Lesson 12 Reflection - Ranking, Link Building & Google Analytics

Ranking and Link Building

These notes, specifically from the reading help center my thoughts. Look for some particular links I have identified below as great step by step options. 

Link building plays an important role in SEO and Social Media Marketing.  Link building refers to the practice of getting other sites to implement hyperlinks back to your web site. In broad terms, Google ranks your website based on its link profile (i.e., the quantity and quality of hyperlinks back to your site).

In this lesson, we will learn about link building and how to improve your site’s link profile. Begin by reading Intro to Link Building and then scan these strategies for building links here: Advanced Link Building Strategies. Next, refer to the Link Building Strategies: Checklist article to write a link building strategy. In doing so, prepare for the discussion board by making sure you provide an answer to the following questions:

1. Map out your strategy. (Part 1) Who and When?
2. Map out your strategy. (Part 2) What and How?
3. Map out your strategy. (Part 3) Where will the links be gathered?

Input your response in the question area by clicking “Start” below.

You have 6 minutes to complete it and will only be given one attempt.

Once you have submitted your response, answer the questions that have been posted in the “Ranking and Link Building Discussion Board.” The discussion board will open Tuesday at 12:01 AM. 

Readings:Intro to Link Building
Advanced Link Building Strategies
Link Building Strategies: Checklist

Reference:
Google Webmaster Guidelines
SEOmoz.org Beginners Guide to SEO
Search Engine Ranking Factors
Backlink Checker
Top Web Directories
Top SEO Mistakes You Must Avoid (Cheatsheet)

1. Map out your strategy. (Part 1) Who and When? I plan to do the work myself and reserve one day per month to focus solely on link building. I feel like this is an ongoing process so the work won't ever truly be done. I'm sure from that one day of work, I will have some spill over assignments to do throughout the month but at least setting aside that one full day will get it on the calendar and get it started.
2. Map out your strategy. (Part 2) What and How? I'm going to focus on one page at a time. After doing a full adwords campaign focusing on one page and its best keywords, I will have enough knowledge on what keywords work to then go and work on seo strategies based on the knowledge I paid for with a ppc campaign. The sites I will target will be complimentary sites that focus on healthy living but aren't necessarily focused on wheatgrass. Wheatgrass has its own very specific niche audience so if I can become the resident expert in multiple communities, I will be in a great position. I will search around the internet to find such sites and then work on building a relationship with the site owner.
3. Map out your strategy. (Part 3) Where will the links be gathered? There is a great list in the article we read of 20 places where you could gather links but I think I will start by focusing on internal links, complimentary websites/relevant blogs, forums, how-to sites, social sites, and guest posting.

I think the principle of giving without expecting anything in return could help soften site owners enough for them to offer you a link or even a guest post on their blog. The key to this would be to first have a great website yourself so you actually do have something of value to offer them. A simple email or phone call asking a popular blogger if they would be interested in doing a guest post on your site could be a great start. I think they would jump at this opportunity, then you could share with them a well thought out guest post you would like to share on their website and explain to them how you think that post would be relevant and useful to their readers.

A sample schedule:

Monthly: 

• list site in two good directories
• link to interior site pages from a couple of relevant posts on your blog
• distribute one press release to news sites
• write one great article that other people may want to link to and then let them know about it.
• Check and monitor incoming links (see tools below) and look to build relationships with additional web properties.

article about Press Release Optimization: http://www.seo-advantage.com/seo-topics/press-release-optimization.php

See who links to you:

Google: link:www.wheatgrassjuicing.com

or 

Google's free webmaster tools: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/55281?hl=en&topic=13509

or

Yahoo! Site Explorer https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

GOOGLE ANALYTICS:

1. Watch the videos: Introduction to Google Analytics, Interface Navigation, and Guidelines for Interpreting Reports.  

2. Go to Google Analytics and use it to determine your worst keyword, ad, and/or landing page.  

3. Write an essay explaining what metrics indicate which keyword, ad, or landing page is the worst.

4. Input your essay in the comment box by clicking “Submit” below.

Once you have submitted your essay, answer the questions that have been posted in the “Google Analytics Overview Discussion Board.” The discussion board will open Monday at 12:01 AM. 

