Social Media for SEO and Social Networking

It is clear that there is no escaping the importance of Social Networking. I don't think anyone would have realized how important this forum would be to e-commerce. I am still a newb when it comes to social media. I don't even know if newb is the word, I just hear my son use that word a lot for someon that is an amateur. I use Facebook and have viewed many ads and got hooked into advertising campaigns that would not have reached me otherwise. I think the important to using the networks is to know the different etiquette that is expected at each site. This will help prevent the "newbness". I also think it's important to try multiple networks to reach a diverse group of customers. You may be surprised about who may be interested in your product. I am still a newb but I am growing out of it.

Landing Page Optimization & Basic SEO

The key to getting people to go to your site and stay at your site is your landing page. You can have the best keywords and the best google ads in place. If it doesn't match to your landing page it will kill your conversion. This week we learned how to optimize the landing page and some basic search engine optimization (SEO). There are five things that are important to remember but the key to it all is to remember that it a program doing all the work. The search engines use an algorithm to select your site and send it to the person. You don't want to trick the system but there are ways to make sure your site is selected. Naming links, getting your site linked from other sites, titling your pages, refreshing your site, and having the keywords on the page will get the algorithm to direct them to your site.

ROI and Optimization

It's incredible the amount of tracking is available for a website. I am getting lost in the different ways to analyze all the data. Determining the next steps and then determining the next, next steps can be mind numbing. So this week I've learned that the best way is trial and error. There is a pattern to follow to start with a good ad but you have to keep analyzing it and changing when the data says to. Another thing that is really important is appealing to customers on mobile devices. Considering the amount of time people are on their devices, it's important to target ads to them. They are also more likely to call you because they have the means to do so. One thing I have not done is created ads that are suited to the mobile audience. Another important thing to do is highlight what makes you unique in your ad. Considering the amount of ads that people will see, you need to stand out.

Relevance and Quality Score

There is nothing worse than getting a thousand people to come to your site only to find out that you site was only relevant to a small percentage. This is caused by using the wrong keywords. Google provides a Quality Ads Score. There are three factors that affect the score. Expected click through, ad relevance, and landing page. The way to improve the score is done by changing your ad and changing you site. The first thing that can be done is improving your ad words. Including keywords in you ad text and ad headline. Make sure you choose your keywords wisely. Not being specific enough will get the wrong person to your site and will show that your ad is not relevant to your site. You can also add those negative words we learned a few weeks back. This will prevent the poor click through rate. Once you have your ad, it is important to review your campaign's performance regularly. Try something different if something doesn't appear to be working. It's also important to test multiple ads. This will help determine if the ads are the problem.

Google Ads and AdGroups

This week we learned about Google Ads. Finding the right Google Ad words is an art and a science. I hadn't realized how difficult this would be. I think the key is trying to think like a customer. A few questions that could be asked are 

1. Who are the customers you are trying to get?

2. Who else might be a customer?

It's important to make ad groups that would attract different customers. The reading and videos this week had a lot of great advice. The article that I found very valuable was "The 7 Best Practices for Google Ads Expanded Text Ads". With the widespread usage of technology devices, it's important to write the ads to speak to people on all devices. Choosing the right keywords is the science behind. To be more specific it's important to add the right words and update you site to make sure its relative to your ad.