Digital Marketing Exam 2
Know the five elements of ad copy
(1) *Final URL*: The final URL is the URL of the landing page that customers will be taken to when they click on the ad. This full URL is not shown to searchers, because it may be too long to display on the screen. Even though searchers do not see the final URL, it can be considered the most important part of the ad, because if it is incorrect, the searcher will be taken to the wrong page of the website, or worse yet, may be sent to a broken, nonexistent page (where they will lose the visitor but still pay for the click). (2) *Headlines*: Advertisers can create as many three headlines. Headlines can be up to 30 characters long. Google often changes the configuration of ads (e.g., it may put all three headlines on the same line or it may move the third headline to the second line) when its algorithms indicate that a particular configuration will lead to a higher click-through rate, so an advertiser can never be confident exactly how the ad will show up on the SERP. (3) *Path*: The path, also called the display URL, is the simplified URL that is shown to searchers. This can simply be the domain name, or the advertiser can indicate to the searcher what kind of page the ad leads to by specifying further URL specifics. The State Farm ad from Figure 6.3.1 indicated to searchers that the ad would lead them to a CarInsuranceQuote page rather than just to www.statefarm.com. The Path fields have a 15-character limit. (4) *Description(s)*: Advertisers can write one or two description lines, which can be up to 90 characters long. An advertiser would typically expect to see the description displayed below the headlines, but Google often changes the configuration of the description, for example by putting the description next to headline 3. (5) *Ad extensions*: The parts already discussed (the final URL, headlines, path, and description) make up a "typical" search ad. Interestingly, however, "typical" search ads have become more rare than common. Instead, most ads now are displayed with one or more extensions. The State Farm ad in Figure 5.3.1 was displayed with three ad extensions: (1) a review extension, (2) a consumer ratings extension, and (3) a sitelinks extension, in that order. Advertisers do not have the ability to control when these types of ads with ad extensions appear, but each advertiser does have the ability to opt in to each ad extension individually. Other ad extensions include the following: Location extensions to display store addresses with a link to Google Maps Offer extensions to include printable coupons for offline purchases Shopping star review ad extensions Reservation extensions for travel/hospitality Call extensions to allow mobile searchers to call the store directly These extensions are typically effective in helping an ad stand out and can boost an ad's click-through rate (CTR). A complete list of the various extensions offered by Google can be found here.
Know the different types of ad extensions
(1) a review extension, (2) a consumer ratings extension, and (3) a sitelinks extension, in that order. Advertisers do not have the ability to control when these types of ads with ad extensions appear, but each advertiser does have the ability to opt in to each ad extension individually. Other ad extensions include the following: Location extensions to display store addresses with a link to Google Maps Offer extensions to include printable coupons for offline purchases Shopping star review ad extensions Reservation extensions for travel/hospitality Call extensions to allow mobile searchers to call the store directly These extensions are typically effective in helping an ad stand out and can boost an ad's click-through rate (CTR).
Know the four factors influence the choice of target search phrases
*1. Relevance*- Relevance is the most important consideration in choosing target search phrases. The overall proportion of searchers with "commercial intent" is usually lower with more generic keywords. *2. Traffic*- Keyword relevance has to be balanced with keyword search demand. There is no benefit to ranking for a search phrase that no one searches. All else being equal, a website should target search phrases with a higher level of search traffic. Many tools exist for estimating the search volume of various phrases. *3. Competition*- If hundreds of websites are already targeting a particular search phrase, a new website may never have success ranking for that phrase, particularly if some of those websites are behemoths like Amazon.com or Overstock.com. A good way to estimate competition is to just search for a keyword phrase and see (1) which websites show up and (2) whether the links to those websites (i.e. the page title tag that is displayed on the SERP) are optimized perfectly for the keyword (a webpage that is "perfectly optimized" for a multi-word phrase would have the phrase in its exact word order) A small website is more likely to have success targeting long tail keyword phrases with lower competition *4. Current Ranking*- Existing websites are typically striving continuously for better rankings, so they need to invest their SEO efforts into keywords and keyword phrases that are likely to have the largest impact. Consider a website that currently ranks for five search phrases, and their rankings for those five search phrases are 1, 7, 14, 25, and 157. We would expect that almost all of their organic search traffic is coming from the first two phrases, and they are receiving almost no search traffic from the last three keyword phrases. On which keyword should they work to improve their ranking? If they work to improve the ranking of the last keyword, they might improve from rank 157 to 87, which would be a large improvement, but they still would receive no traffic from that keyword. If they focus instead on the third keyword, and improve their ranking from 14 to 9, they would be on the first page of search results and they would see a drastic increase in search traffic from this term. Moving higher up on the first page of the SERP also produces large increases in traffic, so working to improve the ranking of the second keyword would also be beneficial.