Reading:

Introduction to Google Analytics

Interface Navigation

Guidelines for Interpreting Reports

References:

11 Digital Crimes Against Humanity

Preparation:

Google Conversion University Introduction

How to link Google AdWords and Google Analytics

Analytics overview 

what are the top / most important metrics to you

see what keyword brought someone to my site

paid vs organic

boucne rate, means they only looked at one page???

when you are asked "is this a good idea" what do you research? eyelashes 

Adam web posted this: 
I determined my worst keyword by the number of searches that it was getting and the number of impressions. If it isn't being searched for than it isn't going to be much good to my campaign. I was still able to have a very limited number of keywords in my campaign that were relatively successful. I averaged about 50 clicks a day so those that were not getting any clicks and a very small amount of impressions didn't help promote my campaign at all.

QUESTION:
Method for determining keywords based on a competitors site?

Some people have commented that they cannot find information about their AdWords in Google Analytics. Here is a tutorial on how to link Google AdWords and Google Analytics: http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1704341

Lesson 11 Reflection - Social Networking & SEO

Watch this video about using Social Media Marketing. Read Wikipedia’s summary on Social media marketing, and watch at least two of the Must Watch: 12 Awesome Social Media Tutorials that interest you most.

Twitter Search video - I need to watch that again and apply it.

Prepare for the discussion board by answering these two questions in today’s quiz:

• List four social media sites that you can market your website on.
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• Linkedin
• Instagram
• Youtube
• Choose one of these social media sites and list what steps you could take to market your website (be creative!). 
• Youtube - I am going to start creating tutorial videos on youtube which should help not only drive traffic to my site, but also position me as an authority on the subject. I just have to signup for my youtube channel and start creating content. Then I will watch other videos on youtube and comment, which will help people learn about my video page.

Input your response in the question area by clicking “Start” below.

You have 6 minutes to complete it and will only be given one attempt.

Once you have submitted your response, answer the questions that have been posted in the “Introduction to Social Networking Discussion Board.” The discussion board will open Tuesday at 12:01 AM. 

Readings:
Social Media Marketing
Wikipedia’s summary on Social media marketing
Must Watch: 12 Awesome Social Media Tutorials

References:
How Does Social Media Affect Search Marketing?
Omniture / Adobe webcast on Facebook and Twitter marketing
How to Use LinkedIn: Using social networking to further your career


SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SEO

Read 4 Steps to Social Media SEO Success, 16 Rules for Social Media Optimization Revisited, and 7 Steps for a Successful Social Media Strategy. Next, watch this video on How to Measure Social Media Traffic with Google Analytics.

If I read nothing else, I think this article is a great 7 step process: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/7-steps-for-a-successful-social-media-strategy/

Write a minimum one-page essay that outlines your Social Media Optimization plan / goals in both the short term and long term. Also include in this essay how you are going to measures success.

To submit your assignment, click on the "Open" button at the bottom of the screen. Upload your report by clicking on the "Browse for File" button. 

Once you have submitted your response, answer the questions that have been posted in the “Social Media for SEO Discussion Board.” The discussion board will open Tuesday at 12:01 AM.  

 

Videos and Readings:
4 Steps to Social Media SEO Success
16 Rules for Social Media Optimization Revisited
7 Steps for a Successful Social Media Strategy
How to Measure Social Media Traffic with Google Analytics

 

References:
Developing a Social Media Plan
How to Use Social Media To Effectively Improve SEO
How to Use Facebook for Business
Is Your Website SEO and Social Media Friendly?
Social Media SEO & Analytics Tools Worth Checking Out
Free Tools for Social Media Optimization

Lesson 10 Reflection - Landing Pages & Website Optimizer & SEO

6 Great tips to Optimizing a landing page: http://moz.com/blog/6-essential-ppc-landing-page-optimizations

Landing Page Optimization and Website Optimizer

Preparation: View Does Your Landing Page Seal the Deal? 

Read Understanding Landing Page Experience, and Basic Strategies for Optimizing Websites and Landing Pages.

View Create Better Websites: Introducing Content Experiments,  Content Experiments the Benefits, Requirements & Sign In,The Content Experiments Interface, and Elements of an Experiment.

