What does being google analytics certified mean? Google has created a new program to make more users of google analytics and even google adwords simply more knowledgeable about Analytics and Adwords.

How important is getting google certified? Well if you are wanting to learn how to use the analytics to its full potential then going through the google course is an excellent idea. I use google analytics on a daily basis and as I went through the course I learned more about google analytics then I ever imagined. The course will truely open your eyes to just how powerful Google analytics is. Also, if you consider yourself a Analytics Professional and give out services for Analytics then I believe that being able to show that you are trained by google and have a certificate. Having the certificate shows credibility in your ability. As the online marketing industry gets more competitive, I believe we should find an edge that will put us above others, this is a good way. To get certified it comes with a small fee of $50 per test. You are only able to take one test so do not fail. To pass the individual must get a 75% or better and there is a time limit of 90 minutes. I found the test to be very easy after going through the course.

What did the course go over? Each lesson takes about 5-10 minutes. The course starts off at “first steps”, where you learn just what google analytics is and how to set it up. Next the course goes into interpreting reports. The guidelines to the reports, how to setup pageviews, visits. The interpreting reports chapter also talks about content reports, time metrics, and traffic sources. After interpreting reports, the next chapter is fundamentals. IN fundamentals the course includes profiles, campaign tracking, adwords integration (very powerful), and analysis focus. The last chapter is about a very professional and in-dept analysis of google analytics. The course teaches individuals how to setup custom reporting, advanced segmentation, creating a motion chart, and additional customizations.

Somethings That I learn in the Google course? The absolute best thing about the course for me was the filters in google analytics. There are so many different filters that can be setup for emails, e-commerce, and off-site pages its incredible. I also enjoyed learning about how the e-commerce tracking could really give an incredible amount of data, especially if you link it together with google adwords. The e-commerce portion of analytics can give a true ROI on cost of adwords to revenue. The analytics can track sales and even how often someone has visited your site before they bought an item.

What other certifications are there? Google has a google adwords certification program which I have also done and is just as important. Google has a google fundamentals course that is newly created which should teach you the fundamentals of online advertising.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and why you should get certified for google analytics. I do Online marketing and wanted to be able to tell my clients that I have been trained by google and am truely a professional.

Creating your first blog!

Hi, My name is Robert Renfro and I run Distinct design. I have been doing online marketing for a few years now and am going to be sharing my ideas, experiences and sometimes frustrations. So read along, I hope you learn something and can put this article to use!

First what does blog stand for? Blog means web-log : blog. So your hearing how exciting it is and important to have a blog? Well I was in your same shoes not to long ago and have become a true believer of blogging. Let me give you a little bit of my background. I specialize in Search engine Optimization and website design. Also I do a lot of print media projects for Kansas City Kansas Community College and have worked for companies like Cerner Corporation on the online marketing team as a web designer. I have also worked for companies as an e-commerce developer where I worked on the e-commerce site and also built websites for within the company.

So, Why did I not get into blogging then? Well honestly I just didnt see the importance to do it for myself. While I constantly blogged for the companies I worked for, just never did my own. So I am here to let you on in a few insider tips and tricks to creating a successful blog, the corporate way and the professional way.

This tutorial will give you all the basics to creating a blog and some advanced techniques. If you would like to have myself do the blog for you visit my site and contact me.

Chapter 1 : Blog Introduction

Chapter 2 : Setting up your Blog

Chapter 3 : Customizing your Blog

Chapter 4 : Blog SEO

Chapter 5 : Before you publish

Chapter 6 : Spread the word

Chapter 7 : Navigating the blog

Chapter 8 : Conclusion

Chapter 1: Blog Introduction

1.1 – Find out what blog is best for you! There are many different types of blogs. Wordpress is an excellent blog yet it requires a little bit of knowledge when it comes to editing. Blogger which is produced by google is another great blog and requires very little knowledge to edit themes or your blog. I would recemmend whichever you feel comfortable with and even try both of them, if one does not work as well for you, drop it and stick with the one that you are comfortable with.

1.2 – A great blog has a nice but clean and easy to read design. What is a blog for? a blog is for a user to post topics that he feels led to share. What if your readers have a heard time reading the post, this is why a nice easy clean design is a must for a new blog.

1.3 – Have an idea of what the blog is about. Are you going to be doing “how-tos” for people or is your blog just something to post ideas you have? Maybe your blog is a place for you to post information about whats going on in your family so that your entire family can view and make posts.

