Week 4 Recap
This is my fourth and final weekly recap for my project.
This weekly recap is a part of the “Experiencing the Digital Marketplace” experiment involving researching, creating, advertising, and operating a dropshipping website for the duration of December 2020. If something you see piques your interest or if you want to learn more about what I accomplished, feel free to look around!
What I Did
This week I did an SEO audit of my website before taking it down. I decided to take down my website because my free-trial period ended, and I didn’t want to invest over $100 to keep it operational. If I made my own products, I would have stayed open, but since my store was for dropshipping, I didn’t have an emotional attachment to my store nor the products it sold.
To learn more about Search Engine Optimization and how to use it, please check this blog out.
I’ll fully admit that this should have been accomplished before the final week, but I was too occupied with creating everything and ensuring everything operated as designed. Before closing everything down, I ran my website through a Searchbot website called SEOptimizer. All I needed to do was type in my website URL and hit submit.
My Initial Results
After doing this, my website was reviewed and given several recommendations for improvement. Overall, my website did better than expected. The only areas I needed to adjust were the HTML description of my website (what shows up on a google search) and my website’s social media links.
I quickly changed my HTML, included high-frequency terms, and included links to my social media pages (though these were available and displayed before).
After making these changes, I ran my website through the program again.
Final Results
My website went from a B- to a B+. My off-site SEO changes to the HTML increased my overall to a B+, but there were no changes in the social media portion of the audit.
This leads me to believe that you need social media posts directly embed into your website code. They recommended my website to create and link a company YouTube account and a LinkedIn account (I did neither), so this also could be why my social media rating didn’t improve.
If I planned on continuing the website and remaining open, I’d make these additions. I think having a video platform to give advice, background information, or provide reviews is essential. Typically, watching videos is much less time-consuming for customers than going through and reading reviews. Plus, you can see how other people use the product.
My Final Thoughts
This project was very eye-opening for me. I understand the importance of having a great management system and stay on track. Several times this past month, I got lost fixing an issue and looked up to find I spent several hours on something I allotted 30 minutes towards. To make this easier, start with what you know.
Do your research, then create your website.
Everything after this is an extension of your company. Think of it like this. If you were building a house, where would you start? Not on the aesthetic or the front porch, you start with the foundation and structure. The research and website are your foundation and structure. Only after these are fulfilled can you move on towards the creativeness and fluidity of the business.
Record any problems you encounter.
You never know if this problem will come up again or if something similar will come up. By recording these issues and documenting what you did to fix them, you have a playbook for resolving future problems. Plus, it makes it easier to remember things you’ve done and other areas that need to be updated.
Take scheduled breaks and make sure to eat.
Our brains have a limited capacity for information for each sitting and each day. By not taking breaks, you focus too much on the short term return rather than the long-term return. You might finish this one task, but that’ll be the only valuable thing you accomplish that day. The same goes for eating. If you overthink with an empty stomach, you will only come to regret it in the future.
Your gains may seem like leaps, but they are actually minor steps.