Basic SEO

Basic SEO

View What is Search Engine Optimization/SEO, read Perfecting Keyword Targeting & On-Page Optimization (you don't need to read the comments), and then take a look at your website. List the five best things you can do to help your sites be optimized for search engines. Explain your reasoning.  

1. Make sure my page content is Uniquely valuable. Good content is king. Need to make sure the page is easy to understand.

2. Edit my Page Title to use primary keywords in it. This will be the title line on google search results.

3. The URL to each page should include the keyword that page is meant to promote. This makes sure that it also appear in links when coming from other sites.

4. My images are called by important keywords but not necessarily the actual keyword for that page, so I guess I need multiple versions of the same image, just with different names. I also need to have go back and add image alt attributes, a feature that I have just skipped but a great opportunity to fit in another keyword. 

5. Links between pages. I haven't yet built up links from outside websites but I can at least start creating internal links from one page to another. This will help improve link rankings. 

6. Add keywords to the meta description. This will make the keyword turn bold in the search result helping entice people to click on the result. 

Algorithm Ingredients

Words Matter

Titles Matter

Links Matter

Words in Links

Reputation

For three of your web pages, list at least one keyword that you want to optimize that page for and explain why you chose those words.

1. 7 Must Have Products page. I want to optimize it for the keyword "wheatgrass fertilizer". I need to first do some research about that keyword but I think it could be a profitable way to go.
http://wheatgrassjuicing.com/7-must-haves-for-juicing-wheatgrass/

2. Benefits of Wheatgrass page. I would want to optimize this page for the key word "wheatgrass benefits" There are a lot of people out there who want to investigate the benefits before getting into wheatgrass, so if i can drive more traffic to that page, I could become a trusted source on the subject, encouraging people to then purchase products from my site.

http://wheatgrassjuicing.com/benefits-of-wheatgrass/

3. How to Wheatgrass. I need to optimize this site for the key word "wheatgrass growing". This is my highest performing keyword in my Adwords campaign. If I can optimize the site to drive organic traffic to the page, then I will end up spending less on clicks. 
http://wheatgrassjuicing.com/how-to/

Choosing how to optimize

One important takeaway from this post should be that modern on-page SEO is about juggling competing priorities. In general, my recommended ordering of those priorities is as follows:

1. Create a page that is uniquely valuable to your targeted searchers.
2. If at all possible, make the page likely to earn links and shares naturally (without needing to build links or prod people).
3. Balance keyword targeting with usability and user experience, but never ignore the critical elements like page titles, headlines, and body content at the least.
4. see his example of the perfectly optimized page: http://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization

Use Backlinks Checker Tool — Backlink Watch to determine how many inlinks your site has.

Input your response in the question area by clicking “Start” below.

Once you have submitted your response, answer the questions that have been posted in the “Basic SEO Discussion Board.” The discussion board will open Wednesday at 12:01 AM. 

References:

Google Basics

Google SEO

Webmaster guidelines

Webmaster Tools Checklist

Lesson 9 Reflection - ROI & Conversion Tracking & OPTIMIZING AD PERFORMANCE

This week has been busy but I think this lesson is a game changer. The things learned in this lesson should be continually reviewed to help continually improve my campaign. It will never be perfect, it is a continual process.

These links from the weeks preparation work and even the preparation questions were really helpful:

Read: Measuring your profits, Return on Investment, Measuring Sales and Conversions, andSetting Up Conversion Tracking. (Be sure to expand each item in the list and read them too. You can skip the “Set up on dynamically-generated webpages” info.) You will be asked to do the following:

• Identify at least one conversion for your website.
• Determine the value of the conversion. Be sure to show how you determined the value including any assumptions you had to make.
• Obtain the code snippet that you will place on the conversion page.
• Determine which page is your conversion page. 

Place the code snippet on your conversion page if possible or know why you can’t and determine a next best alternative.  

Reference: Google Checkout Merchant help for BUY NOW BUTTONS, Tracking PayPal with Google Analytics and Google AdWords, Adwords Conversion Tracking and Paypal, page 9 ofConversion Tracking Guide: Conversion tracking setup guide, Counting a Conversion When a Link is Clicked, Will Your E-commerce Company Make It?  How to Tell.

