Google Gold

My main approach to search engine optimization was just using my keywords over and over in my blog posts. I thought this would be my best chance to reach the first page of Google. In addition to this, I went a step further when it came to commenting on other blogs. Not only did I include my own link, but I also described what the post was about and used the keywords there as well. I thought the combination of the link and keywords would really help me SEO.
My main keywords were TextSwap(the name of the company) and textbook exchange app(essentially the purpose of the app). I think another important keyword was probably college or college students since that's who the app is aimed at. I chose these keywords because they seemed to be the most relevant in regards to my app and what it did. I don't think I consciously refined my keywords throughout the semester although I bet I did subconsciously. As I developed a more specific idea of what the app looked like, I probably started using my keywords more often.
I didn't really use social media to promote my blog that much. I didn't think that my Facebook friends or Twitter followers would really be interested in my class blog and would just scroll past it. I did always thumbs up my YouTube videos and share my posts on Google+ though. These may not be the most popular social media but it was the easiest thing to do that would help.
My post with the most traffic was my second elevator pitch. This beat the other posts by a long shot as it has 27 page views and it's the only page with 20 or more views. I think part of the reason for this is that there were four people assigned to comment on this post. This obviously increased page views. In addition to this, I think it had a lot of views because it had a YouTube video in the post. Anybody who saw the video on my YouTube might have gone to the blog to check out the post. Other than these reasons though, I just think I did a good job with the elevator pitch. I thought it went really well and would be a good example for people to look at.
When I finally looked up my keywords for this assignment, I tried a couple different things. I first googled the phrase "TextSwap textbook exchange app college students" and ended up being the eighth post on the first page. Yippee! When I cut the phrase down to just "TextSwap textbook exchange app college," I went down to the fifth post on the second page. I'm still pretty happy with this though. I further cut it down to "TextSwap textbook exchange app" and dropped one spot to the sixth post on the second page. Overall, I'm very happy with my results. Although I didn't get on the first page on all of my searches, my worst attempt was still on the second page. It's really difficult to reach the top page of Google so I'm pleased that I made it there on at least one of my searches. All of my SEO efforts paid off!