This Website Right Here
My personal website has been one of my largest endeavors, and I could not help but to give it its own section. I really do urge you to check out every link and every click. It took many, many hours of writing and formatting to share my message in as much detail as possible.
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This website contains so much information I actually had to wait until I had a more powerful computer at Penn State since my laptop would run unbearably slow.
Creating the Actual Website
Tracking Down Old Pictures, Documentation
Styles, Colors, and Formats
AWI Machine
When I was making my personal website, I wondered how my dad made his website. He and his brother founded the business 35 years ago, but he had to have a website now. After all I deal with companies on the digital scale every single day. So I checked it out and figured I could actually help him get a better product for a cheaper price.
The Old Website
It turns out that the first link google showed me wasn't even active anymore. Eventually, however, I did find a working link and checked it out. The website was functional, but it looks like it was made in 2002. Finding the domain information took a while but I was ready to build a completely new website. This was the one time I could help my father out with information that I know.
Their Current Situation
My dad and uncle decided to pay a third party business to create and maintain the website. That seems smart for two guys that know all about machining who don't want to waste time figuring out a whole new world of programming. However, communication was lost somewhere, and the website has not been touched in years.
Desired Improvements
Rather than go through a company again, I could create and maintain their website for dirt cheap, plus provide everything they wanted. After meeting with my uncle he told me he wanted to be able to update the website with pictures, have professional email domains, and have a website that is just as functional as their bigger competitors.
What Goes into Website Construction?
Understanding the Business
Although I have been around the shop, I was not familiar with the business side. Who they do business with, what areas do they target, and what products actually do were all questions I needed answered. Lucky for me, I had a few forms of direct communication.
Customer Needs
I had to find out specifics on what my father wanted. After all, I wanted a product that was not only effective, but made AWI happy. I soon determined the special features and structure of the new site from meeting with my uncle.
Research
I researched the different industries and the world of custom machining. I checked out how google displays websites and the SEO that would make the website most effective. Finally, I checked out competing websites to see the features that were successful.
Foundation
Now I was ready to produce some results. I compared 4 website builders and decided on the most effective one, Wix. Then, I quickly made three different designs and styles just so my elders knew what to expect.
Feedback
I presented all three websites and asked them to choose which features and style they liked the best. I also laid out for them the additional features and official details on pricing and schedules. Next, step was to take their feedback and put in the work.
Pictures and Text
I then proceeded to the technical work with building the pages and formatting based on AWI's needs. Over time, I filled in information into each description and title. I even had a good friend stop by and take more professional photos which really advanced the visuals.
Completion
Feedback and Modifications
Again, I presented the website to my dad and executed on his feedback. I created a different logo, adjusted images, and replaced text to his needs. This cycle repeated a few more times before the new AWI website was final. I had to adjust images to their likeness and even used Photoshop to remove a few things.
Features
I corrected many downfalls of the old website and provided to my customers every feature they wanted. I had highly visible contact information, organized products and industries, created a professional email, advertised careers, and provided an easy editing system.
Publication
After about a month, I finally finished the website. I had to set up their payment system for Wix and the new email; I also sorted out the domain issue with some emails and phone calls. I soon published and displayed my work for the world.
Future Performance
Since I am in complete control of the website, I am excited to see how the website performs. I will be checking in with my dad for feedback from customers and also looking into the online search engine optimization results. I am quite excited for the next few months.
Continuous Improvement
Not everyone has the opportunity to run an actual companies website. I figured I should take advantage of the exposure to the business of the internet. My next step was to run ad campaigns on both Bing and Google to drive traffic. Using free vouchers that I received, I ran campaigns for about a month.
Analytics and Advertising
Analytics
Just to clarify, I am not a marketing major, nor am I continuing an online business. Most business in this sector is not spontaneously sought out on google. However, I do have great opportunity to learn about internet analytics.
Search Advertising
The business of search is that you pay Google to display your website when certain keywords are searched, then google charges per click. Because I received free vouchers when i set up my website, I am advertising on both Bing and Google.
Building the Ads
I wrote several typical ads to explain the company in a few phrases, and more importantly, to entice the reader to click.
Targeted Optimization
As hinted to previously, data is collected. I can then tailor my ads to be sent out to the best users. In my case, location was the largest contributor, but time of day, age, gender, and device were options I could consider.
Results!
After about one month, and $250
Traffic Increase
The first apparent benefit is the obvious boost in traffic. In the graph to the right, traffic tripled over the period of advertising. Overall, I generated over 100 clicks just from the advertising.
Impressions from Changing Ads
I would experiment with wording, keyword, budget for best results. Through Bing's service, over 13,000 people saw an AWI ad over 40 days.
Keyword
Shown to the right is the keywords that users interacted with. Ultimately the performance of the advertising should be positive since the right users are coming to the website and are looking for AWI.
Takeaways
After my advertising adventure, I can conclude that companies can buy clicks. However even with accurate keywords and targeting, user behavior is much harder to buy. There is a huge chasm between the users that found AWI from the direct URL or a normal google search compared to the ad users. Therefore any volume increase is meaningless since the users do not explore the site. However, a silver lining is that the experiment does improve the site's popularity which improves its SEO and then drives more growth.
Learned
Inter-workings of Wix
Effecient Information Storage
How Google Displays Websites
Internet Business Strategy
Machinists Do Not Want to Learn Internet Skills
Functions of AWI Machine
Collaboration With a Common Goal
Write Questions Down Before Meeting
You Can Never Have Too Many Pictures
Websites Can Be Very Complicated, But Also Simple
It Is Difficult to Write About Yourself
Balancing Projects
Document Everything
Microsoft Advertising
Google Adwords
Google Analytics
Internet SEO
Mobile and Desktop