SEO Optimizations -- Module 3

When evaluating any page for SEO, there are several things you can assess, ranging from the page layout and content, to keywords, meta information, to general link and HTML structure, and of course, audience.

You can then combine your takeaways from each of these elements with the data you retrieve from your analytics app, and improve both your organic and PPC search results by determining what keywords people are searching for to find your blog, as well as how they arrive at, and interact with it.

In analytics, you might look at things like impressions, keyword performance and quality score, as well as CTR and CV rate.

I would use all of the things I mentioned above to improve my blog for searching – from adding keywords, to optimizing the HTML, to ensuring that the link structure is clean and crawlable.

From the analytics data, I can see that the majority of my readers use Safari and Firefox – I could use this information to my advantage. For example, I could place ads from AdSense for various Mac based sites on my blog, or I could add a FF link to the site.

I can also see that my users often view my postings more than once, but rarely comment. Perhaps I could entice the user to comment more by making the posts shorter, or providing highlights of the important information at the beginning.

I believe my recommendations would improve the SEO of my blog should I ever decide I’d like more than just my classmates to see it. J

Landing Page Improvements -- Module 3

There are several things that could be done to this page to suit a situation like this, for example, Amazon could:

 n  Refine the linked search query to include only purple snow boots, and avoid the less generalized query of “woman purple boot.”

 n  Refine their search results (when linked to this page) to only display purple snow boots.

o   As we can see, the page displays everything from high-heels to slippers – not what the user asked for.

 n  Determine the general demographic of the buyer(s), and display items relevant to that demographic

o   For example:

§  Are the purple snow boots becoming popular because of a children’s character, or are they popular because a fashion designer wore them? This would change the target demographic from child to adult or vice versa.

 n  Leverage the Amazon user account data, and display items based on previous purchases + search terms automatically.

 n  Only display the highest rated purple boots (4-5 stars) when the traffic comes from a PPC ad.

 n  Ensure that the most popular, in-stock item is prominent, and displayed first. If that item Prime eligible, indicate that as well.

These are just a few changes Amazon could make to ensure that they capitalize on the increased popularity of purple snow boots. By adjusting the search query and result attached to the link, as well as slightly modifying the results placement and search filters attached to the link, Amazon can ensure that they captivate a potential buyer, and afford them the best chance of a completed transaction.

Custom Reporting -- Module 3

For this custom report, I selected what I consider to be some of the most important metrics for any website, including:

Unique Page-views – The number of visits in which the specified page(s) are viewed at least once.

Bounce Rate (our BFF) – The % of single-page views. Although this may not be as applicable on our blogs because they’re simple, (and we often link direct to the article from BB), it is still useful in other ways, as I’ll show further down this post.

Visit Duration – How long was the user session?

Unique Visitors – The number of unduplicated visitors to the blog.

Average Time on Page – The average time a user spends viewing a page(s).

As you can see from the screenshot, I also added some drill-down metrics which can be useful to a web designer, or an uber-nerd such as myself, including:

What browser you’re using?

On which OS?

I can than tell what the majority of my “users,” view my blog in – and in this case, it’s looking like Safari. I can then made modifications to the HTML to suit this browser, or even slap Apple logos all over it to appease my legions of Apple-based readers. ;-)

I can also see things like browser/user specific bounce rate, as well as the average time spent on the blog or within pages.

Overall, I think these metrics could be useful, mostly because these blogs are personal, and we aren’t trying to push them to the masses through Google, or some other medium – they’re simply for our own informational purposes.

Certain metrics and drill-downs like the OS and platform could also help me troubleshoot issues with my blog, should any arise for my users.

Root Cause Diagnosis Exercise -- Module 3

Funnily enough, I’ve actually been trying to help my parents find a new vehicle – some of which include Ford/Lincoln models – although, not a Mustang. However, it doesn't really matter which model, (or even which brand) you choose, since Ford’s general web layout is consistent across makes, models – and to an extent, brands.

To perform the analysis of the “get a quote” button, we’ll use a graphic – just as the text does.

