Day 1 Assignment, SEO Bootcamp - What Happened?

[iCraft Admin]

The interesting thing about Keywords is that people don't use single keywords, when they search for things. They also don't use generic Keywords, like "handmade" or "crafts" either.

What you'll find more often is that people use very descriptive phrases, like in Weezi's example:

big pink bag for books and laptop
black and white gingham aprons
cell phone covers knit crochet
cell phone with big buttons

...  and that's what you should try to incorporate in your product descriptions, if you have products matching those phrases.

[BeauMonde]

Hi all - here are my GA numbers covering Jan 1/10-Mar 31/10:

1) Traffic Sources:

    * 27.72%
      Direct Traffic

    * 34.13%
      Referring Sites

    * 38.14%
      Search Engines

2) Referring sites:
google 195    
direct 173
facebook.com 96
twitter.com 30
yahoo 29        
stumbleupon.com 18
apps.facebook.com 16
foundhandmade.com 15
bing    6
google / cpc 6


3) Search Engines:
google - 201
yahoo - 29
bing - 6
search - 2


4) Keywords:  175
lucite flower beads
icraft
punk hat
(not set)
christen largent
fine silver earrings icraft
hand made funky watches, ontario
swarovski hair pins
anne boleyn necklace
icraftgifts.com

[Vintage Inspired Jewelry]

Not sure I really am signed up for google? I thought this bootcamp was for 2 weeks. I will be gone the last 2 weeks in April. Also where on your site do you put that you are out of town and won't ship til a certain date? Thanks

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

Here's what I found in my GA for the period from March 4 to April 3rd (standard one month period):

1)Traffic Sources
Direct 20%
Referring 44%
Search 36%

2) Referring sites -  what are your top 10? Record them.
62 facebook.com
19 hotmail.com
6 twitter.com
1 ambercraft.net
1 ca.yahoo.com
1 dogpile.com
1 foundhandmade.com
1 images.google.it
1 images.google.pl
1 ow.ly


3) Search Engines  
Google   72        
yahoo 10            
          


4)  How many Keywords? 51  
icraft
icraftgifts.com
copper wire square jewelry
handmade sales sites canada
turquoise jewelry ottawa
ear cuff
lampwork wire rings for sale
sterling silver hammered necklace
aqua marine jewelry ottawa
artisan jewelry for sale


Make a list of keywords that you thought would bring views but didn’t
nope

Are there many keywords that are related?  ottawa, canada, silver, copper, wire, jewelry and jewellery

5) when I change to include Jan 1st to now, I have approx same % for traffic sources, but I have many more key words.  

I once read that it's important to be aware of all your keywords, not just your top 3-5 because most people use several words for a search, so your top 3 words might not really reflect how people find you. For example, my top keyword was icraft, but if I add up all the different combinations in which people used silver, I have more searches that include silver than icraft.  And Ottawa was by far included in the most amound of combinations that people used to find my shop.  

[iCraft Admin]

You can change your Profile copy on this page https://icraftgifts.com/member_profile.php to include a message about you being away.
You can also update Your Exhibit Announcement field, present on the same page. See this blog post for more details https://icraftgifts.com/blog/your-icraft-exhibit-announcement-feature-165.php

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

I saw that a few people were puzzled by some of the keywords used to find their shops.  I have a few that are totally unrelated to my shop too, including the names of some other shops here on icraft.  On etsy, the concessus seems to be that the keyword that shows up on your list is the word that a person used in a search that first brought them to etsy.  Once they were on the etsy site, they may have visited more shops, but that first search is what shows up in the keyword list.  That would seem to be a reasonable explanation for this site as well.  Maybe admin could chime in on that?

Some of my more interesting keywords are "flap winter hats for women" and "kate gosselin" which are completely unrelated to my shop.  

[iCraft Admin]

Yes, the keywords you see are the keywords that brought people to the site in the first place. Not all of them would be directly related to you.

[PillowThrowDecor]

Hey Vintage!

Yes Bootcamp is for two weeks only this time round. So you are ok for the last two weeks

I will send you a private message regarding your Google Stats.  I'll help you with them so we can get you up and running.

i will email you some instructions shortly.

Cheers, Christine

Not sure I really am signed up for google? I thought this bootcamp was for 2 weeks. I will be gone the last 2 weeks in April. Also where on your site do you put that you are out of town and won't ship til a certain date? Thanks

[PillowThrowDecor]

Wow good job everyone!

