Chapter 8: SEM SEO SEA Flashcards
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The practice of optimising a website in organic (non-paid) search results
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
The page that a search engine displays in response to a users search query
Keywords
Words & phrases that people type into search engines
Search Volume
Number of times a particular keyword is entered into a search engine per month
Head Terms / Fat Head
Broad, single-word keywords with lots of search volume and competition
Long-tail keywords
Specific phrases that don’t get as much search volume but tend to be less competitive
What type of keyword has high cost & competition and a low probability of conversion
Head Terms / Fat Heads
What type of keyword has low cost & risk and a high probability of conversion
Long-tail keywords
Types of keywords according to search intent
- Informational
- Navigational
- Commercial
- Transactional
What type of micromoment is at play when using Informational Keywords
- I-want-to-know moments
- I-want-to-do moments
What type of micromoment is at play when using Navigational Keywords
- I-want-to-go moments
What type of micromoment is at play when using Commercial Keywords
- I-want-to-buy moments
What type of micromoment is at play when using Transactional Keywords
- I-want-to-buy moments
4 Steps of Keyword Research
1) Write a list of content topics people search for related to your business
2) Write a dump of keywords per topic
3) Prioritise keywords relevant to your business and have high search volume and low competition / difficulty
4) Research the competitors websites
Actors in Search Algorithm
- Crawling
- Indexing
- Ranking
Search Algorithm: Crawling
A bot / spider / crawler that searches the internet to discover new & updated content
Search Algorithm: Indexing
The process of storing & organising data found during crawling
Search Algorithm: Ranking
The Process of deciding which results are placed on the SERP
Ranking factors for SERP
- Content
- Technology
- Authority
Ranking factors for SERP: Technology
- Crawlability & Indexability: Ease of navigation
- Rankability: How high it is ranked based search terms
- Clickability: How often searchers click-through
Websites: Responsive Design
Optimisation of website for different devices
Websites: Breadcrumbs
A type of navigational tool used to help users understand their current location within a website and navigate it easier
Websites: Schema Markup
Provides detailed information of website to help search engines understand your website more
Ranking factors for SERP: Content
- Relevance: Important to use keywords in titles, subtitles with use of heading tag (H1-H6 in HTML)
- Quality of Content: EEAT-principle
- Title tags: Tells search engines and visitors what any given page on your website is about
- 1 Subject per page
- Meta description tag: Short paragraph of text placed in HTML that describes the content of a webpage
Ranking factors for SERP: Authority
Create as much traffic as possible to your website!
Link Building
Acquiring backlinks from other websites to your own
Backlinks
Links from one website to another
Search Engine Advertisement (SEA)
The practice of paying for advertisements to appear in the SERP
How does Google Search Ads work?
1) Advertisers create ads based on keywords
2) Someone searches on Google
3) Google looks for matches
4) The auction begins
How does Google choose which ad to show?
1) Quality Score: Based on User experience, Relevance & Expected click-through rate
2) Ad Rank: Ads with the highest Ad Rank win the auction and make it to the SERP
3) Cost-per-click: Price determined by bid, only paid if a searcher clicks on the ad