Know different ways of creating high-quality webpages
*A primary source of information on the quality of a webpage is the number of links from other webpages directed at that webpage. We will discuss backlinks in the next chapter. But search engines can also glean a lot of information about the quality of a webpage based on the information it finds on the webpage itself as well as based on the behavior of searchers when they interact with the page* *1. Short Load Times*: If a website takes even a few seconds to load, users are likely to become frustrated. Search engines measure load times for pages on a website and will provide lower rankings to websites with long load times. If a website has long load times, its developer needs to diagnose the problem and consider how to effectively decrease load times. Tactical examples may include getting dedicated hosting, compressing images, removing bloated code or plugins, hosting images off-site, and so on. *2. Low Bounce Rate from Landing Page*: If a user on a search engine clicks on a webpage but then very quickly clicks the "back" button, this action is called a bounce. A bounce clearly signals to the search engine that the webpage did not provide the sought-for information. An accurate title and meta description should help keep a page's bounce rate low. Companies can also keep their bounce rate low by making sure their content is well written and relevant to the target search term. *3. Meta Description and Snippets*: The meta description of a webpage is a short (160 characters) description of the webpage content. It is included in the content of the page, like the Title Tag, and it is not displayed to visitors. However, search engines show the meta description to searchers along with the webpage's title tag, so a well-written meta description can help increase traffic by generating a high click-through rate. (Sometimes Google displays some other snippet of text from the webpage instead of the meta description.) Webmasters should not copy and paste meta descriptions, because having unique meta descriptions on each page is a quality signal. (However, Google has stated that it does not base rankings on click-through rate, though many career SEOs do not believe Google). *4. Fresh Content*: Active, reputable companies typically want to provide their customers with important news. They can do this through a press section or through a company blog. Regular updates to these sections of a website are a positive signal to the search engines that the website belongs to an active, reputable company. *5. Quantity Content.*: In general, search engine users are more likely to find valuable information on a website with lots of content rather than a website with limited content. This quantity includes both the numbers of pages within the website as well as the amount of content on a given page. Every page should have at least 100 words of content, and much more than 100 words when possible. *6. Quality Content.*: RRankBrain, Google's artificial intelligence system for improving rankings, is becoming increasingly sophisticated and its measurement of the quality of a webpage is continually becoming more precise and accurate. This implies that SEO efforts should focus more on creating quality content rather than formatting that content for the benefit of search engines. All of the above indicators of quality will continue to matter because RankBrain is likely using them to determine a webpage's quality. But the increased sophistication of Google's algorithm means website managers can trust that their ranking is a good reflection of the quality of their site. If they focus their efforts on improving the quality of their site, better rankings will likely follow.
Know the auction bidding method for Google Adword (actual vs. maximum cpc)
*Actual CPC* This auction model Google uses is called a second-price auction. In a second-price auction, the winner does not pay what he bid but instead pays a penny more than the bid of the next-highest bidder. In Google Ads, rather than paying the CPC amount he bid, an advertiser will pay one penny more than the bid of the advertiser below him. This is amount you pay.
Know the roles and relationship between advertisers, display network, and publishers.
*Display Network* - A display network consists of a group of online publishers (typically media websites) that agree to a set of advertising standards dictated by the company managing the ad network. - The display network dictates ad sizes that can be displayed on publisher websites. - The display network coordinates which ads are displayed on which websites at which time. - The display network collects payment from advertisers and pays publishers their portion of the advertising revenue. - The display network reports the ad performance metrics to the advertisers. *Publishers* - A publisher wishing to join the ad network must create an account with the display ad network. - The website must fit the specifications dictated by the ad network, including correctly sized spaces set aside for advertisements. - Publishers tell the display ad network what types of content it publishes on its site. - Publishers are paid a percentage of the revenue the display ad network charges advertisers. *Advertisers* - Advertisers create and upload ads that meet the specifications of the display ad network. - Advertisers manage their ad budgets on the display ad platform provided by the display ad network. - Advertisers set parameters regarding the types of sites on which they would like to run their ads. - Advertisers receive reports on where their ads were displayed. - Advertisers earn traffic to their website from these displayed ads. Through this method, all three parties can benefit: The advertiser makes money from the traffic to their website that comes from hundreds or thousands of different websites, but the advertiser only has to coordinate the ads with the one ad network. The display ad network makes money by charging the advertiser to display the ads on the network. The publisher gets paid a percentage of the revenue made each time the display network charges an advertiser, but the publisher also only has to coordinate with the ad network rather than hundreds of advertisers.