I have also wondered how I got some of these weird keywords in my list... now I know

Interesting comments that everyone has contributed. I think all of us have some really good keywords where we thought we would get good views but we didn't??? Doesn't seem logical does it??? I WILL EXPLAIN WHY IN THE NEXT ASSIGNMENT and you will all do a head-smack and say.... ohhhhhh now I get it!!!!  Isn't that exciting to know you are going to see the light very quickly

Clearly for some of you we will work on getting more traffic to your sites in the next few days so stand by! It is tough when you don't have many products listed you don't get many views... however the more product you have listed, exponentially you get more traffic.  Or if I can say it more simply... "you have to have stock on the shelves before people come into your store"    Go figure huh!

By the way does anyone else have comments about some of the statistics reported here.  There is lots of really interesting stuff that we can gleen.

Cheers
Christine

[Crystal Creations by Roberta Leake]

This is what I found out from GA.  Absolutely nothing..Everything was zero.

[wabibrookstudio]

I just started GA a couple of days ago, so  don't have much to report.

1) Click Traffic Sources in the left navigation bar and click on Traffic sources. Note what your percentages are and record them.
32.26% direct traffic
38.71% referring sites
28.57% search engines

2) Referring sites -  what are your top 10? Record them.
1. craftcult.com 2    
2. craftopolis.com 2    
3. riverwolfeartjewelry.com 2
4. twitter.com 2    
5. aspiringmetalsmiths.blogspot.com 1    
6. craftcount.com 1    
7. creationswithheart.blogspot.com 1    
8. etsytreasuryteam.blogspot.com 1    
9. etsywiki.com 1    
10. forum.purseblog.com 1

 3) Click the link labeled Search Engines. Note who the top 5 are and how many views came from each
Google - 6

On the left navigation bar click on Keywords. How many were used to find you?  Make a list of the top ten keywords. Make a list of keywords that you thought would bring views but didn’t? Are there many keywords that are related.
boho rock jewelry
eclectic bead and metal jewelry handmade
http://etsy.com/shop/heartfelt4kids
mother baby vintage cabochon
starfish toggle clasp
www.ciaobela.etsy.com

keywords that didn't bring views:
Just about all the keywords I used didn't bring any views, however I expect that these results are not yet very accurate.

Not sure what is meant by related keywords.

5) Now click on traffic sources again  so we can see all visits. Then In the upper right hand corner,  go to the calendar / dates and change it back to Jan 1, don’t forget to highlight the  all the days on the calendar and then click the “apply” button below it. Very briefly tell us  about any  significant changes during this time? Were you listing more or less during those up down periods?
I just started on GA 4 days ago, of course there is a big spike right at the end.  I'm looking forward to interpreting this data in a few weeks.

Thanks Christine, for assigning this exercise.  Just getting GA set up after months and months of trying is worth the price of admission!

Julie
    

[jdhdesigns]

I’ve only had Analytics  for two days so I don’t have top 10 lists quite yet but here is what I have so far…


1)Traffic Sources
Direct 45%
Referring 15%
Search 40%


2) Referring sites

2 twitter
1 amber craft.com


3) Search Engines
  
Google   5        
yahoo 3            


4)  How many Keywords? 5...

icraftgifts.com
icraft
"seven"" circles scarf"
(not set)
necktie conversions toronto


I don’t really understand how these are the keywords that link up to my stuff? I really thought that; item purpose or name (ex. Scarf, shawl, etc.), colour, materials, size, country, etc. would be more popular as searching words. I guess this is what it’s like when you first start tracking web stats. Totally unexpected but interesting to learn!


-jess

[Sarah Ranes]

I just installed Analytics a couple of days ago.

1. Traffic Sources
Direct 42.86
Referring 28.57
Search engine 28.57

2. Referring sites
rubberstamping.com
yahoo.com

3.  Search Engine
google

4. Keywords
beeswax solid perfume
i craft exhibit announcement

I don't have a whole lot to report because it has been installed for such a short time. 

[swaysilver]

I signed up yesterday for GA and it's coming up zeros.  There is a note about "new analytics code" from my other sites so I'm checking into that.

And how do I save my "signature"?

https://icraftgifts.com/swaysilver
www.swaysilver.ca
http://twitter.com/swaysilver

[PillowThrowDecor]

It takes at least 24 hours for google to show tracking. Whenever you look at your google stats it is not "real time"... today's report will be yesterday's activity.

We don't have a function to save our signature in icraft.  Save your signature in you email program say... outlook or outlook express. I think it is in the options menu.

If you have a problem setting it up get back to me with the email program you have and I will give instructions.

Good stuff everybody!!!