BUS 572-- 3 Blog

During the past week, the most important topics I learned were optimization techniques and keyword research tools. As defined by Search Engine Land, search engine optimization is:

"SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads."

Optimization Techniques

o   Title tag: use the key phrase close to the title of the page

o   H1 header tag: use KP close to the header

o   Body Content: use KP frequently in the content of the site

o   Bold: use tags around the keyword at least once

o   Alt tag for an image: Use KP to describe an image

o   URL: have KP appear in uniform resource locator

o   Meta Description

o   Meta Tags

o   Linked anchor text to another page

o   Use in the domain name

(Stokes, 2013). 

I enjoyed learning about optimization techniques because our text gives us concrete, measurable examples of how to optimize our web pages. It's very exciting to have such a powerful tool at my fingertips and to understand it in order to help our client. I prefer things to be broken down into "bite-sized" pieces for better comprehension, so that was definitely helpful to me. I also enjoy the concept of keyword research tools because they allow us to stay on track with our budget and to know exactly what keywords we can use, and which ones are too expensive. Keyword research tools allow us to have a concrete budget, which in turn will produce a successful campaign. 

How does the class find keyword research tools and optimization techniques helpful/not helpful? Are there any other tools you'd like to see on Google and what other tools do you find useful?

I really am excited to get the ball rolling and begin the actual competition so that we can help Brenda Decroo Coaching reach new clients and help more people.

The most important skill I learned about these past two weeks is knowing how to use Google Adwords tools to help your campaign. I appreciated learning all about the Opportunities tab this week and how Adwords tools can help businesses know which step to take next and to troubleshoot any issues they are having. 

Learning more about Google Adwords and Analytics this week was very helpful. I learned about audience reports, content reports, traffic sources report—organic or paid, conversions report—value of visitors, metrics, dimensions, and segments. I learned that dimensions are the characteristics of a visitor as well as their settings: geography, language, traffic source, browser technology, etc.

Metrics: measurement—bouncers, bounce rate, clicks, entrances, exits, time on page

What is a segment— filter expression to return only specific data—get only data from purchasers or users 

from NY for example—then you can compare side by side. There are over 80 different dimensions!

Pages are also segments you can analyze, and every segment is automatically measured against all relevant metrics. 

Brenda Decroo Coaching Homepage

The concluding aspects of online marketing I learned this week are continuing to help our group learn more about the intricacies of Google Adwords. The things I learned are will help us to get our campaign up and running, and running successfully to match our client's needs. The technology is a continuing challenge but our class helps tremendously to break it down into small, understandable pieces. It is also a challenge to know which strategies to choose without first trying them--sometimes you just have to jump right in!