how to get manual links
*Submitting to directories*: Directories are websites that catalog links to other websites. They organize these links by categories and subcategories. Through submission to a directory, the site gains a link, but some directories are in bad link neighborhoods, so the link may not be beneficial. As a rule of thumb, sites should only be submitted to directories that are likely to actually send traffic to the website (rather than just provide a link). A restaurant should be listed in local city directory sites and on restaurant-specific directories like Yelp and Urbanspoon. Special note: Be certain that the name, address, and phone number are the exact same in every directory listing. This consistency will help search engines match up the listing with all of the other places a business is listed online. *Local business profiles*: Most search engines allow business owners to create and manage profiles to provide better information for their map services, including Google My Business, Yahoo Small Business, and Bing Places. A business owner should create profiles on each of these sites and ensure that all information is complete and accurate. *Social bookmarking sites*: Bookmarking sites like Pinterest and Stumbleupon allow users to save and share links to websites. A webmaster can link to her website either through her profile page or through the links she saves/shares. Although these links may provide minimal SEO value, they can be a good source of legitimate traffic and can help others find her content. *Social networking sites*: Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter allow business owners or website owners to create profiles with a place to specify a link to their site. A webmaster should not create a social profile for the sole purpose of generating a link, but it is advantageous to have an active social media profile that links back to the company's website. An active social media presence signals to search engines that a website or business is legitimate and deserves to rank well. *Asking for links*: Businesses can often gain numerous backlinks by asking various groups to link to them, including (1) websites that currently mention the business but do not link to it, (2) websites linking to the business's competitors, but not to the business, (3) customers or business partners of the business, (4) attendees of events sponsored by the business, and (5) organizations of which the business is a member. A business should strive for links that will drive traffic to the website, not just show search engines that it has another link. (Note: Citations without an accompanying link can still be beneficial for a website. A citation is a mention of the company's website without a link. For example, a local chamber of commerce website might list Bucky's Contracting as a member but not link to Bucky's website. Search engines would give Bucky's website credit for this citation, though a link would be better.) *Trading links* "You link to my site, and I'll link to yours." Such quid pro quo linking typically does not help either party. Search engines can easily detect these reciprocal links and keep them from aiding SEO. However, sometimes the linking relationship may help both websites by sending qualified traffic. These partnership opportunities should not be overlooked. *Guest blogging*: Blogs need to create fresh content and many blog owners allow others to submit content for the blog, usually in exchange for some exposure and a link to the author's website. Guest blogging was considered standard practice for many years as a way to gain links, but a few years ago Google took a hard stance against sites that appear to only use this practice for SEO purposes—usually by guest blogging on low-quality websites using low-quality content with very deliberate anchor text links. More natural guest-blogging approaches on higher-quality websites can be a good source of links.
how to get manufactured links
- *Blog comments*. Many blogs allow readers to comment on posts. A business owner can easily generate thousands of links by commenting on these blogs and including a link back to her website in these comments, but search engines do not give much credit to these links and may penalize sites that appear to use them in high amounts. Leaving a good blog comment with a link to one's content that contributes to the discussion may end up being very valuable, but usually more for traffic purposes than for SEO. - *Forum signatures*. Internet forums, or message boards, allow internet users to engage in written conversations. Typically, each post in the conversation includes identifying information about the person posting. On some forums, users can make this information an image that links back to her website, thereby creating another means of generating thousands of links quickly, but such links have little value. *Free article directories*. These sites allow any "expert" to write an article in her area of expertise, usually including links back to her own website. Because these sites have little to no quality control, these articles are low quality, are rarely read, and are often part of link schemes that can lead to all participating sites being penalized. *Creation of secondary site*. Creating an entirely new site for the sole purpose of linking back to one's primary site might seem like a good idea, but search engines can easily determine that the secondary site is not "real."
Know the different types of targeting for Google Display Ad Planner
- Demographics - Audiences - Content
Know how to maximize relevance- Title vs. header tag
- Title Tag. The title tag of a webpage shows up at the top of a browser when one navigates to that page. For example, the bedroom furniture subcategory page on Overstock.com has the following title tag: "Bedroom Furniture | Overstock.com: Buy Mattresses, Beds, & Dressers Online," which is displayed at the top of the browser when visiting this page. Along with the URL, the title tag receives heavy weighting in calculating relevance, so a webpage should have the target keyword phrase in its title tag. In addition, the title tag is displayed on the SERP. Typically, the keyword phrase should be the first thing in the title tag, followed by the brand name, separated by a pipe text (the '|' symbol). Title tags should be kept under 60 characters long. - Header Tags. Within the HTML code of a website, header tags (‹h1› and ‹/h1› or ‹h2› and ‹/h2›, etc.) surround the word or phrase that gives a title or label to sections of the webpage. (The ‹h1› tag is the largest header; the ‹h2› tag is the second-largest header, etc.) The words inside a header tag receive more weight in the relevance calculation, so the target keyword phrase should be in the header 1 tag. Subsections of a webpage should be given smaller header tags (‹h2› tags or ‹h3› tags if needed). Using header tags has the dual benefit of making a website's content more easily browsed by users and giving search engines stronger clues as to the topic of its content.
