I reward people who help and share, reexamine my target audience, and make sure sharing is easy on both my blog and my site. There were also lists for strategizing SEO. From these suggestions I decided to focus on setting goals, creating a digital rolodex, and analyzing, adapting, and improving. 

 

Some social marketing tips I found to be interesting and worth considering were the facts that 81% of promotion comes from word of mouth. People don't trust advertising like they used to so it's important to build a brand and interact with your audience. Besides being aware that 74% of people on earth are online, I found it interesting to note that half of this number is people under 30 years old. This can influence how we create promotional campaigns and where we direct our budget to reach the best audience.

Lesson 10: Social Networking

The Chicken or the Egg?

What's more important? The website content or the advertising campaigns? This week we studied more ways to improve hits on our business pages by taking advantage of options for landing pages and basic SEO. From the readings I found some great questions to consider for web page review: Does the landing page feature what was promised in the ad? Is there a goal or call to action? Is the content on the landing page relevant? It is easy to navigate? Does it encourage the visitor to spend time there? These questions can be applied to every page of my website to consider if I am providing a quality experience for the visitor and a conversion opportunity for myself. 
 

The readings also listed six essentials for a good landing page. These included a prepopulated cursor, content at the right level for eye contact, testimonials, points of action assurance, headlines that match intent, and a single call to action. One thing I did to improve my landing page was to make sure the right information was at a good eye level. I also changed my headlines to include keywords that are in my ads and SEO sections of my website. I plan to add some additional testimonials on each page rather than just my landing page, and I need to learn more about what a prepopulated cursor is because I didn't quite understand it in the lesson.

Another interesting thing I learned is that Google Analytics allows you to test different pages to do content experiments. I thought this was a great opportunity to track what landing page organization is going to work best. Again, this is something I plan to apply and do with my website so I can see if there is a best layout for my landing page that will encourage visitors to click on tabs to visit other pages. 

As far as SEO, I know that is an organizational system and an algorithm for search engines. What I have learned is that it is not just words that matter but titles, links, and especially backlinks. I was able to use a program that showed me how many backlinks I had to my website, and I was surprised by the number, but I know that most of them are on old content. This shows me that I need to keep providing fresh content and material at other places on the web that link back to my site to promote good SEO. Unique value keywords are a part of that, too, and not just unique content, so I need to be mindful of all of my keywords even when I am creating content for others online. 

Class discussions this week were interesting as we discussed different ways to promote our websites through social media. I was surprised at how many people do not take advantage of social media because it has so many free options and a very wide reach. I shared some of my thoughts studying and using social media this year and it actually made me feel more confident that it is the best place for my advertising dollars over using Google Ads as I have yet to see any conversions from my Google Adword campaign. I believe what works for one product may not work as well for another, so I am learning that constant experimentation and learning is important to maintaining numbers and sales. As far as focusing more on website content or advertising dollars, I think it's not any different than worrying about which came first--the chicken or the egg. Both are necessary and it doesn't matter which comes first as long as there is innovation, experimentation, analytics, and conversions.

Lesson 9: ROI

This week the lessons in class covered how to make sure you I am getting some return on my investment (ROI) so that I am not wasting money on ads. I learned I need to have goals for visits to my site, for sales that are conversions from these visitors, and I need to use Google Analytics and the data available on Adwords to make sure my ROI is good. It's important to track my ROI and make sure I know what the cost is per conversion. The formula for that is Revenue-Cost of Goods Sold/Cost of Goods Sold, and that equals a percentage. 

 

Focusing on cost and quality will help me to have more success, and that means making sure I choose good keywords. A good keyword is high in quality and low in price per click, so I need to find a balance. So far I have only been able to find keywords that are average and ranked around a 5 to 6 out of ten so I need to do more research and find some better solutions than what the keyword planner is suggesting. 

Focusing on the conversion means choosing which conversion result is most important, like a sale, a new follower on my blog, or a sign up for my newsletter. This week I learned how to set up a conversion code (html) on webpages so I can track conversions through Adsense. The conversion process can be done by logging into Adwords, clicking on Tools, then Conversions.

