BUS572-3

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the practice of optimising a web site so as to achieve preferred ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Someone who practices SEO professionally is also known as an SEO (search engine optimiser).In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines. I think the SEO is very essential that every user could find relevant and useful information. SEO is not an appropriate strategy for every website, and other Internet marketing strategies can be more effective like paid advertising through PPC campaigns, depending on the site operator's goals. A successful Internet marketing campaign may also depend upon building high quality web pages to engage and persuade, setting up analytics programs to enable site owners to measure results, and improving a site's conversion rate. But is that converient for normal people to use search engine optimisation and get a good result?

When it comes to SEO, one thing is called emerging trends is also important. Here are the three strong emerging trends:

1. Localization 
2. Personalized search
3. Usage data

By localising, the search engines are presenting information in the language and geographic context of the user. In personalising search, the search engines are trying to align with what they have determined would be more appropriate for that specific user. Personalised search targets users preferences on two bases: explicitly and implicity. Surveys suggest that users are generally in favour of personalisation and are willing to trade personal information to benefit from better quality results from the search engines. Usage data is the most effective way of judging the true relevancy and value of a web site. For example, if users arrive on a web site and go back immediately, chances are it wasn’t relevant to their query in the first place. However, if a user repeatedly visits a web site and spends a long time on the site, chances are it is extremely relevant. When it comes to search engines, relevant valuable sites get promoted, irrelevant sites get demoted. (Stokes) But my question is the emerging trends can collect data about users preferences, is that mean a invasion of privacy?

http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/online-marketing-essentials/s09-search-engine-optimization.html

The skillset I learnt is tools of the trade. There are a number of tools available to assist with SEO. Some are made available by search engines, and some are developed by agencies and individuals who specialise in SEO, such as Google Webmaster Tools and Keyword discovery tools. These tools are helpful for me to better know SEO, how it works and what the problem it reflects. My problem is how to proficiently use these tools, and is there any speaker would teach us about these?

This week, I take charge of revising our former paper. What I learnt is to optimize our paper work to a perfect version so that every team member would be happy about that. Look forward to knowing more about A/B testing and the new content of class.

BUS572-2

Concept 1: The Conversion Funnel

When I read the chapter 15, the first concept I noticed is the conversion funnel which is a technical term used in e-commerce operations to describe the track a consumer takes through an Internet advertising or search system, navigating an e-commerce website and finally converting to a sale.Here is an example:

Someone wants to choose a cruise line to travel during spring break on Expedia. Expedia's ultimate goal is that visitors to the site make a booking on the web site with a credit card.

Event 1: perform a search for available dates or routes for cruises in the desired port

Event 2: check prices and activities for available cruise lines

Event 3: select a cruise and go to checkout

Event 4: enter personal and payment details and confirm booking (conversion)

This conversion funnel is a process to select final customers.  This can be a very useful tool to website owners because it could easily select their targeted customers who are interested in the website. Moreover, it can analyse why they lose their customers' interests. Based on this, they could optimize the website and attract more customers to be their final customers. Basically, this model is a tool for website owner to use, but if they want to increase the number of customers flowing through each event which means increasing the sales, what should they do to attract more customers to go to the final event?

Concept 2: The Click Path

Another concept I found interesting was click path is the sequence of hyperlinks one or more website visitors follows on a given site. A visitor's click path may start within the website or at a 3rd party website and it continues as a sequence of successive webpages visited by the visitor. Here is an example, 5 Steps: Click-Path Analysis Leads to Shopping-Cart Fix that Lifts Conversions 43%, which can clearly reflect the practicability of Click-Path analysis. It is worth mentioning that Click path is considered an important aspect of website analytics as it provides detail of visitor behavior and helps website marketers to better organize website content and layout. But how is the click path of a first time visitor different to a returning visitor? Can the click path tell them apart?

One of the skills that I learnt in this week is to participate in our team talking about Google’s key word selecting. As a result of the fact that English isn't my first language, I couldn't think out so many relative key words at the same time. But a fun thing is I could remind my teammates of  some relevant words. For instance, my teammates were talking about one key word "vacation", and I asked " does the word vacation means holiday?" Obviously, "vacation" and "holiday" both became our key words. Also, one of the important things about finding the words for the Ad-Groups is being able to think like your customers think, so I tried regarding myself as a customer to search the website. And it works as well. 

Finally, team work is like an invisible hand that can effectively push work efficiency. We brainstormed key words in our team meeting that brought me a lot of fun in cooperation. I really enjoy my life in my team. And I can't wait to join the AdWords campaign.