Black Hat Tactics
- duplicate content - invisible text and stuffed keywords - cloaking or redirecting the user to another site - links from sites with non relevant content
White Hat Tactics
- relevant content - well labeled images - relevant links and references - complete sentences with good spelling and grammar - standards compliant html -unique and relevant page titles
manufactured links
-Created by the owner of the site without third party approval. Because of their low quality, manufactured links are best avoided. Many sites have been penalized for automating the creation of these kinds of links. The list of techniques is provided below so that one can be aware of these practices and understand what makes them risky.
editorial links
-Review sites links (pure endorsement because they like your site) Gaining editorial links is always difficult, because a webmaster has no control over other people's websites and where those websites link to. Aside from employing a few tricks, a long-term strategy for building editorial links consists of (1) creating high-quality, linkable content and (2) "greasing the wheels," i.e., conducting outreach to increase the volume of webmasters linking to that content.
manual links
-Submit site links to the directory. Though some kinds of manual links do less to improve rankings than editorial links, they are more reliable and easier to acquire than editorial links and can still provide a rankings boost. But they do require some caution, because they may generate a high number of low-quality links, putting a site in a bad link neighborhood.
how to get editorial links
1) *Linkable Content*: Create content other webmasters consider worth linking to. The next step is to determine a location on the website where this content should reside. -----*Visual content*: Infographics, which are small graphic representations of information, are more likely to earn links than are essays. -------*Expertise*: Expert knowledge and/or advice summarized in one page can prove valuable to anyone who has a website focused on that topic area. An additional benefit of expert knowledge is that the links gained from it are likely to come from topically related sites, which are more valuable for ranking purposes. ------*Videos*: For many people, a video is inherently more interesting than any other type of content. An interesting video or funny commercial about one's business can generate backlinks in a variety of ways. First, if the video is on YouTube, it can link back to the website from the YouTube page. Second, bloggers will likely share and embed the video and mention the company with a link. Third, if the video includes newsworthy content, news stations might cover the video and share the story with their viewers. -------*Press releases*: News organizations are constantly looking for worthwhile stories. If a business is doing something unique or newsworthy, a press release will notify these news organizations of that event. If they decide to do a story on a particular business, they are likely to include links to the business's website. ------*Other Content Types*: It is impossible to list all of the types of content that have the potential to earn a site a large number of backlinks. 2) Greasing the wheels: If a webpage has buzz-worthy content, a webmaster can take additional steps to maximize exposure and potential for link acquisition. ----*Provide Embed Code for Visual Content*. If a page has interesting visual content to which another website may want to link (infographics, videos, etc.), that website may prefer to post some of the content on its own site. Providing a short snippet of code that the webmaster can use to put that content on his own website encourages this. By providing the code, a business owner can ensure that code links back to her own website. ----- *Do Some Networking*. Any website a successful or semi-successful site chooses to link to may receive a large boost in its rankings. Knowing this, one is more likely to link to a site whose owners one knows and likes on a personal level. New website owners should work to build up a personal network of other people running websites in their industry. ----- *Follow up* . Any website that has linked to another site's content or embedded one of the latter's videos has demonstrated an interest in that content. The linked-to website owner could contact the webmasters of such sites directly and suggest other content on her site or notify the webmasters of newly posted content. Additionally, by doing periodic searches on her own site's name, an owner may find other sites that have mentioned hers by name or by brand without linking to it. The owner can contact these sites and request that they provide a link along with this mention. ---- *Investigate the Competition*. Any competitors that outrank your website on the SERP likely have more backlinks and better backlinks than you. By examining the link profile of competitors' websites, you can learn about sites that might be interested in linking to your content. In addition, you may also get ideas about types of content within your industry that attracts links. (It should be obvious that you would not want to copy this content, but rather use it to help you come up with your own content.) Here, as well as for keyword research, tools like SEMRush, AHRefs, and SEOQuake can be invaluable if your company's SEO budget is sufficient to justify such an expense.
Know the characteristics of effective display ad
1. Attract attention - The website visitor the ad hopes to reach is reading/watching/browsing other content. The ads are (figuratively and literally) a sideshow. An effective ad must attract the visitor's attention away from the main content of the page. 2. Communicate a value proposition - The ad can only induce action from the potential customer if it communicates to the customer why the product or service being advertised is worth purchasing/adopting. 3. Invite action - Effectively communicating a value proposition might be enough to invite a web user to click on the ad or to purchase the product later, but effective banner ads typically feature a call to action (CTA), an explicit invitation to click the ad.
