MKTG 348: Week 10- SEO Class and Dr Kelsey

I remember walking into Dr. Kelsey's class last semester and thinking this class is bonkers. Google Analytics? What the heck did I sign up for? I hate math. I hate numbers. Analyzing Google is going to be so hard. Little did I know, this was one of the beneficial and uncomplicated courses I took at Benedictine. 

With this being my last ever blog post for Dr. Kelsey, I wanted to quickly thank him for helping me these past few semesters and showing our class how important digital marketing is to the business world. This SEO class, as well as the Google Analytics class, were both very eye-opening. I never realized how much people rely on digital media nowadays to convey their business. Not only that, but the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes is incredible. The analytics portion of feedback and clicks is amazing to see. Learning about Keywords within Google have also gave me a new perspective on how intense the Google search is every time someone presses the Enter key.

I wanted to once again take the time to thank Dr. Kelsey on all he has taught me and how helpful he has been to everyone he has come across. Benedictine marketing has stepped into a new era with Dr. Kelsey and the current students and future alumni are ever grateful.

MKTG 348: Week 9- Weebly

The class was told to make a website on Weebly. My site was very entertaining in the fact that it had a bunch of pictures of google searches and these searches were linked to a different search everyday. So for example, if the picture was a search of the world Lion, and the user would click the picture, the person would probably be led to a search about the word Tiger. It made absolutely no sense and that was what kept users coming back for more. There was a sense of professionalism within the site with my blog being posted on it and my contact information. However the key sense of traffic within the website was the "Random Search of the Day". 

Creating a website on Weebly was not that hard actually. Compared to Wix, I would say it is a lot easier. Not only is it a lot easier, I would say it has a lot more customization opportunities that Wix does not give. For example, the themes are one of the most overrated aspects of Wix. I understand the pictures are nice and innocent. But I prefer the higher quality and meaningful themes that Weebly has to offer. I personally used a picture of a bird for my background because I wanted people to feel "Free" on my site. This was seen often when I noticed one of my classmates aimlessly browse my website for majority of the class period. It was fun to see how much your hard work amused other people. I will be using Weebly in the future for my employer if i am told to make a website or two.

MKTG 348: Week 8- Meta Tag

Meta tags are codes that are given when data is shown for a webpage. For example, someone types in Soccer in Google. The website then oozes out a bunch of data that is hidden within millions of results. The meta tags are HTML lines of coding that are hidden within each page. Meta tags can be shown under the search results to give a little insight about the search itself.

Meta tags can also be used as page descriptions. The three ways description Meta tags help searches are:

1. tells the search engine what your page or site is about
2. helps with click through rates to your site
3. helps with site rankings

1. The data helps identify the page itself. The descriptions usually speak for themselves.

2. Good description tags help web surfers choose your site over other sites. Clickers will only click on what they feel is relevant. So short and simple descriptions will suffice.

3. Keywords like -ing -ed and -s are used here to help moved the site up within the rankings.

Meta tags are some of the more undervalued aspects of SEO. A meta tag can be the difference in 1,000 clicks and 0 clicks.

MKTG 348: Week 7- Search Engine News

One of the objectives of class was to create an account on Search Engine News and get a certification from that site in order to benefit our SEO skills and enhance our development within the class. SEN is a firm that audits websites and helps websites become powerhouses within the search engine industry. Some of the services they offer are on-site analysis, full site crawls, content checks, and site reviews. Once all of these steps and measures are taken, SEN can diagnose whether or not the website at hand is heading in the right direction or not.

The certification test for SEN was one of the easier tests that one will have to take within the Digital Marketing courses. Not only is the information easily graspable but the website REALLY wants the students to pass the test. They give them many chances to take the test through corrections. So if a student takes the test and answers 5 questions wrong and needs to answer three more to pass, the site will tell the student exactly what questions were answered wrong. The student can then retake those questions and resubmit the test. This is better than having to retake the test all over again knowing that you answered most of the test right the first time.

I personally learned alot through SEN. Site crawls and spiders were not words I thought I would ever think about when it came to SEO. Shows how much I know!

MKTG 348: Week 6- Inbound News Article

http://yourstory.com/2016/04/inbound-marketing/

I recently found an interesting article that discusses inbound marketing and its importance within the world we currently live in. The article sums up the idea that cold emails are a thing of the past. Pulling customers in instead of pushing things on to them is the new way to go about your business. The article uses Hubspot's method of inbound marketing and states it is key in successfully getting your point across. The following four steps are what the article suggests one use in order to fully benefit from inbound marketing.

1. Attract
2. Convert
3. Close
4. Delight

Attracting is providing valuable content to your audience. It is something you should always be focused on as an inbound marketer.

Converting refers to the fact that once your content generation and promotion is settled, you need to put a hook on to everyone who comes in to view your content.

Closing is the fact that only after a couple of interactions on email should you try and sell your product or service to these people who are engaged on a consistent basis.

Delighting is where you ask questions from your existing customers with feedback forms and learn about what they love about you and what they think you should change.

The article lastly states, "Inbound marketing is a long term activity and doesn’t show results overnight. However the earlier you invest, the better it is. At the end of the day, what is going to survive your business is users who come in on their own and talk about you." Inbound marketing is literally a work of art. The harder you work at it the better you will get. 