This week I also learned how to revise my keywords and make sure there weren't duplicates. This also helped remind me to check the scores of my keywords to make sure they were going to be useful and worth using for a target audience. 

The most important thing I learned setting up my Adwords campaign this week was that I will get far more impressions than I will clicks, and I need to watch impressions so I can see when I need to make changes in my ads and keywords to get more clicks. In the first 24 hours of my project I had 79 impressions and no clicks. This may be because I have a very low budget right now because of expenses that ran on Adwords last month, but once I get ads and my finances sorted out, I can raise my bids for ads and see if it yields better results. It may be that I will have more traffic to my website through social media which has been the trend up to this point. I'm not certain that Google Ads are the best place to spend my money for my industry and products.

Lesson 8

This week in class we studied the relevance and quality of a good a good keyword by learning how to you the quality score indicator in Adwords and also how to apply and use Google analytics. The readings provided links to Google videos were I could check out the process of how to determine a good quality score. This is done under the tabs Campaign>Keywords> and then to a small, white speech bubble which is clickable for a score from 1 to 10 with a result of above, below, or average. This information also provides the click through rate as well as the relevance (above, below, average) and data for the landing page experience.

This week also provided some reiteration of compiling an ad group. It's important to remember to focus on one single specific type of product in an ad and to include keywords in the text. Another critical detail is a powerful call to action that stands out. Words I can use in a call to action include buy, sell, order, browse, find, sign up, or get a quote. These tips really helped me revise the call to action in my ad ideas.

In a class discussion this week we discussed ways to take advantage of Google Analytics. I like how I can use this program to help me see how much traffic I have and what days and times it comes in. I also can see where traffic is coming from and which pages on my website are the most popular. One new thing I learned is that there is a "bounce" feature that can show me how many people clicked on my URL and then immediately left. This can help me when running ads because I will be able to figure out what kind of phrasing in the ads are drawing visitors who are not interested in my product and I can revise to save money and connect with the right audience. My favorite thing about using Analytics is I can see the impact of the different social media I use and which work best because they are also traffic sources. It's a great way to plan my social media campaigns.

Lesson 7: Making Sense of Adsense

This week I continued to learn about creating online ads and revising the business page at my website. Some Google videos shared tips like including one of your keywords in an ad title is a smart idea. It works best to have a headline, display URL, and two lines of descriptions. It's important to remember that each line has character limits so ads should be as succinct as possible.

Some ideas for successful ads are to highlight what makes you unique. Be relevant and be specific. Share prices, promotions, and exclusive offers. It's important to use a call to action because this empowers the customer. It's also important to use at least one keyword in an ad, experiment with different ad groups, and to proofread ads for errors. Customers should know what to expect when they visit a website so an ad should reflect this. 

This week I also learned how Google Adsense structures its accounts. First a store account is opened. Under this account can branch out different campaigns. Under each campaign, ad groups may formed to focus on specific products and characteristics. When applied to my ads, I learned I can run campaigns on different book genres like historical and contemporary. Under each campaign, I can form ad groups to focus on the subjects of specific books in this campaign. 

In the class discussion this lesson, I learned how I can improve the rough draft of my ad. I decided to move my URL from my last line to my second line under the title. I also am revising my call to action. I don't feel that punctuation looks professional or makes sense. According to positive feedback on my detail lines, I am going to keep the keyword "Jane Austen" in my ad because it gives the customer an idea of what to expect. 

Last, this week I revised a store checkout program on my website. I had originally decided to use a checkout processor called PayHip to process purchases and deliver downloads of one of my eBooks. It is used by many online authors. The website used Paypal as the form of payment, so I was actually leading the customer and myself in circles and still paying a transaction fee. Most importantly, after two weeks my book had accrued 50 visitors to the PayHip page with 0 checkouts. I revised this checkout option on my website by using my website host's own store. It comes free with my annual fee. A button and checkout information provided by my host on the bookstore page leads the customer straight to Paypal for checkout. I do not have to pay my website design company for this transaction fee, so the only processing fee will be from Paypal. The one disadvantage is I will have to email downloads of my eBooks directly to customers which means dealing with more piracy protection and programs.