Know the steps for keyword research
1. Search For Yourself. First, imagine being in the shoes of a potential customer. Sit down at the computer, think about what those customers would search, and start typing in what comes to mind. What keywords would they type in? Take special note of what Google Auto-Suggests, as shown in Figure 6.2.1. Figure 6.2.1 2. Competitive Research. While searching from the perspective of a shopper, take special note of who is advertising for those keywords. Using keyword research tools, input their URL to estimate what those competitors pay per click to advertise on those keywords. One can also gain insights into what other keywords they have selected as relevant places to advertise, and determine if competing on those same keywords is possible. If not, consider variations of those keywords where the competition may not be choosing to advertise. Could those be potentially lucrative keywords? NOTE: SpyFu.com, SEMRush.com, and KeywordSpy.com are tools that can be used for online advertising competitive research. 3. Google Keyword Planner. The tools just mentioned are useful for creating a thorough keyword list, but they are costly. Advertisers with a lower budget should probably stick with Google's Keyword Planner tool, which is free. Figure 6.2.2 is a screenshot from Google's Keyword Planner tool: Figure 6.2.2 - Based on the information provided above, a company can make data-driven decisions about which keywords it wants to add to its ad campaign. Here are four initial things to consider for each keyword: • Searcher Intent. Think about what the searcher wants and what your website provides. For example, if the Bart's Water Sports website does not include consumer reviews for each wakeboard it sells, then wakeboard reviews should likely be added to the negative keyword list. Otherwise, Bart will end up paying for clicks from a searcher who wants to see reviews before buying and thus is unlikely to convert on Bart's website. • Average Monthly Searches. These data can be used to project how many impressions and clicks an ad can acquire in any given month. By clicking on the graph icon to the left of the average search volume number, one can see how many times each keyword was searched over the last 12 months. High search volume keywords will usually drive more impressions and clicks in general, but even keywords with low search volumes can often generate valuable traffic. •. Level of Competition. High-competition keywords mean that relative to other keywords, a higher number of advertisers bid on that keyword. Keywords with high search volume and low competition are ideal for getting the most traffic for the least amount of money. Keywords with low search volume and high competition tend to send less traffic and cost more money per click, but sometimes the high CPC is justified because these keywords convert at higher rates. • Suggested Bid. Using historical data, Google looks at what other advertisers are paying per click to advertise on that keyword. Advertisers use this information to determine how much they can expect to pay per click to advertise on specific keywords. Because of the unknown variables of each advertiser, it is not the exact amount that each advertiser will pay, but it does provide a close estimate.
Know the three ways to stay consistent with ads and landing pages.
1. Tout the same value propositions. 2. Use similar calls to action. 3. Enact the same design elements (color scheme, characters, fonts, imagery, etc.)
Link freshness
A high-quality website will continue to receive new backlinks. If a page stops generating new backlinks, the search engine assumes the page's content is no longer relevant or valuable to people.
Backlinks from related/relevant website
All else being equal, the more people who like you, the more popular you are. In the same vein, the more webpages that cite a webpage, the more popular the search engines consider that page to be.
Total number of Backlinks
All else being equal, the more people who like you, the more popular you are. In the same vein, the more webpages that cite a webpage, the more popular the search engines consider that page to be.
Know the importance of PPC for Google (read the intro of chapter 6)
Before Google became one of the most profitable companies in history, it built a worldwide user base of people that were searching for information about anything and everything online. Back then there were no ads, and Google made very little money. In October of 2000, AdWords, a method for companies to pay to advertise on Google, was launched. Here is the AdWords official press release. The widespread use of Google as one of the most popular search engines, plus the user-friendliness of the online ad-buying platform, caused AdWords to swiftly gain popularity from online advertisers and ad agencies. To this day, Google still makes more money from its search ads (now a part of its Google Ads platform and no longer called AdWords) than from all of its other revenue sources combined. Almost 90% of Google's revenue comes from ads purchased through the Google Ads platform. All of the search engines today have adopted the same pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model used by Google's search ads. In this model, search engines charge advertisers each time their ad is clicked, which means the advertisers don't have to pay for their ad to show up in the sponsored section of search results. They only have to pay when searchers read their ad and decide to click through to the website. This chapter is dedicated to PPC advertising on search engines, sometimes referred to as search engine marketing (SEM). This chapter discusses why search engines make tens of billions of dollars annually through this model, but more importantly, it offers actionable insights into how a website owner can effectively use this advertising platform. Search engine advertising drives more new website traffic than any other online advertising method, and no other advertising method enables a more precise targeting of ready-to-purchase customers. Additionally, a site owner can measure the effectiveness of search engine advertising more reliably than any other method of advertising. Because of these many benefits, no website should overlook search engine advertising.
