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.