Blog Post 3 - BUS572-3

Third Session

This week´s topic is about Search Engine Optimization. One of the concepts that I found interesting in this chapter is optimizing images. The key point here is to optimize the images with the relevant keywords because the search engine cannot read images. It needs to understand what the image is about. Giving a good title to the image would help visitors to get a better sense of what the website is about. The title should describe the image and give good information about the image. Giving the correct title to the image can help the website getting higher rank in the search engine.

There are different ways to optimize images with key phrases for SEO:

• Use descriptive filenames.

• Use specific alt tags and title attributes for the images.

• Meta information can be supplied in the image file. Make sure this information is relevant.

• Use descriptive captions, and keep relevant copy close to the relevant image.

• Make sure the header tags and images are relevant to each other.

The second concept is how to get more links for a website. Having valuable content on the website that visitors want to read will help getting more links to the website. Using relevant tools and documents on the website will increase the number of links for the website. For example, creating a calculator that calculates body mass index can increase the number of links for a website that sells diet books. Creating games is another way to generate links. Other ways to generate links are widgets, browser extensions and other software that visitors use. In order to identify target sites for link request, you should first know your competitors and those who are linking to them. Secondly, you should find noncompeting sites that have high rank for your key words.

Source here

The skill that I have learned this week is how to use A/B testing. A/B testing is a way to test changes on a website and determine whether these changes will increase the conversion rate or not. For example if you have different set of keywords and you are not certain which would give your website the higher rank, you can use A/B testing method and find out which keywords will give your website the higher rank in the search engine.

The knowledge I have gained after this session is how optimizing images can lead to higher ranking of the website. Giving the title that is relevant to the keywords and describe the image properly are the key points. I have also learned how you can get more links for your website by putting useful content or documents on it and by using tools and creating games. These all increases your website's ranking if used correctly. 

Blog Post 2 - BUS572-2

Second Session 

The first concept that I found interesting is the funnel analysis. Every website has a goal and wants to reach it. The process of reaching these goals can be divided into several steps. Each of these steps play a big role in the success of a website. Every user must complete all these steps so that the web site can reach it’s goal. Therefore, it is important to analyse every step to be able to identify where the problem lies and solve it. Funnel analysis track the users as they start the process and will show you if they complete the process or not. For the users that do not complete the process, funnel analysis will identify the step that users exit the process. Funnel analysis would help website owners to find out where in the process the problem lies; where users exit the process most. This way they can optimize their website and be able to increase the number of users that complete the whole processes. The last step is known as conversion. The higher the number of users that complete the process the higher the conversion rate will be.

Source: Saylor Books (Stokes, 2010)

The second concept I find very interesting is testing. There are different factors that effect user’s behavior on a website. Testing these factors can help website owners to have an understanding in why user’s behave in a certain way. Understanding user’s behavior can help website owners to influence users in a way that will give them the best result.

There are 4 different methods for testing:

1-  A/B testing is a way to test changes on a website and determine whether these changes will increase the conversion rate or not.

2-Multivariate testing allows you to change a lot of variables at the same time and determine the significance of these changes on the website’s conversion rate.

3-Listening Labs is another testing method which allows you to observe how users interact with your website and listen to their comments.

4-Single-Page Heat Maps , is software that will show you where users look and click on your website

The skill that I have acquired during this last session is how to create a text ad.  Sarah Peduzzi´s lecture gave me very useful information on how to  create a text ad. She suggests to follow six rules when creating  a text ad:

1. Include keywords in your ad

2. Tell customers how they can participate by using strong calls-to-action

3. Include prices and promotions

4. Match your landing page with your ad message

5. Be creative in writing the ad so you can affect how it appears in SERP

6. Use ad extensions where possible

By following these rules you can create the perfect text ad for your website and market it in the most effective way. 

After this session I have learned about testing, analyzing and optimizing websites and the importance of them. In  order to have a successful outcome, you should first analyze every step in the process of attracting more users and find out where the problems are in the process. Also, different testing methods will help you increase the conversion rate of your site. You can keep track of where users click most and make them more visible and attractive for them. Additionally, test to change different elements in your website in order to increase the number of  users. This way you can optimize your website in a way that maximizes the number of users and increase the successful outcome.

Blog Post 1 - BUS572-1

First Session 

The first most important concept that I´ve learned is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the process of making a website showing in the search engine by using keywords. The higher number of visitors a website receives, the higher rank it will get in the searching list. SEO is used in Internet marketing. It examines how search engines work, the keywords that users type into search engines and what users search for the most. I think this concept is important because it helps the users to optimize their websites, improve the ranking in the search engine, get more visitors and higher rank on the search engine. Does anyone of you readers have experience within how to use SEO prior to this course? Would you mind sharing your knowledge?

The second most important concept is the 4 P´s of marketing; product, price, place, and promotion. First all, this tool helps marketers to determine the customer’s need for a product and how to develop it based on their needs. Putting the right value on the products that customers are willing to pay for is the other factor of the 4 P´s; Price. Third P is putting products in a place where it is most convenient for customers to access. Last one is how to promote your product in the best way to attract as many customers as possible. By using this tool, marketers can design an effective marketing plan where they can meet the customer´s expectations and be competitive in the market place. In my opinion, this concept is very important. In order to succeed in today´s competitive market you need to have the right strategy and right marketing plan for your business and using the 4p´s of marketing as a tool can help you through this process of planning.

                                           (Source: marketingplan.net, 2010)

What I can add to my skillset is the practice of blogging. I found this impossible two weeks ago but I can now state that I have a blog AND know how to use it. What I hope to learn after next session is more advanced ways of blogging and perhaps also how to add advertisement on it and how to control it. 

I have after this first session learned the basics of search engines. Despite this, I am still not fully understanding how these work more than just basic knowledge and feel that I need to learn a lot more about this. All the terms such as keywords, spiders, matches, PPC and more are all still fuzzy to me. However, I am sure that this will change over the weeks and I have still gained a lot more knowledge than I had before this course; I only used search engines without knowing the true functions behind them as I know now. If someone reads this post, will you be able to fill in what you think I have missed, did I understand this right? See you in class!