1.4 – Find a good theme that fits you and what you are trying to accomplish. There are flash themes which require a little bit of flash knowledge and then some themes that you should be able to just “plug and play”. That means, your theme will give you the look and feel you want and thats all you have to do. I am a strong believer in creating a customized theme. I can help you with this or you can find many people to help you with this. Usually a custom theme will cost $80-$100.

Chapter 2: Setting up your Blog

2.0 I am going to give instructions for Wordpress and Blogger since these are the two most used blogs, and I personally feel they are the best.

WordPress :

2.1 visit wordpress – click “register a blog”. Fill out all the information.

You will have to register an account then login. From here, your blog is register (wow that was hard)

First thing. Setup your theme : go to Appearance, themes, Add new Themes.

Your theme will need to be saved in a.zip file and uploaded to the blog. It will install it, Go to themes

and click activate on the theme you uploaded. Your done. the Blog is setup.

Blogger:

2.2 visit blogger – you will need a google account. Once you have an account simply hit “creat a blog”

Add a title, choose an address (think about optimized titles)

Choose a theme to start with. Now start blogging. Once again, not very hard. This is literally all you have to do to setup a blog. Its amazing that not everyone is doing this.

Chapter 3: Customizing your blog

3.0 I am going to give instructions for Wordpress Only, Blogger is pretty straight forward and much the same.

From chapter 1 you should have found a blog theme that is setup for the wordpress or blogger. Much of these can be found for free (I charge $89 for a very custom theme).

3.1 Every Wordpress page is built with php, xml and CSS. You do not need to change any of the php or xml!! If you do not know anything about php or xml do not touch it!! your blog will not work if you do. Although changing CSS is easy and ok! I would say though to watch some youtube videos on CSS if you do not know much about it.

3.2 In Wordpress under Appearance, click on Editor. You will have to find the style.css file. This is where you are going to be able to do some changing. If you want to change colors just find the tag that controls the color you are interested in changing and change old color (#242123) to your new one (#ffffff). Again, a good idea is to have a strong grasp on CSS, and I recommend having the “web developer” plugin for firefox. You can edit the CSS for ANY web page in the world and see what happens when you change things in the CSS without it saving when you close the editor.

Chapter 4: Blog SEO

4.0 First I would like to say to visit http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/. This is a very detailed post on Wordpress SEO. Yoast has covered Wordpress SEO amazingly and I believe no one will write a better blog. Somethings are very easy to change while other things you may not understand. Yoast will have you download a bunch of plugins. Download every single one! they are worth it.

4.1 The key to Blog SEO is doing everything right, and think about EVERYTHING. A lot of things need to be changed for a blog to be optimized! Although I find that the biggest thing left out in a blog is people being lazy and simply just not “optimizing” the page or post. Fill out all the info. Make sure your tags are there and that the post is keyword rich.

4.2 Quickest effects most important

Permalinks

Optimize your Titles for SEO

Optimize your Descriptions

Optimize the More text

Image Optimization

Chapter 5: Before you publish

Every Blogger should have a checklist before he posts onto the web. Here is the best checklist to use.

Bloggers Checklist

Chapter 6: Spread the Word

6.0 Get involved in Linkedin.com, Digg.com and social networks! Find a group that is related to your blog and join and be ACTIVE! Many people will enjoy reading about what you have to say so share share share.

6.1 Facebook – Facebook is an excellent source to spread the word and find people to share your ideas with. I will be creating a Advanced facebook article for users later, but if you are already on facebook, use it! Groups are a great resource to share ideas and keep up on new things within your category. Every post on facebook or myspace should be informational and interesting to read. Also do not just always post about the same topic or subject. Change it up.

6.2 Twitter – A recent article showed that twitter has been the fasted growing social network on the web. Why is twitter growing so rapidly? Because it is easy to use. All you have to do is create an account, then post topics about what your doing. Although a lot of people say, “why do I want to read what someone is doing every minute.” Twitter should not be used to post that you are reading on the deck. Twitter should be used to post links to your last blog article. Twitter should be a tool you use to spread the word about something really cool that is going on, or maybe something really bad if it has a purpose.

Chapter 7: Navigating your blog

7.0 This should be a whole post by it self but I am going to dab on each part of how to navigate through your blog on wordpress..

7.1 Dashboard – sends you to the main page of the blog admin panel.

Posts – where you edit, add and delete posts. You can also add or change categories here

Media – Add images and videos here that can be put into your posts

Links – always link to your friends and other great blogs. They will return the favor and it will help you out in the long run.

Pages – If you have an important post sometimes its better to create a page than just add as a post. This is where you add edit and delete pages for your blog.

Comments – If you want to see all the comments that have been made on your blog this is the place to do so.

