Ranking, Link Building & Google Analytics

Wow! I have come to the final blog of the semester. I am so thrilled about all I have learned in this class! The subject matter was interesting, challenging, and fun. The content was just difficult enough to put me out of my comfort zone, but I was able to use reasoning along with coursework to complete the assignments. This information is invaluable in the workplace. 

It is not something I ever thought I would learn or understand. 

This past week, we have been discussing Link Building and learning how to use and understand Google Analytics. Google Analytics is really an amazing tool. I had no idea it could tell me so much about my online business and website!

I learned about links and backlinks to my website and how important they are. According to LinkedIn: "Hyperlink means ANY link, even one in the navigation of your own website. A backlink is a link from another site to yours that only goes one way. Backlinks help search engines rank your website better and higher." Backlinks are tricky because you need to ask reputable websites to link to yours. It is important to use highly-rated websites that have good reputations. Having the proper hyperlinks builds the credibility of your website, and Google will put it higher up the list of searches. 

Happy business running!

Social Media for SEO and Social Networking

I learned so much this past week about the importance of social networking in promoting my online business. In this day and age, it is the number one way to advertise and interact with current and potential customers. It is a great way to build a reputation and brand as well. A small business owner can't get very far without social media networks. 

My fellow classmates had some fantastic ideas about social networking. Some suggested asking family and friends to share content and advertising about the business. Others indicated that networking on many platforms widens the audience. Another thing I learned was that it is important to determine your target audience and tailor your content and advertising to that audience. Facebook might be a better platform for the older generations, Instagram for young adults, and TikTok for the younger set, for example

It is also a good idea to do some detective work and look at the content that is being put out there by competitors. It would be wise to identify what seems to work well and resonate with the users and what doesn't. Once those things are determined, you can make your content stand out in some way or explain how your product or service does it better. Memorable content will stick in the minds of users and they will remember the business. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkFkWTiN80g 

One of my classmates told me that Instagram has great options for businesses. Meta Business was introduced as a way to post content on Instagram and Facebook at the same time and review all the posts in one place! Instagram also has advertising options for businesses. It sounds really user-friendly to me. 

Good social media platforms to use for small businesses:

Facebook

Instagram

TikTok

Snapchat

Twitter

Pinterest

LinkedIn

Reddit

YouTube

Landing Page Optimization & Basic SEO

 SEO=Search Engine Optimization

This is a very new concept to me. I have never heard of SEO before this class. To get more traffic to your website and to have your Google ads show up more often in searches, it is important to improve your website. Having links to similar reputable sites is one good way to do this. It creates a better reputation for your website and Google will put it higher on the list of advertisements. 

Having a good landing page for users to end up when they click on your ad is also very important. The landing page should reflect exactly what your advertisement portrays. Users may click away from your website in less than five seconds if they don't see what they are looking for. Also, calls to action are a good way to get more conversions on your website. 

Maximizing your keywords is another way to boost your site optimization. Keywords should be refined and targeted to your business. 

ROI and Optimizing Ad Performance

I started my Google Ads campaign running yesterday. There have not been a lot of contacts as yet. That is probably to be expected because proofreading services are not in high demand. I think many people use and rely on electronic proofreading. I disagree with that, but I am in the minority and it's the reality these days. I did get a few impressions and one click on my Google Ad. While I don't think my return on investment will balance out, I am gaining so much experience and knowledge by going through this process. I am excited about the things I am learning. I do still have quite a lot of confusion over many aspects of Google Ads, though. When I read the online articles and watch the videos about using Google Ads, it all seems so simple. But in reality, when I try to do it myself, I invariably run into problems. I feel like there are crucial steps I am missing, but I can't figure out what they are. Little by little I am gaining an understanding of the process. I keep having these subtle feelings that I am missing something, but I think that might just be the anxiety created by knowing a campaign is running and Google is charging me money every time my ad is viewed or clicked. 

Relevance and Quality Score

Quality score measures how my Google Ads campaign is doing compared to other advertisers on the internet. The measurement is a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best. A score of 10 means that the keywords and relevance of the site are more useful for internet searchers searching for the product. 

Quality score is calculated with a combination of the clickthrough rate (the likelihood the ad will be clicked on), the ad relevance (how closely the ad matches what was searched), and the landing page experience (how useful the landing page is). The landing page is the webpage that the advertisement leads to when it is clicked on. 

If the quality score is on the lower end of the scale, there are things a company or website owner can do to increase the score and increase traffic and sales. Make the ad content more interesting or more relevant. Highlight something unique about the product. Use action words like buy, find, quote, or sign up. Make the ads more relevant to specific keywords. 

I installed Google Analytics on my website this past week. It was a challenge. I ended up using a plugin that worked with WordPress to install it. It worked once I did that and signed in to my Google account through that. After installing Google Analytics, attaching my Google Ads campaign to Analytics was a breeze. 

Google Ads

 I must admit that Google Ads continues to intimidate me a bit. I am slowly becoming more familiar with how they work. Responsive Search Ads bring on another layer to the advertising. It is adaptable to what people are searching for relating to what is on your website. Google Ads stays static unless you change the wording of the advertisement. It is interesting to see how Google advertising works. I see Google Ads every day when I search for things on Google. Now I see how they work. Even through what I have learned over the past couple of weeks, Google Ads seem to be a little over my head and intimidating to me. I think it may have to do with my being a private person, and I have a tough time wanting to be at the forefront of advertising to people all over the country. I hope it will become easier. The lecturer in this week's video said to not "just blindly adopt whatever Google tells you to adopt. The suggestions that come up might not make the most sense or may not be all that great." Moving on to Responsive Search Ads will become a daily task to check and update. Soon we will be beginning our Google Ads campaign. 

Google Ads and Keywords

 I am learning so much in this class (MKT 250 Web Business Creation). It has been by far the most helpful class I have taken for my Entrepreneurship certificate at BYU-Idaho. I am only halfway through the semester. I am looking forward to what the remainder of the semester this class has to offer. In reality, all of my classes at BYU-Idaho have been amazing. This one in particular has stretched me and taught me in ways I didn't even know I didn't know. 

This week we discussed Google Ads and their keywords. We are preparing to set up a Google Ads campaign in a couple of weeks, and we brainstormed keywords that will be used in the campaign. One thing I have to remember is that to make money, I have to spend money. I have set a daily budget so that the campaign costs do not get out of hand. I do not know if I will get any business from my website, but this whole process is a great learning experience for me. 

It seems to be a fine line to get the right keywords to hit the right audience. Because the service I am advertising is proofreading, I decided to target my ads to college towns. Many college students wish to have proofreading services to help them polish their academic writing. I chose a good list of keywords that I thought were relevant to my business and were not too broad or too narrow. A fellow student reminded me that I can always edit my keywords later if they are not working out for my campaign and business, which decreases the pressure a bit.