Personally, I believe these are some of the larger reasons people tend to avoid getting quotes for any vehicle online, and we’ll begin with the general placement of the button.

I’ve found, (as I’ve spent hours on Ford.com sites) that that button simply seems too small, and poorly placed. I believe Ford would be better off enlarging it, and placing it directly under or beside the “Build and Price” button – the two simply work together logically. This also touches on the “ease of navigation” aspect – the placement of the button is rather poor.

Secondly, the target audience for the vehicle tends to be either young adults or baby boomers. Both of these segments demonstrate a need for a clear, concise, easy to obtain price. The younger audience probably takes issue with the overall speed of the process (why go through a dealer when you can simply go to Edmunds, KBB, or Cars.com) and get what you need much faster? The older generation – on the other hand – would probably prefer to do their negotiating the old-fashioned way – face to face.

Along that same line, both segments are concerned with the protection of their information, and many (including me) do not wish it to be shared in ways we cannot control entirely – which you can do when you do a face to face negotiation – to an greater extent.

People also tend to have a general feeling of animosity and dislike toward car dealers, and probably believe that – should they request a quote online – they’ll be slammed with calls from a range of hungry dealers. They may also believe that the ability to negotiate a lower price is lost once an online quote has been requested – which of course, it isn’t.

Finally, people may simply become fatigued by the overall length of the process required once the button is clicked – selecting a model, entering the ZIP, locating a dealer, entering all of your PII, assessing a trade. If the majority of people are anything like me, they figure “this would all be easier to do once I’ve found the car and dealer I want, I’ll just wait.”

Until automakers can be free of their dealing “middle-men,” and sell cars directly to consumers, I don't believe as many people will take advantage of the online quoting process as there could be – people have simply developed too much mistrust with the entire car buying process.

Southwest Airlines Case Study – Module 2

   1.     Press releases are important to Southwest’s business strategy because they tend to appear in news aggregate services like AOL, Yahoo, and Google. Southwest can make the release a relevant search result by embedding certain keywords and search phrases within the document. When the document is then picked up by a search service, they open potential exposure to more than 47.6 million potential visitors.

   2.     Southwest tracks sales related to press releases by:

a.       Utilizing effective keywords and search terms within the document.

b.     Using special hyperlinks that are trackable and easy to use.

c.      Distributing their releases across news aggregates crawled by search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, AOL.)

   3.     Keywords are vital to the campaign because they make sure that the document will appear once the search engine crawls it, and a relevant search term is entered. For example, Southwest found that they could actually reach millions more customers by using their entire name, “Southwest Airlines,” because there were millions more searches for that two word term verses the shorter, one-word term, Southwest.

   4.     Southwest optimized their press releases by:

a.     Determining the most popular keywords/search terms.

                                               i.     i.e. Southwest Airlines vs. Southwest

b.     Editing said releases to include those terms.

c.      Using specialized, trackable hyperlinks that linked the customer directly to the offer mentioned.

d.     Distributing their press releases via crawlable news wires (i.e. Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc.)

e.     Testing a variety of releases, (i.e. different promos, news, or languages.)

   5.     Southwest primarily measured the results in terms of how they translated to ticket sales using three different releases:

a.     Launching in a new city

                                               i.     Translated to 80k in ticket sales.

b.     Launching a Spanish-language reservation system

                                               i.     Translated to 38k in ticket sales.

c.      Having several releases at once (some unexpected).

                                               i.     Translated to more than 1M in ticket sales due to increased news coverage.

   6.     PR campaigns can be influenced in all sorts of ways from outside sources. For example,  General Mills used to say that Cheerios were clinically proven to lower cholesterol, until they were sued to the contrary – now the ads parse the language and state that Cheerios MAY help lower cholesterol despite the fact that the lawsuit was tossed out of court. For more details, see this link:  http://www.attorneyatlaw.com/2009/10/lawsuits-over-cheerios-cholesterol-lowering-claims-consolidated/

      At the very least, the suit initiated a change in message at GMI.