MKTG 348: Week 5- Hubspot/Certification

What is Hubspot? Hubspot is a company that was founded by two friends in 2006. The goal of the company was to help other companies become more aware of inbound marketing. Hubspot creates software, tutorials, as well as integration tools for inbound marketing. Their main objective is to help grow the inbound marketing movement. One key way that Hubspot tries to teach other people how to inbound market is by allowing anyone to take a certification test. The certification test is taken after one studies the inbound marketing information that Hubspot supplies. After a few tries, I personally passed the Hubspot test much to the amusement of my fellow classmates. It is not a walk in the park. People have to actually study for a test like this. The video lectures online can become boring and mundane. However, the idea of furthering your knowledge in digital marketing is always helpful. 

Hubspot can become a key tool when referring to business as a whole. Inbound marketing is a growing art and no one does it better than Hubspot. Sooner or later, many companies will follow the ideas and morals of this company and integrate inbound marketing as a whole.

MKTG 348: Week 4- Buyer Persona

This week, the emphasis was on the idea of learning how to develop and analyze buyer personas. A buyer persona is a made-up representation of an ideal customer that is created based on market research and existing information on current consumers. Buyer personas provide companies with a few different key demographics to look for when selling their products. These personas are then set to the side and help determine who the company will be selling to and what the company will be selling to.

For example, a few buyer personas may be Innovative Ivan, Oldie Ollie, and Following Frank. Innovative Ivan is the hip and trendy college graduate who has the time and money to buy whatever he wants and whenever he wants. He is the key consumer when the objective is to sell gadgets and brand new technology. Oldie Ollie is a 60 year old man who loves old fashioned things. He is not really into the latest things. He prefers his flip phone and likes to ride his bike for fun. The company would sell sweaters or value jackets to a person like Ollie. Following Frank likes to see what a person like Innovative Ivan has. If Ivan likes it and uses it often, Frank is more likely to buy it. Frank likes to wait for all of the cool, new gadgets to be priced down and does not care if he isn't the first to own the newest trend.

Buyer personas help companies distinguish different types of consumers and this in return helps the consumer feel like all of their needs are being met and met to the fullest of extents.

MKTG 348: Week 3- Inbound Marketing

Hubspot's website writes, "Inbound marketing has been the most effective marketing method for doing business online. Instead of the old outbound marketing methods of buying ads, buying email lists, and praying for leads, inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your company and product, where they naturally want to be." This reminds me of another class I am currently taking. In Marketing Strategy, we learned about the Push and Pull methods when it comes to advertising. Push method is what the old marketing looked look. Products and ideas were pushed into peoples' minds through reiteration in radio and television commercials. Companies and firms thought that the best and only way to market products was by forcing themselves into the evoked set of consumers. Oh how they were wrong! Inbound marketing is like the Pull method. Companies are reeling and dealing consumers more often than not. They are trying to get the customers to learn more about them and take interest in their products. This method is being used more and more by companies all over the world.

A reason that inbound marketing is so popular is due to the technology age that we are currently witnessing. Digital and social media is one of the key factors in the changing of business. GoDaddy.com is a great example of this. During the Super Bowl, the company posts a racy advertisement and at the end of the commercial, it says "WATCH THE WHOLE VIDEO ON OUR WEBSITE" This uses a sense of sex appeal to gain and retain some consumers. This technique is going to become the norm by the middle of the century.

MKTG 348: Week 2- RGBexchange Keyword

The RGBexchange website is a platform that was used by our class to write about a certain website we found online that furthers the use of the keyword: fundraising. The goal of the task was to increase the site rank on search engines when it came to fundraising. The article that I found was titled "Top 40 Event Fundraising Ideas". In this article, Salsa Labs lists forty different types of fundraising ideas that can be used at a variety of different occasions. Some of the events that are given are K-12 events, annual events, fraternities/sororities, and even sports clubs.

This exercise was key in developing my interest in keywords. When one searches a certain topic on Google or any other platform, they usually write out the full search they are looking for. One is more likely to find their relevant searches if they keep the search sweet and simple and stick to a few keywords. I never realized this before this exercise. Knowing how to work with keywords is essential in any search engine optimization course.

In what was a very simple exercise, my eyes were opened to the vast importance that keywords have within the internet database.

MKTG 348: Week 1- Introduction to Search Engine Optimization

           According to Google, Search Engine Optimization is the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is basically the way that companies or organizations create ways for their website or firm to be viewed online. For example, when one searches apple on Google, the first thing that will come up is Apple Inc. The fruit will be seen nowhere on the first part of the search. This has happened due to Apple's incredible SEO program and that fact that it is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Ten years ago, a fruit might come up when someone searches Apple. However, due to an influx of search engine optimization by Apple Inc, that has all changed. Apple is not the only company that uses SEO in order to maintain more views. All Fortune 500 companies and many large companies this day and age use SEO to better their company for the present and future. 

          One of the biggest reasons that companies utilize SEO is in order to become one of the top searches within a certain search. When someone "googles" a certain topic, they usually want an answer quickly and do not care to look for any more searches past the first page. So in order for your page to be seen by consumers and viewers alike, one has to get their page to on of the top few spots. In order to do this, a company has to create keywords and maybe even advertisements in order for Google to rank them high enough. Keywords and views are the long process that take years to do. However, if one gives Google enough money, they can easily jump all the way to the top. However, one must have a pretty penny in order to do that.

         Throughout the class, we will continue to learn more about SEO and my knowledge for this topic will soon become greater and more reliable. For now, I will stick to my common sense and the professor's lectures when blogging about this topic.