7.2 Appearance – Add new themes, edit themes or delete themes through the appearance panel. Distinct Design specializes in theme customization.

Plugins – Plugins run Wordpress. Make sure you use lots of plugins for SEO and any other tool you may need. Plugins are free and an excellent source for your blogg.

Users – If you are going to have multiple writers or admins you will need to setup an account for each person. This is the place to do it.

Settings – Change the blog URL or tagline, timezone, date formate, and much more. This changes how the posts will look in the blog.

Chapter 8: Conclusion

8.0 Some of the most important features in a blog is having fresh content. Juicy Content is what the SEOs call it. Have 1-3 posts per week and keep up with whatever your blog categories are about. If you are running posts about new cooking receipes, have a receipe every week or every other day.

8.1 Make sure your blog is optimized for the web as best as possible. Yoast has the best SEO article I have seen for this. Follow his advice and the search engines will find you blog!

8.2 Submit your articles. Just because you posted on a blog, doesnt mean that people will find it. Post articles in article submission sites. If you need help with this contact Distinct Design. Digg.com is a good resource for this.

8.3 Good bye! I hope you enjoyed reading my article on creating a blog. I will be submitting more how-to articles frequently, so if you have enjoyed this reading, please subscribe to this Blog by clicking the RSS feed at the top.

http://www.distinctdesignus.com/

]]> http://distinctdesignus.com/blog/creating-a-blog/feed/ 5 http://distinctdesignus.com/blog/web-site-build-pay/ http://distinctdesignus.com/blog/web-site-build-pay/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:11:35 +0000 admin http://distinctdesignus.com/blog/?p=21
Today according to Website Magazine web presence is no longer a luxury, its a necessity. Many people today are trying to get their business onto the web. As every business strives to connect to more customers there are more and more ways to build a website.  But whats the best way to do so?  We all have seen the sites that look as if a robot built the page and then half the site doesn’t work, and then on top of all that, you cannot find the company on a search engine.

There is a huge problem for companies right now who are trying to compete for business but do not have a strong web presence.  Just one example. a marketing trends report showed that for every $1 spent on email marketing, it brought in $47 in revenue.  So how important is the web? Email marketing is sent to just a client base.  A website is sent to the world.

Why are companies going with the “free” website option.
1. Its free.
2. They are not aware that this free site is not going to do anything for their site
3. The Businesses do not care about the web and do not realize the importance of a website

1. Its free – You get what you pay for.  A Web presence is not just about having a website.  If you are just looking for a site that people can find your information, even still a free site is not worth anything to you because usually, the potential customers are not finding you.  Also, a website is like your store.  It gives an image of your business or your service.  If the site is poor quality what do you think customers will feel about your business or service?

2. Free sites or even the $99 site is not going to do anything for your business except hurt you.  You should have someone who is keeping up with marketing the site, Optimizing the site or SEO, Running Analytics and showing you what your site is doing for you! A good site creates a buzz about your business but it also has the ability to show you that buzz.

3. I cant tell you how many clients I have talked with who say, well I think I would rather spend my money on print media or radio ads.  Another example, this one everyone should know, the presidential election, one presidential campaigner did the old school campaign route and had hundreds of thousands of viewers.  The other presidential campaigner did youtube.com videos and had over millions of viewers.  How important is the web? Well not even just a website but web marketing.  Just a simple website is not going to give you a web presence! You need Online marketing and the ability to reach to customers. Some examples of online marketing would be email campaigns, social networking, pay per click ads and article submissions.  While Online marketing spreads the word, to keep those potential customers happy, your site must be functional!

Why to choose a Web Design Company for your Business.
1. They do the work for you and give you advice so that its not a waste of money or time.
2. You get a design that attracts customers.
3. The firm should create you the ability to see analytics, search engine rankings, and also easily update the site.

1. Every website should have a plan.  The site should have a strategy and the ability to show if its working or not.  Most web design firms will create sites that do all of this. One of the things I tell clients all the time is that even a great site, that is stagnant is just hurting your business.  A stagnant site portrays a stagnant company.  You want people to see that you are thriving and have great things going on.  Also the web is primarily a source of information.  Your business changes month to month, so should your site.

2. If your company is looking to attracted customers then you need a web design that will give your website the ability to do so.  There are plenty of top 10 worst site blogs and even top 10 best site blogs. The one thing that all good web designs have in common, they do not make the user feel ashamed to look at the site.  A successful web design makes the user not really even think about the design, there just attracted to the site. Everyone can immediately hate a site, a good site should really be thought about.

