Reflection

I found the Navigating Google Analytics report to be especially useful for the GOMC. The videos went over how to view AdWords campaigns in Google Analytics, and how to view AdWords metrics like cost data and campaign ROI. The Bid Adjustment report helps determine the bids that should be made by analyzing AdWords performance.

All of this information can be used on our AdWords account. The report can identify whether or not to increase or decrease AdWords bids based on how ads are performing. These tools enable you to view performance metrics based on device, location and time... all useful information for improving ROI.

 

Blog Four: Keywords

In one of this week's readings, the case study on how the Michael Jordan brand used the Google Display Network to increase awareness and engagement, keyword targeting was at the fore front of the campaign's success. Keyword targeting is when an advertiser selects a list of keywords related to their businesses or products. Later on these words are matched to different banner- and text-ads which are shown every time the chosen keywords are used or according to the website content. Through using keywords, the Michael Jordan add showed up on relevant sites and targeted a niche market of basketball blogs. The campaign was a success with a high click through rate. It had said in the article that their banner was displayed in blogs. How do you run Google Ads to be displayed in blogs verses paid search advertising?

Another topic that relates to the GOMC is HTTP cookies. Cookies are a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is browsing that website. Every time the user loads the website, the browser sends the cookie back to the server to notify the website of the user's previous activity. Persistant or tracking cookies are used to store user preferences on a website. During the GOMC, cookies are used to track site visitors and through Google Analytics, more valuable and comprehensive information can be record. Analytics generates detailed statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales.

“An Empirical Analysis of Search Engine Advertising: Sponsored Search in Electronic Markets” was an insightful read on how different types of keywords influenced metrics like click through rate, cost per click, conversion rate and ranking. The study looked at keyword length and keywords related to specific retailers and brands. Data was observed and collected on the relationship between keyword varients and their relationship to the metrics mentioned. This may end up being helpful in revising the keywords choosen for GOMC if they prove to have low conversion or click through rates.

Blog Three: Optimizing Content

Optimizing a website's content for key words and phrases is important. Search engine crawlers can search websites better when the following guidelines are adhered to:

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 use of descriptive file names.

Choosing key phrases is key for search engine optimization. Keywords must reflect your websites content and each page on a site can have 2 to 3 key phrases associated with it.

Along with key words, links also allow search engine crawlers to organize webpages better in organic search results. Links, a URL to an external site that's listed on a webpage, tell website crawlers that the linked webpage is validated and important. The HTML code for a link looks like this: <a href=“http://www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm”>Anchor Text</a> and might appear on a webpage as a linked word like this.

Links and key words have been a common index tool for SEO, but as algorithms and technology advance, there are new emerging trends. The four, most prominent emerging trends are as follows:

Personalized search- a search engine result is personalized based on what the search engine thinks user is looking for

Usage data- data on how relevant the site is to what the searcher was looking for

Real-time search- seeing the latest mentions or URL's published on the web

Localization- creating a local version of a website for a different country or language

While trends and the topics of SEO can get technical, Google urges web site users to not let clarity for humans become sacrificed because a robot is reading sites.

Learning to look at a website through the eyes of search engines is helpful in understanding the GOMC. Prior to this course, I used Google searches multiple times a day and had no idea how search engines chose the websites that appeared in the search results. Understanding search engines viewpoints will allow our groups for the GOMC to better spend our budget on keywords that will help promote our client's website in the way that it should be promoted to meet goals.

Some of the information about optimizing a website for key words and phrases seemed a bit technical and hard to understand. I think it would have been helpful if the chapter went into more detail about meta tags, URL rewrite, using tags around keywords, etc. Since we don't have access to our clients websites, I wonder how affective choosing keywords will be. Should we encourage our companies webmaster to optimize their website for the keywords and phrases that we've chosen?

Blog Two: Experimental Design

It's not a good move for businesses to implement a product or procedure without real empirical evidence to back it up. A few of the articles and videos this week were based off of this idea. The Harvard Business Review article, "Finally, A Majority of Executives Embrace Experimentation," written by Wilson and Desouza outlines three types of experiments that are common in the world of business: prototyping, simulation, test groups and A/B experimentation.

A prototype is a first, or preliminary model of something which is used as a model to make more of that item, usually with alterations. BMW uses clay prototypes or "concept vehicles" to gauge customer reaction to new styles and technology.

Source: http://luciano63.hubpages.com/hub/Sculptural-car-design

 

 

Simulation is a type of experiment that is also used frequently in the car industry. It's an analysis of alternative actions or undesired consequences. Crash simulation models help car manufactures make important decisions on designs.

 

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/apr/10/crash-test-dummies-obesity


 

Lastly, test groups and A/B experimental design deals specifically with webpages and allows a webmaster to test variances of a webpage on groups of  users to determine which page most closely results in the desired outcome.

 

Blog One: Concepts, Skill Sets, Reflections

An important and fundamental concept that was learned in chapter five was the difference between organic search engine results and pay-per-click results. If a company wants to be easily found using search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing), it's extremely important to understand how algorithms are used to search pages in order to display relevant results. As chapter five had stated, the top six organic search results are the most frequently visited and users rarely look beyond a few pages of results. When website masters are choosing key words to include, they need to choose words that will increase visibility of their web page while staying within a budget.  Tools are available through Google like Real Time Insight's Finder that can give a webpage owner information on what people are looking for, how people are searching, where people are clicking, and what people are saying and watching. This tool is extremely useful for choosing keywords.

Chapter nineteen's "eMarketing Strategies" offered concepts that were extremely insightful for the Google Online Marketing Challenge. I found Porter's five forces model to be a particularly useful framework in understanding a certain market and strategies that a company should use to stay competitive and attractive in any market. I used Porter's five forces to analyze Pittsburgh's Center for Creative Reuse in order to understand the industry's current competition, the potential of new entrants into the industry, the power of buyers, suppliers and the threat of substitutes. Chapter nineteen narrated on an important lesson in internet marketing:

 "Often, the internet migrates competition primarily to price, this means that organizations seek to attract and retain customers solely through offering services and goods at a lower price, though this is not necessarily the best strategy for companies to follow. Strategic differentiation comes from the value that a company can provide to a consumer."