Know the difference between CPC, CPM, and CPA
CPM stands for cost-per-mille, mille being Latin for one thousand. In the land of online media, media companies charge advertisers for impressions, which are counted in 1000s. Let's say you want to charge $10 per 1000 impressions on your blog, that means that you will charge $10 for every 1000 people who see an advertisement. The way that online advertisers count impressions is by page views, so 1000 pageviews equals 1000 impressions for each ad on the page. If you have 10 ads on the page—voila! You've got 10,000 impressions. At $10 per 1000 impressions, that's $100! How do advertisers determine how much they will pay for each impression? Black magic! Seriously, there are standard ranges, but as any good sales person knows, it's all about how you pitch it. CPM rates can vary from $0.25 to $200, or more. Media companies tend to be able to charge higher rates if a) the advertiser is selling a higher cost good (like fancy watches or electronics) and b) the advertiser believes that the audience is a particularly good fit for their product and particularly prone to open their wallets. CPC stands for cost-per-click. This is the rate that websites charge advertisers every time someone clicks on an ad. If the CPC for a site is $50, and an ad gets clicked 1000 times over the course of the month, the advertiser pays the publisher $50,000. Google is famous for their cost-per-click ad selling strategy—all of those Google Ads you see on your search results or next to your email? Google only charges those advertisers if you actually click on the ad. If no one clicks, Google makes no money. Looking to only pay for ads that drive action? Then you want to check out CPA or cost-per-action (also known as pay-per-performance (PPM) or cost-per-acquisition (CPA)). When a media company charges an advertiser using a CPA model, the advertiser only pays out if a user clicks AND does a specific ACTION. What does that action have to be? Depends on the advertiser! If Skillcrush ran ads we might pay only for users who signed up for our newsletter. Amazon, on the other hand, might pay only for users who actually bought a book.
Display Marketing
Display marketing is advertising on graphical screens on the internet. The advertising media used are images, videos or animations, as well as text links and moving images, which are delivered on various end devices such as desktop PCs or smartphones.
Example of remarketing?
In the Overstock.com example, a visitor to Overstock.com was later shown Overstock ads on three different (and unrelated) websites, because Overstock.com purchased retargeting ads, or ads targeted at web users who had previously visited Overstock.com. By purchasing retargeting ads, Overstock.com hopes to induce return visits from customers, as the graphic below illustrates.
What is paid search marketing?
In this model, search engines charge advertisers each time their ad is clicked, which means the advertisers don't have to pay for their ad to show up in the sponsored section of search results. They only have to pay when searchers read their ad and decide to click through to the website.
Know what is long tail keywords vs. fat head keywords
Long tail keywords are multi-word phrases that are extended or more specific versions of a core fat head term. Earrings is a fat head term with higher search volume, whereas sterling silver earrings, gold earrings online, or what is the best way to clean earrings are all examples of long tail keyword terms. Of course, long tail keywords typically have lower search volume, but they are often more relevant and easier to rank for than more generic terms. An additional benefit to targeting long tail terms is that one webpage can rank well for multiple long tail terms when the words are similar. In combination, multiple long tail terms can add up to a significant amount of traffic and drive worthwhile revenues.
Anchor text
Many backlinks use anchor text that indicates the topic of the link. For example, "Here's a great site on fly-fishing." If the anchor text of the backlinks to a page uses relevant keywords, the value of these endorsements increases. One important caveat, however, is that with the Penguin update, Google penalizes websites with unnatural backlink profiles, such as anchor text that is perfect on an overly high proportion of backlinks.
What is on-site SEO?
On-site SEO deals with the formatting of content on the website to maximize its chances of ranking for all desired searches. Search engines can partially judge the quality of a website based only on what it sees on the website itself. Search engines glean additional information about the quality of a website based on what people are saying about it, and those reports come in the form of links to the website from other websites.
Know what is product listing ads
Product listing ads are also known as PLA ads or Google Shopping ads. In short, they're online advertisements that companies pay for on a cost per click (CPC) basis. Therefore, if your online store were to take out a product listing ad on Google, you would only pay for the times when a user clicked on that ad.
Know what is remarketing?
