Tag Archives: google

PROCESS POST #10: Insights and Rankings, SEO

From last week’s process post discussing analytics, this week’s readings proposed a visual of Data.ai. The content used analytic reports to show which apps and websites are frequently used/downloaded. It is a useful tool that helps navigate businesses and users to improve their projects and increase engagement. It is ideal for decision-making processes and delivers overall insight into the performance of the gaming market for instance (Data.ai., 2022).

The reading even acknowledges the age of technology we’re in. Linking to my last process post, technology has evolved into a new age and is advancing as we speak, it has brought Gen Z to what it is today (Data.ai., 2022). With Gen Z, comes new trending sites and apps. Data.ai. has reported that TikTok has ranked “Top Apps” in the 2021 market.

As a social media user, I agree with this report. TikTok has grown a huge community of creators and overall is an entertaining app. I think that TikTok has become very successful because it offers short collections of entertaining content that keep the audience engaged and active since videos are around 15-30 seconds. Compared to an hour-long youtube video, TikTok has an advantage as it caters to short attention spans. I do find myself scrolling for hours in my free time which is probably me contributing to levelling up TikTok’s ranking.

Speaking of technology, SEO is introduced as “Search Engine Optimization.” The Search Engine Journal states that SEO is the most viable and cost-effective tool to understand and reach customers (Hollingsworth, 2021). The article elaborates on reasons why SEO is crucial for businesses. From this reading, 2 reasons stood out to me the most. 1: Organic search is often the primary source of website traffic (Hollingsworth, 2021). This is a true statement, considering where we all start online is with a browser, an organic search engine. 2: SEO is a strategy used for the long term (Hollingsworth, 2021). This is a factor to consider because technology and the internet have impacted society, and are constantly changing.

I’ve known about search engines beforehand since it is a daily tool I use, although this is my first time digging deeper into the topic and hearing about SEO.

– Eliza (aka Peanut)

Reference:

data.ai. 2022. State of Mobile 2022

Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 9). 15 reasons why your business absolutely needs SEO. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close

Week 10 – Analytics & Friendship with Google

Holy, I cannot believe how fast the semester is going!

I was reflecting on my first process posts this week, and all the fumbling I did initially with Word Press. I started to feel oddly nostalgic about the beginning of this website and how far it has come. It has been so fun to grow in writing, aesthetic, and overall vision.

This week we talked about Google Analytics and SEO. Woah.

Google Analytics has been a really fun tool to experiment and learn with. It was great to have the demonstration in class walk us through some of the more complicated information that is collected through Analytics.

One important thing I noticed is that my bounce rate is quite high at 70%. This means that users are not usually staying on my blog long enough to view content or enjoy the media. I clicked on my homepage to investigate, and I noticed that while my home page is colourful and well organized, it may not be leading viewers into the right area of content. After reading through the welcome message, there is no clear direction for the user to go.

This was confirmed when I looked at the flow of behaviour of users. Most users started on the home page, and then about 50% dropped off after their first interaction. I could decrease my bounce rate by increasing engagement at my home page and directing user flow.

I am going to improve this by updating my home page with a more active vibe, linking users to content and posts that they may be interested in. This way, users will have a clear direction of what they should look at after being introduced to my website.

I am looking forward to seeing how these small changes may affect the way users interact with my blog!

Process Post 9 (Our Analytics)

This was an interesting week for a process post as we had to focus on the analytics of our website and the data collected. I never had an opportunity to create something where I would be able to look at a detailed analysis of user data. My experience with analytics has only been with my Instagram account, but I was unaware of the amount of information that could be accessed through Google Analytics. Unfortunately, because I have not promoted my site very much (as I was unaware coming into this class that we were going to be working with analytics) the data for my blog was marginal. This did make it a little more challenging to work with.

Audience data (Sept 23 – Nov 11)

Since I have not had experience working with Google Analytics, I must admit that it is quite overwhelming and complex to understand. Luckily, with Monique Sherrett’s presentation, some clarification was made in regards to Google Analytics. However, I will definitely have to continue to take some additional time navigating the site and understanding the data in order to fully grasp what I am looking at. Nevertheless, there was still information that provided insight as to how my audience was interacting with Here, There.

Looking at the basics of what is shown (from the start of syncing Google Analytics to the week of this Process Post), it is apparent that visitors to my site came in waves. I was not surprised by this as it was most likely due to certain moments within the course when we were to edit, observe or look at our peer’s sites. The audience overview shows that most users are new with only a few returning visitors. One aspect that I was most surprised by was seeing that a few users came from outside of Canada, such as the United States and even as far as India; I had to question how people found the blog when it was not publicly advertised.

More detail of users and visitors to site (Sept 23 – Nov 11)

Looking at the acquisitions, what surprised me was the average session duration at around 8:12, which was much longer than I expected. In addition, after adding goals for my conversions (having visitors enter my site), it was apparent that I was meeting them, which is also something that I did not expect given that I was not able to frequently update my blog as much as I intended.

Acquisitions of site (Sept 28 – Nov 11).

Seeing that most users and visitors landed and spent most of the time on the homepage, ways that I could change my online publication is making sure that the homepage is visually appealing and captivating. It would also be important to make sure the content on the homepage will have users continue to navigate and explore my blog, instead of leaving. Overall, having the ability to look at the analytics for my site was an eye-opening experience into how our work can create certain outcomes. It would be interesting to publish and share my blog throughout more media outlets in order to obtain more data and further insight into my audience and visitor engagement.

Google Analytics

What surprised me the most about me analytics was that they were higher than I expected them to be. I was in the process of revamping my theme and I put everything else on hold because my previous theme had some major problems. Even though I just started developing my blog I was getting 9 visitors weekly. It was hard for me to promote myself as I had a fear of posting frequently on Instagram, yeah, I know it’s kind of weird. But it amazed me that those who followed me would even click a link that I put out.

Another metric that surprised me was the number of visitors I had a month. It just seemed unreal to me that people are going to my site and reading content that I have put out. When starting this blog, I didn’t know how I would like it as I am a rather shy person. But putting my stuff out there isn’t as bad as I thought. If Ipost more frequently on Instagram and start tagging my clothes form where I got them and include my URL in the description, I think the number of visitors on my site will rise exponentially. Also, I can utilize the function on Instagram stories where you can swipe up to include a link to give my followers easy access to my blog.