Carrie Hill
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Carrie Hill

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About Carrie Hill

Carrie Hill is the co-founder of Ignitor Digital, along with long-time colleague Mary Bowling. After years working for other agencies and learning the ins and outs of great customer service, Carrie and Mary opened Ignitor Digital to serve the small and very small business with top-quality Local Search, SEO and Social Media services. When not working, Carrie loves to cook for friends and family, hang out with her pretty awesome kids, and read books that have little-to-no educational value!

Carrie Hill's latest articles

Google

Gathering New Keyword Insights In A (Not Provided) World

Not Provided is all anyone is talking about these days — with good reason. Holding data hostage and forcing users to buy ads to see it is pretty dirty pool, in my opinion. Most of my clients cannot lay out the money just to grab data, so we’ve had to come up with some creative […]

Local

Local Businesses, Ensure Your AdWords Accounts Are On Target

Paid Advertising Platforms are growing exponentially on what seems like a weekly basis. What once was Keywords + Ad + Bid = Money has now become a full-time job. Bid adjustments, rules, remarketing, extensions, day-parting, local or geographic targeting, modified broad match, and more — the vocabulary alone is a struggle for small business owners […]

Analytics & conversion

Google Analytics Rolls Out Solutions Gallery

The quest for the right Google Analytics dashboard, custom report or advanced segment generally begins with a problem that you cannot solve. Until now, you searched for others with your same problem and hoped they shared the solution in a blog post so you didn’t have to figure it out all by yourself. While there’s real value […]

Analytics & conversion

Analytics For The New Social Media Manager

I have been astounded at the number of social media jobs brands large and small have created over the last year. With each month, more brands realize that Social media isn’t an afterthought; it’s something that takes time, strategy, attention and even aggression to keep ahead of the pack. With all of these new positions come a […]

Google

Reporting On Social Media Engagement

I was in this industry when people were starting to throw around the phrase Web 2.0. Video marketing was in its infancy, Facebook was only for college students, and MySpace was where you sold things to a 12-year-old. Along with my time in the industry, social media has grown from a conversation we had with […]

Analytics & conversion

A Primer On AdWords Remarketing Using Google Analytics

Remarketing has been around for quite a while as part of the Google AdWords suite of tools. Remarketing works by creating a “list” or “audience” within Google AdWords. The pages that are pertinent to that audience are tagged with special code that allows Google to place a cookie in the browser of anyone who visits […]

Analytics & conversion

Figure Out What Is Important, Then Measure It

As search marketers, we are constantly digging around in analytics, finding data, thinking it looks neat, then stepping back and saying, “But is this important?” I’ve done this a million times, and recently came across a quote that put some of what I’m always looking for into perspective. Don’t make the measurable things important but […]

Analytics & conversion

Virtual Pageviews Or Event Tracking – Which Is Right For You?

An interesting challenge came across my desk this week. A site owner had installed a new contact form plugin on their WordPress website and they were struggling with tracking the submissions. The form submit button triggered some JavaScript and didn’t then open its own thank you page within the site. The problem? Virtual Pageviews were previously chosen […]

Analytics & conversion

Are You In Danger Of An Online Traffic Crisis?

As relative newcomers to the world of analytics and site and revenue improvements through analytics, many clients ask me about the traffic sources chart in their Google dashboard:   Why is this important? I give one explanation of this as a measure of “Are my eggs all in one basket?” and “What happens if they […]

Analytics & conversion

A Beginner’s Guide To Setting Goals In Google Analytics

When I first started using Google Analytics, my “goal” was to not run away screaming. The intense amount of information, seemingly disconnected, made understanding what I needed so overwhelming. In my last article,we talked about the basic reports you should watch as a beginner. This week, we’re going to work on how to make Google Analytics […]

Analytics & conversion

3 Metrics Google Analytics Beginners Should Watch

The first login to a Google Analytics account can be daunting. There are so many things to see, and so many different ways to tweak data, that deciding which are the most important metrics to watch can be an insurmountable decision. Ultimately, in my opinion, you are the only one who can decide what metrics […]

Analytics & conversion

Event Tracking 101 For Google Analytics

Setting up Analytics accounts has evolved beyond installing “generated” scripts on pages and calling it a day. What started with the advent of software that told us how many “hits” we got a day has evolved into a sophisticated decision assistance engine, and keeping up on the new and cutting edge offers full time employment […]

Content

Is Your Blog An Asset Or A Liability?

I analyze websites every day, as well as a lot of Facebook pages, and a ton of blogs attached to websites and Facebook pages. I realized something this week. There are a lot of junktastical blogs out there, and I now wonder why people have even added this feature to their site. Here’s the truth….you […]

Content

How To Use Automated Rules In Google AdWords

When I first started down this 6-lane highway called Online Marketing over six years ago, we used an absolutely archaic bid management software whose name escapes me. I want to say it was a Yahoo! (or precursor to Yahoo!) product, and basically it automated our bids so they would go up and down based on […]

Content

How To & When To Use Product And Sitelink Ad Extensions

A few weeks ago, we went over the pros and cons of using Phone Extensions and Location Extensions in your AdWords campaigns. This week, I’d like to finish up our AdWords Extension feature by running through the best practices for using Site Extensions and Product Extensions. Using Product Extensions In Adwords Being in the travel […]

Google Analytics

Remarketing For Everyone With Google AdWords

It seems every few months a new feature of Google AdWords rolls out destined to make it easier for the do-it-yourselfer to compete with the big-wigs in Google Sponsored Results. Earlier this year, Google made it easier for small-to-medium size business owners to compete with larger international competitors within the display advertising arena. What changed? […]

Google Analytics

Using PPC Ads To Fine Tune Your Organic Ad Copy

I’m a huge fan of treating Page Titles and Meta Descriptions as ad copy. Using language that speaks to a person’s motivation for shopping and buying will encourage the click through when your listing appears organically, as well as in a paid position. The problem Having a “testing” environment for organic ad copy has, until […]

SEO

Thanks, Coach! What John Wooden Taught Me About SEM

As I was searching for a topic for this article, the news has come in that legendary UCLA coach John Wooden has passed away. Not only was he a coaching legend, he was an extraordinary mentor and a damn fine human being. From what I’m seeing on Twitter, I probably won’t be the only Search […]

Platforms

Secret Sauce: Leverage Outside Listings To Help Local Rankings

Google Maps (or Local, or Places, or whatever it is calling itself this month) is the bane of my existence. Well, maybe 3rd place behind Bing and Yahoo PPC platforms…but you catch my meaning. Inevitably, I can expect at least one phone call or email a week from a client asking why they’re not showing […]

SEO

Are You Overwhelming Your Visitors?

Are you overwhelming your visitors? Generally in this column, I offer step by step instructions to figure out a part of Search Engine Marketing on your own from the comfort of your favorite chair. This week’s column may deviate from that just a bit (maybe even a borderline rant) because I’m currently being bombarded by […]

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