Remarketing or retargeting is the practice of displaying ads to web users who have already visited that site. Google allows advertisers to target people who have previously visited the advertiser's website. This is known as "retargeting" in the industry as a whole, but called "remarketing" by Google. Everyone that has visited any page on the advertiser's site •Anyone that has visited only the advertiser's homepage •Visitors that did NOT make a purchase •Visitors that added an item to the shopping cart •Customers that made a previous purchase that the advertiser would like to up-sell or cross-sell •Visitors that have been to the advertiser's site within a specific time period (usually 30-90 days)
Understand figure 4.2.4
Search engines calculate the relevance of a keyword phrase to a webpage and not to a website. They do so because search engines display webpages, not websites, in the search results. Therefore, if we as a company have a list of 20 target keyword phrases we want to rank for, we do not want our homepage to show up for each of these 20 keywords. Instead, we want each keyword to produce the webpage that is most pertinent to the searched phrase. To accomplish this objective, we need to match each of our target keyword phrases to a page within the website. Once we have matched a keyword to a page, we can go down the list from Section 1 of this chapter to make sure we maximize the relevance of the page to that keyword. We may also end up creating new pages for specific keyword phrases. In general, we want to match broader keyword phrases with higher-level webpages (homepage or category pages) and more specific keyword phrases with lower-level webpages (subcategory pages or product pages). For example, consider a jewelry craftsperson who sells handmade earrings from her website. Consider that her list of target keyword phrases includes (among others): handmade earrings, hoop earrings, stud earrings, drop earrings, silver drop earrings, and pearl drop earrings. Most likely, she would map handmade earrings to her homepage; hoop earrings would map to a category page that would display her inventory of hoop earrings (or allow further navigation to more specific sets of hoop earrings); drop earrings would map to a category page that would display drop earrings; silver drop earrings and pearl drop earrings would each map to a subcategory page that displayed her selection of silver and pearl drop earrings, respectively, as illustrated in Figure 4.2.4 below. In determining to map handmade earrings to her homepage, she is attempting to ensure that search engines will give the homepage the highest relevance score for handmade earrings relative to any other keyword phrase. Likewise, when she maps drop earrings to the drop earrings category page, she would ensure that drop earrings is the keyword phrase the search engines find most relevant for that page. For example, consider a jewelry craftsperson who sells handmade earrings from her website. Consider that her list of target keyword phrases includes (among others): handmade earrings, hoop earrings, stud earrings, drop earrings, silver drop earrings, and pearl drop earrings. Most likely, she would map handmade earrings to her homepage; hoop earrings would map to a category page that would display her inventory of hoop earrings (or allow further navigation to more specific sets of hoop earrings); drop earrings would map to a category page that would display drop earrings; silver drop earrings and pearl drop earrings would each map to a subcategory page that displayed her selection of silver and pearl drop earrings, respectively, as illustrated in Figure 4.2.4 below. In determining to map handmade earrings to her homepage, she is attempting to ensure that search engines will give the homepage the highest relevance score for handmade earrings relative to any other keyword phrase. Likewise, when she maps drop earrings to the drop earrings category page, she would ensure that drop earrings is the keyword phrase the search engines find most relevant for that page.
Know how to maximize relevance- Main content
Search engines code up every word instance on a webpage to determine what the webpage is about. Therefore, a website wants to use its target keyword phrase at least once in the main content of the page. However, the phrase should only be used when it makes sense to the user. If the language on a website becomes stilted from overuse of a keyword phrase, the company has negatively affected its website user experience. In addition, inserting the keyword phrase too often is known as "keyword stuffing," which is a black-hat SEO tactic and one that is not effective, because search engines can easily guard against this practice. A rule of thumb from the past was to make the keyword phrase be 3% to 5% of the word count on the page, but those guidelines are no longer valid.
Know the difference between link profile and root domain's (site) link profile
Search engines determine the popularity of a webpage by examining that page's backlinks—links from external sources pointing to that webpage. This list of backlinks makes up what is known as that page's link profile. From this link profile, search engines calculate a webpage's popularity. The total number of backlinks is an important metric in determining popularity, but it is merely one of the several metrics a search engine considers when measuring a webpage's popularity. Search engines measure popularity from both the page's link profile as well as the link profile of the entire domain. The downside of this fact is that it complicates the task of determining how to improve rankings. The upside is that link-building activities for any pages of a site can benefit all the pages of that site.
Social Sharing
Search engines recognize that if people are posting links to a website on their social network profile, it has worthwhile content and deserves to rank well for relevant searches. As a result, people posting links to a website on social media can positively affect that site's rankings. Links on social media platforms almost universally contain a "nofollow" attribute, meaning they technically do not pass authority directly to the site, but most SEO experts believe the search engines are taking these links into account when determining rankings. An additional benefit of social sharing is that it generates buzz for a page, which could lead to additional links, which are more important for increasing a page's popularity. Although social sharing is increasing in importance, it remains less important than traditional link metrics as a measure of website popularity.
Link diversity
Search engines want to see evidence that a page's backlinks are the result of various webmasters independently endorsing the page, in which case, a page's backlinks are likely to come from a variety of different domains with different IP addresses. Thus, link diversity enhances the page's popularity. One metric that correlates highly with good search engine rankings is the number of unique linking root domains (number of unique websites that link to a site).
Link neighborhood.