***I KNOW THAT I AM LITERALLY COPING THE ASSIGNMENT BUT I THING THIS PROCESS IS SO IMPORTANT THAT I WILL WANT TO COME BACK AND GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS AGAIN AND AGAIN FOR EVERY CAMPAIGN I EVER RUN. THE MORE I WORK ON IT, THE BETTER RESULTS I WILL HAVE. ***

The purpose of this lesson is to learn how to further improve your AdWords performance. This lesson also gets you started on Project #6. Please save your submission so you can reference it for Project #6.

Step 1: Record Your Current Performance

1.1 Go to Google AdWords

1.2 Answer the following questions about your best-performing campaign

• When did you start the campaign?
• How many clicks has it had?
• How many impressions has it had?
• What is the average Cost per Click (CPC)?
• What is the average ad position?
• What is the conversion rate? (e.g., how many conversions have you received using Conversion Tracking OR how many transactions have you had?)

Step 2: Identify Changes for Keywords and Ads

2.1 Read the following sections in:

Improve You Keywords

 

•

 

Use Negative Keywords to

Eliminate Unwanted Clicks

 

•

 

Avoid Using Overly Generic

Keywords

 

•

 

Use Appropriate Keyword

Matching Options to Control

Who See Your Ads:

 

•

 

Expand Your Keyword List to

Gain More Traffic

 

Read Improve Your Ads

2.1 Read the following sections in: Improve Your Keywords

• Use Negative Keywords to Eliminate Unwanted Clicks
• Avoid Using Overly Generic Keywords
• Use Appropriate Keyword Matching Options to ControlWho See Your Ads:
• Expand Your Keyword List to Gain More Traffic

Read Improve Your Ads

2.2 Identify changes you can make in the following areas to improve campaign performance:

• What Keywords do you want to add, delete, or pause? Why?
• What Ads do you want to add, delete, or pause? Why?

2.3 Input your response to these questions by clicking “Start” below.

Step 3: Within the next week (this will help you finish project #6)

• Stop you campaign (record this date for project #6)
• Make the changes you suggest in Step 2 (document these changes for project #6)
• Restart your campaign (record this date for project #6)

 

Input your response in the question area by clicking “Start” below.

You have 6 minutes to complete it and will only be given one attempt.

 

Once you submit your response, answer the questions posted in the “Optimizing Ad Performance Discussion Board.” The discussion board will open Monday at 12:01 AM. 

 

Videos and Readings:

Monitor your ads and keywords
What is Optimization
 
Keywords:
Use Negative Keywords to Eliminate Unwanted Clicks
Avoid Using Overly Generic Keywords
Use Appropriate Keyword Matching Options to Control Who See Your Ads
Expand Your Keyword List to Gain More Traffic
 

 

Ads:
Improve Your Ads
Use Keywords in Your Ads to Make Them More Relevant
Add a Call-to-Action To Your Ads To Encourage Conversions
Direct Potential Customers to the Most Relevant Page on Your Site
Include Unique Selling Points to Make Your Ads Stand Out
Write A Compelling Headline
Test Your Ad Text Changes

 

References:
Monitor your ads and keywords
Find Relevant Keywords Using the “See Search Terms” Report
Delete Duplicate Keywords
Optimization Center
101 Ways to Make More Sales Online
Introduce AdWords Project xls file (Project #6)
How to Get Google AdWords & 10/10 Quality Score

Lesson 8 Reflection - Relevance /\ Quality Score /\ Analytics

Questions Answered:

Match type matters. Exactly matching what they search for gets you a bonus. So you need to have three versions of every keyword in your ad campaign (don't use broad match, gives google too much freedom):

Modified Broad: +wheatgreass +smoothie

Phrase??: "wheatgrass smoothie"

Exact??: [wheatgress smoothie]

To get source keyword list:
Ad Campaign > Keywords > Details >SearchTerms ALL

download and print list, then highlight the ones you don't want and go add them to the campaigns negative key words.

Don't let keywords compete from one adgroup to the next. Make sure adgroups are very specifice so their wouldn't need to be any overlapping keywords.

two different match types of the same word are actually looked at as different keywords.