3. Web page analytics is probably the number one aspect of telling if your website is successful.  I cant tell you how many times I have walked into a clients office and asked, what is your daily site visit, and they have no idea.  Well how do you know if all the money you are paying is doing any good?!  The next thing is locating the pages in the search engines.  A company should design a page that had good SEO from the start so that your site will be ranked by google and get to the top of the searches for keywords specific to your site.  Also one thing that destroys the integrity of a website and company’s web presence, not having an up to date site.  Again, so many sites I see today have not been updated for months! Distinct Design charges $50/month for unlimited hosting which includes updates each month.  Any company should have this type of offer for their website.

web links

1. The reason why amazon gets so many links is because of the traffic they create.
Well if we need to create traffic by link building but we do not have the traffic then how will we ever get a link? Well the keyword is content! Content, content content. Why does someone want to come to your site? Does your site have a purpose? Is your site interesting, fresh and offer what everyone wants on the web, Info? Even E-commerce sites should be more information than anything product. Which is the successful store, one that when you walk in a sales person helps you, shows you around and informs you? Or do you think the store where you have to wonder around fumbling onto things? People go back to the stores that they can find things easily and know that they are getting the best deal. Websites should revolved around the same concept.

2. Is your site simply optimized for the organic searches?
The first thing you can do is get some high rankings through just the optimization of each page so that it has the best chance to be seen. If your site is using keywords that when searched, have millions of other pages linked to that keyword, then maybe you need to rethink the keywords. Using keywords that give you a chance is the first place you start. If you have good content and some people can find you, your page will start to grow.

3. How much do you use social networks?
This is the number one way to build links. People who find your site interesting and have an idea about your industry and have an interest in your site will link to it! Use social networks as your number one free source of marketing, and site building! Not only will this help you build links but you will also be able to stay on top of your industry!

4. Ask!
It never hurts to ask. But please understand something about asking for links. First off a link that does not have a very high “google rating” is not very useful and if your site does not have a high google rating thank this will be hard to accomplish. Most sites like to see google ratings of 3 or more and then its still hard to get people to put your link on their site. Although this is why I created this post. I would like to see this all change. We should be more open to trading links. Id like to see some comments on ideas of how to change this?

5. Become a leader in the industry or for the people close to your industry.
If you create a brand or a product or create information that is good and has weight against others around you then people will notice what you offer and will not only link to you but like to use you or your site. Websites work a lot like a company. The successful companies have a good product. They give good deals and they have a great brand. This alone will create traffic which will create links ending up with those higher rankings in searches!

Three key things to make a successful website, does your site have it?

1. Successful websites have an appealing look and feel but also a functional navigation. Google has a nice clean look and feel that is appealing but it is very functional! The first thing that turns someone off your site is not being able to get where they want to quickly. This is a requirement for a successful website. Site also should have an easy design though. Think of websites you hate or just think, man these guys are unprofessional. The site has funky colors, its hard to read and it was put together by someone trying to do to much “design” and not enough “thought”. Rule number one, Always think about your sites design look but also the feel!

2. This probably should be number 1 but I am going in order that I start a new website. Search Engine Optimization! So you just made a design that could lead to a successful website, but who is finding the site? A successful website will need some close optimization of the website no one will find it. SEO is probably the leading aspect for a successful site, If the website is found it has a better chance of being successful. Although obviously if a website is not found by users it will not be successful. Rule number two, a lot of thought and research should be done for SEO.

3. Analytics is a key part to successful website design because if you cant see how your site is doing then you wont know if its successful! Site Analytics is a great way to set goals for your business and the website. You can see how well some of your marketing strategies are doing but also you can see if your SEO is working! Google Analytics is a free program that should not be taken lightly. Many People believe free software is less powerful. Google Analytics lacks no where when it comes to site tracking. Rule number three, you will want to be able to tell if you have a successful website through analytics.

rule 1 : Always think about your sites design look but also the feel!
rule 2 : A lot of thought and research should be done for SEO!
rule 3 : You will want to be able to tell if you have a successful website through analytics.

A little about me.  I have worked for Cerner Corporation as an Online Marketer and Web Developer.

I have also worked for a couple smaller e-commerce sites as a Graphic Designer and Web Developer.

I now run my own freelance site and blog.  Im currently working in the Kansas City, KS. area where I am specializing in Search Engine Optimization and Web Site Design!

Somethings of the things you will find in my blog will be Web site design, SEO, Social Networking and Web solutions articles.  Please feel free to challenge me or comment on anything you read!

Thanks for visiting!

Robert Renfro