Spam websites typically have lots of backlinks going to and from other spam websites. By linking only to reputable websites and receiving backlinks from reputable domains, a website can avoid being classified as spam.
Know the difference between UVP and CTA
The website's unique value proposition (UVP) is the single thing that sets the site apart from the competition. A CTA might be the last nudge that is needed to push the searcher over the edge and earn the advertiser a click.
natural outbound links
These links are natural, or organic, outbound links in that they are relevant and fit naturally into the article. They are citations the author uses for the reader's reference. Search engines favor these natural links. The goal in off-site SEO is to have as many reputable websites as possible link to one's website in this manner. Search engines consider links to a site an endorsement. The search engine infers that the webmaster created that link because he believes the linked-to site has valuable content. However, a webmaster may wish to link to another website but simultaneously instruct search engines that this link is not an endorsement.
internal links
These links take the site visitor elsewhere in the site. Having links from one page of your site to another is recommended. For site navigation purposes and user experience, these types of links are helpful. Also, search engine bots follow these links to find new content and to see what content is on the other page. Posting these links can help search engines and visitors discover your new content.
paid links
This ad links back to T-Mobile's website, but it is a paid-for link, so it should not be credited as a natural, endorsed link. Therefore, this image link will need a nofollow attribute attached.
Calculate CPA
Total Cost of (Campaign/Ad Group/Keyword) divided by the Total Number of Leads Recorded i.e. CPA = Total Cost/Total Number of Leads. As mentioned above, CPA can be calculated at various levels right from Campaigns to the Keywords.
Know the difference between final URL and Path
Users see path but not final url
Know how to maximize relevance- URL
Words in the URL receive heavy weighting in the calculation of relevance, so the target keyword phrase should be in the URL. For example, if the website were http://www.janeshandmadeearrings.com, and if the owner chose the keyword phrase drop earrings for a category page showing drop earrings, the URL for this page should be http://www.janeshandmadeearrings.com/Drop-Earrings.html. If she chose the keyword phrase silver drop earrings for a subcategory page, the URL for that subcategory page should be http://www.janeshandmadeearrings.com/Drop-Earrings/Silver-Drop-Earrings.html.
Know what is NoFollow means?
a webmaster may wish to link to another website but simultaneously instruct search engines that this link is not an endorsement. For example, if a blog owner allows readers to post comments, some readers may post links back to their own websites. The blog owner therefore might want to instruct search engines not to count these linked-to websites as endorsements. To do this, the blog designer can simply add an html attribute called "nofollow." (Most blog platforms do this automatically to comments.) By default, links without the "nofollow" attribute are "dofollow" links, meaning they instruct search engines to follow those links and pass authority to the linked-to page. For SEO purposes, webmasters are concerned primarily with dofollow links, but both types of links can still send relevant traffic to a website.
Know what is dynamic search ads
allow advertisers to turn over some control of their search ads to Google. Google will pull information about the advertiser's products from its website and show the advertiser's ads on searches Google deems are relevant. Google can dynamically change the ads based on what it observes to produce better results for the advertiser. These ads are only recommended for advertisers with enough budget to experiment with the ads first to determine whether they are profitable. The advertiser should also have a large volume of search ads, because the machine learning algorithms used to optimize these ads require extensive data to be effective.
Be able to calculate CPC
dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.
Types of earned links
editorial, manual, and manufactured
maximum cpc
is set at the ad group or keyword level and determines the price you pay when someone clicks your ad. A bid that you set to determine the highest amount that you're willing to pay for a click on your ad. If someone clicks your ad, that click won't cost you more than the maximumcost-per-click bid (or "max. CPC") that you set.
Be able to calculate CTR
is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown: clicks ÷ impressions = CTR. For example, if you had 5 clicks and 100 impressions, then your CTR would be 5%. Each of your ads and keywords have their own CTRs that you can see listed in your account
Calculate CPM
taking the cost of the advertising and dividing by the total number of impressions, then multiplying the total by 1000 (CPM = cost/impressions x 1000). More commonly, a CPM rate is set by a platform for its advertising space and used to calculate the total cost of an ad campaign.
Be able to calculate conversion rate
taking the number of conversions and dividing that by the number of total ad interactions that can be tracked to a conversion during the same time period. For example, if you had 50 conversions from 1,000 interactions, your conversion rate would be 5%, since 50 ÷ 1,000 = 5%.
What is off-site SEO?
webpage's popularity is determined by other webpages. If lots of other webpages link to a particular webpage, such links serve as a signal that this page is popular (and therefore is likely to have high-quality content). Of course, the sheer number of pages linking to a page is not the only signal of popularity search engines use. This chapter discusses the various signals of popularity search engines use and provides several techniques a webmaster can use to try to increase the popularity of the pages on her website.
