http://www.google.com/analytics/
Since 'Get Up to Speed with Online Marketing' was published in 2012, I was skeptical about the relevancy of Chapter 4's recommendations for boosting search engine ratings since I have heard some things have changed over the past couple of years. I would love to figure out what would help optimize my business in the search engine ratings and have noticed that things I have spent a considerable amount of time on during the course of this class have not worked at all. For example, my efforts with Google + have been 100% fruitless; this may be do to insufficient instruction on how to effectively use Google+ and my inability to find effective instruction via Googling (used as a verb). I also spent time two weeks ago trying to establish my business in Yelp and again this week since my business still does not appear unless I directly link to it via the Yelp confirmation email.
As far as the usefulness of techniques in Chapter 4 for my business, the author recommends making sure images within a business website are labeled effectively to be picked up by Google searches. That sounds great but the author does not give examples of how to do that or what effective labeling looks like. From an outside project I learned that all images generated by me for my business should be attributed back to me so I have made certain to name them all with my business name since that discovery. Chapter 4 prompted me to add my business to its "Local Business Center" by following the link provided in the Chapter. Once I'd inputted my information, I received notice that I will receive an postcard in the mail with a verification number that I will need to follow up with.
In regards to the Chapter's recommendations for optimizing the websites, the suggestions are to give each page its own title and page description. I wish the author provided specific examples of this. My business pages contain the website name and then the title of the page so each page title matches the link, schedule, workshops, contact, index, etc. I was not clear on what the author means by page descriptions from reading the text but did search out the recommended link which has been updated:
http://www.getuptospeed.biz/2010/11/8-ways-to-use-search-engine-optimization/.
The online chapter supplement elaborates:
"Adding a description of your page in the tags in your code doesn’t show up on your site, or make much difference to how Google ranks your site, but it does show up as a short paragraph in search results – so this is another one for the humans rather than the machines. If you include an accurate description that sounds interesting, more people will click through from the results to your page. Keep them to about 25 words, as Google will truncate long descriptions. Ideally add a different one to each page, like page title tags. If you include some keywords in your description, it won’t affect the search results, but they will appear emboldened if they were the terms being searched for."
Based on this information I think that adding the page description tags in the code is something that could be beneficial to my business. I know that I follow search results when I see something of interest in the short blurb a Google search returns.
As far as Google Analytics goes, I feel I need more detail and instruction to fully appreciate how I can harness its usefulness for my business. I do think the tool 'Traffic Sources' under the category 'Real Time' would be a helpful. 'Traffic Sources' just like all the other sub categories in 'Real Time' shows:
- the number of people on your site right now,
- their geographic locations,
- the keywords and sites that referred them,
- which pages they're viewing,
- conversions as they happen.
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