Interactive Web Marketing

Sunday, October 6, 2013

SEO and Paid Search Strategy Example

I've just finished marking the Farm Girl SEO / Paid Search Strats - for the most part you guys have come a long way and have the start of some potentially successful SEO strategies. I will be handing back your assignments with feedback on Monday, but in the meantime here's an example of how to do it in the future (e.g. Concierge Project and SEM Project).

Keyword Profitability & Ad Groups >> It's 2 spreadsheets - one for profitability and one for ad groups (notice how these two feed into each other? The other part is the estimated bid price which will play into the budget.

SEO Recommendations >> Notice that Page Title is close to 72 characters (not letters) long? That's the optimal number to strive for. The keywords I added are highlighted in aqua. I've also put outbound / inbound links in as well.

SEM (Paid Search) Strategy >> I only did one, but you should offer 3 variations at a minimum. The sheet was set up for 9 ads (3 for each of the 3 ad groups). Take note of how the budget was developed - it used the forecast PPC amounts from the keyword tool.

This Google SEO workbook will be a lot of help for you guys when it comes to your SEM projects and your certification. Take a look >>

The Paid Search Step-by-Step guide you guys used to generate your starter SEM strategies is here for your reference >>

Course Delivery Revisions

As I mentioned in the course feedback post, I have revised the delivery and assignment schedule. The main change is less blog posts and more in-class assignments. Thank you for your input.

Here is the revised delivery schedule, assignments and due dates (for both courses).

Thursday, October 3, 2013

MARK5000 Wireframe Assignment

Due: Monday, October 7 (start of class)

Format: Hardcopy

What:

Navigation / Section Structure (1 page)
Look and Feel (1-2 pages) of main page that incorporates general theme, main call to actions, colour pallette, style guide and other principles discussed in class today (reference class videos, slidedecks and SEW). This does NOT require that the full content be submitted but rather where / how the content will be placed and the general theme of the content.

For: SEM project client

Who: In SEM project teams

This will be marked in place of a blogpost (therefore worth 2%).

Class Feedback Surveys

Thanks everyone for filling out my feedback survey. Here's the results:

The above word cloud was driven only from the written comments. It is a combination of both classes comments. The larger the word the more frequently it was used with challenging (in a positive sentiment voice) was used 12 times and the terms only used 1 time were the ones the same size as low-value or knowledgable.

The complete survey summaries are available as well:

MCOM43
MARK5000

For the most part the sentiment of each group was positive and that the majority of students are finding this course relevant and useful. It is challenging but achievable - exactly what a teacher and a HE institution strive for.

Areas that I will work to improve upon based on this feedback are (keeping in mind that I need to respond to the majority not the minority in making significant course adjustments):

Provide written direction and details for even the minor assignments such as blogposts, similarily to what I have provided for the larger assignments;
Add in additional one-on-one or small group discussions, coaching and feedback sessions;
Look for additional ways to provide more hands-on learning as opposed to traditional lecture formats of delivery;
Lastly, still under review but I may change some of the markable assignments to be less focused on blog written (now that they are established and other courses are making use of them) and turn our attention over to client projects and in-class activities. I will review this with you guys next week.

If you were one of the 'outliers' in the survey and your comments / concerns did not fall with the majority and you would like to discuss your concerns in person I am open to doing so. Talk to me before or after class to book an appointment.