Display network (done using Adsense): As a site owner, I offer a set amount of space for google to put whatever they want in it to advertise. This content will reflect my sites content.
Need about 20k monthly visitors to make it worth while.

Google Remarketing - this is the cookies deal that I search for a kids book on amazon then every other site i ever go to advertises that kids book to me.


Enabled Ad Group at 5:15 PM on Saturday March 1, 2014


Split Testing - incredibly difficult
Google: Google Analytics Experiments
Click on: Content experiment - google help

Conversion Tracking, next week


Homework:

Readings:

Quality Score --- This is going to be important. List of ways to improve it!!!

Expected Clickthrough Rate
Ad Relevance
Landing Page Experience
Improve your Ad Quality
Short Video that Summarizes Quality Score 

CLICK ON THESE:

Advanced Preparation:

How to Master the Google Landing Page Quality Score

Note on Changes to Quality Score

10 Ways to Increase Your Adwords Quality Score

Anatomy of an Auction 

Run through end of lesson 12 April 4th Last day to run it.

Lesson 7 Reflection - Ads & Ad Groups

Ads & Ad Groups

Standard Text Ad consists of:
HEADLINE
web address
detail
detail

Keywords in the Title or Headline appear in BOLD

The different types of ads:
Text ads, 
Dynamic Search Ads, 
Product Listing Ads, 
specialized-searched ads, 
WAP mobile ads, 
and ads that can run only on the Display Network


Successful Ad Tips:
Highlight what makes your business, product, or offer unique
Include prices, promotions, and exclusives
Tell your customers what they can do
Include at least one of your keywords in your ad text
Match your ad to your landing page
Appeal to customers viewing your ad on a mobile device
Experiment - at least 4 ads per group
Capitalize the first letter of each word in the title of your ad

Be relevant
Be Specific
Include a call to action.

Use Keyword insertion
{keyword:default text}


Organization:
Campaign
Ad Group
Ads & Keywords

A common method for organizing an AdWords account is to organize it the way your website is structured, with each ad group representing a different page or category on your site.

• Many accounts are best organized by creating one campaign with several ad groups, two or three ads, and 10-35 keywords within each ad group.

Readings and Videos:

Create a New Text Ad

The Components of a Text Ad

Tips of Create Successful Text Ads

Writing Ads that Attract Customers

References:

AdWords Policy Center

Text Ads

31 Killer writing AdWords Ads Tips and/or

12 Tips To Writing Effective Google Adwords Select Ads

Short Sentences Sell: How to Make a Big Bang with Little Words and/or

Google AdWords Intensive <---- Bro Poole

SearchEngineMarketingBlog on Dynamic Keyword Insertions 

Searchenginejournal on Ad writing

Why has Google Suspended My AdWords Affiliate Campaign?

Google AdWords $75 free trial

Finding your first Ads. Making sure they are running properly:
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1704360



Questions for Poole:
I'd like to see the different websites everyone in the class has come up with. Could we have a discussion board where every lists their URL?

How to turn off Display on mobile devices. "Device preference" setting to "mobile"

Search vs Display Network ads?
+CAMPAIGN v button - 5 different campaign options.

To Stretch our money in this learning experience, do you recommend multiple campaigns, or just one...?

Default Max. CPC = auto: $0.01 answer: not enough info. Will update once I start running my campaign.


Lessons from Office Hours:

Need to setup AUTOMATIC RULES to ensure we don't get charged more than we are prepared to spend.

If I was to manage multiple accounts, you can ask for an Agency Account.

Look into google's desktop tool for adwords.

Google match type for examples (check this to make sure I'm right):
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497836?hl=en
"wheatgrass" phrase match - exact somewhere in the phrase
[wheatgrass]  exact match - nothing more or less
wheatgrass  Broad Match - anything that is even remotely related DONT USE except at first to get ideas
+wheatgrass Broad Match Modifier -contains the modified term or close variations but not synonyms in any order

-kits negative key word - searches without the term

MAKE SURE...Only use ONE search term per ad group. else google will shut down your account.
Download them to excel, sort and highlight duplicate values.

Google Support:
1-866-2-Google