UNIT 2

Hemverna Dwivedi
Assistant Professor
PSIT, Kanpur
Contents
§ SEO & Email-Marketing: Introduction to
SEO; SEO Keyword Planner Tools,
§ On Page SEO Techniques: Indexing and Key
Word Placement, Content Planning &
Optimization, Display Advertising, Various
SEO Plug-in,
§ Off–Page SEO Techniques; Email
Marketing- Introduction and Significance,
campaigns using Mail Chimp; Email
Marketing Strategy and Monitoring.
What is SEO?
§ SEO stands for “search engine optimization”.
§ In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your
website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing,
and other search engines whenever people search for:
i. products you sell,
ii. services you provide.
§ SEO, or search engine optimization, is the lowest-cost and
most effective ways to drive traffic to your website. But what
exactly is SEO, and how does it work?
Contd.

§ The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely
you are to be found and clicked on. Ultimately, the goal of search
engine optimization is to help attract website visitors who will become
customers, clients or an audience that keeps coming back.
• The operation of a search engine (SE) is a business model in which a
service is provided that attracts users to a website, and any site that
attracts significant numbers of visitors can sell advertising on that site.
• To be successful in attracting users, the SE must satisfy the needs of its
users.
• And, to satisfy them best, the SE must respond to the users’ searches
with results that address the problem for which the searcher is seeking
an answer.
Contd.

§ It is a process of refining website using both on-page as well

as off-page practices so that website can be included and
ranked successfully in search engine.
§ ‘Search engine optimization is the entire set of activities
that you can do with respect to the on-page and off-page
optimization in order to ensure that your page ranks higher
on the search engine result page organically, naturally
without paying for advertisements.’
§ For example, if an individual is having problems in finding
hotel, entering the phrase “hotel” should return pages that
will tell which hotel can be booked.
Significance of SEO
SEO is also incredibly important because the search engine results
pages (or SERPs) are super competitive – filled with search features.
SERP features include:
• Knowledge panels (information boxes)
• Featured snippets (special boxes showing the descriptive snippet first)
• Maps
• Images
• Videos
• Top stories (news)
• People also ask (questions related to your search terms)
• Carousels (multi content format)
Advantages of SEO
• Generates leads cost-effectively
• Measurable results
• Increases brand awareness
• Gets you ahead of the competition
• Optimizes your website for mobile users
• Building customer trust in your brand takes time. Invest in quality
content for your readers to become a trusted source for up-to-date
information.
• Increases small business revenues
• Improves all your other marketing strategies
• Gets people into your brick and mortar/ physical outlets
Disadvantages of SEO
1. Results will take time
Search engine optimization strategies do not produce results
overnight. Search engines take time to index a website’s content, so
your website won’t rank on specific terms for days or weeks.
2. Targeted by competitors
Effective SEO means you rank high. Sites that rank high are
targeted by competitors who want a slice of the SEO pie, which
means you’re always on your toes.
3. Slow results
SEO isn’t a fast-moving process. You can update your site and use
best practices and not see results for
months.
Contd..

4. No promises
You could update all your content and website features and
still not find that your site has improved. SEO doesn’t
promise results.
5. Changes
SEO can change. One small change to SEO, and you can
be at the top of the search results one day and the next day
find your site greatly demoted.
Keyword Planner
Keyword planner tools help the SEO masters to find out the
relevant keywords for products, business website development and
for ads.
Free Keyword Planner Tools:
i. Google Keyword Planner (Helpful for Google Ads): It is a free
tool to discover new keywords related to your business and see
estimates of the searches that they receive and the cost to target
them.
Keyword Planner also provides another way to create Search
campaigns that's centered around in-depth keyword research.
ii. Google Trends: It analyzes the popularity of top search queries
in Google Search across various regions and languages.
Contd.
iii. Keyword Shitter: The tool is great for finding long tail
keywords. Keywords that have over two or three words in
it can be considered a long tail. Like word “Social Media
Marketing”. Google also suggest long tail keywords in
“search suggestions”.
iv. Word Tracker Scouts (for longtail keywords): It is a google
chrome extension. Word Tracker has a keyword research
tool that allows to discover exactly what keywords
competitors are using.
Google Keyword Planner
§ Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword research tool.
§ You can use it to discover new keywords, see their estimated
search volumes, and learn how much it costs to target them.

Note: The steps to use Google Keyword Planner are mentioned

in bullets followed by the screenshots of each step.
Steps to follow in Google Keyword Planner
1. Go to Google Chrome and search for Google Keyword
Planner.
2. On the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), click on the
hyperlink of Google Keyword Planner.
3. When the first page opens, enter the geographical zone, time
and your mail id or contact number. Now, Click on start now at
the end of the same page.
4. On the next page, choose tools on the extreme left. Go to
Planning and select Keyword planner option.
5. Click on Discover New Keywords.
Contd.
6. Enter any keyword of your choice and click on results.
7. You will be able to see a number of columns which will consist of
data related to the
i. Number of keywords/results in context to the keyword you have
entered
ii. Average monthly searches (for each result/keyword)
iii. Three months change (in terms of % which can be positive or
negative)
iv. YoY (Year over year change in terms of % which can be positive or
negative)
v. Competition
vi. Several other options
Keyword Placement Places
§ The keywords can be placed in two aspects of the website:
(1) The web page content (that which is visible to the human visitor – its
content), and
(2) The source code (visible only to the search engines).
Let’s consider them both in turn.
(1) The web page content:
Also known as the body text – because it fits into the source code in the
body command – this is the textual content of the website that the visitor
will read.
Some put forward the argument that this is the most important aspect of
SEO, and there is some validity – and sense – in their line of reasoning,
which is this.
If the search engine is looking to meet the needs of the searcher then the
keywords that they use should be an inherent, organic aspect of the site’s
textual content.
Contd.
(2) The source code:
The argument in favour of including keywords in a web page’s
source code is that it helps the search engine spider identify the
page’s subject.
The first batch of source code entries are the meta tags. These
describe the contents of a web page, and can include status
information, the author’s name or the name of the web design
company.
Press “Ctrl+U” to view source code in Google Chrome.
Contd.
1. Meta Tags: Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page's content;
the meta tags don't appear on the page itself, but only in the page's source
code.
2. Title Tag: Title tags are used by search engine to identify the subject of
a Page.
3. Meta description tag: Meta description tag is a short paragraph about
the webpage written in HTML language.
4. Headings (H1 to H6):
The <h1> to <h6> tags are used to define HTML headings, wherein, <h1>
defines the most important heading and <h6> defines the least important.
5. Text:
It may be a simple article about any topic; or
it may be the product page explaining various features of the products; or
it may be any page, in a given context of your website.
Contd.
6. Domain Name: A Keyword Domain refers to the domain that is having
keywords about your business, products or services.
7. URL optimizer:
§ URL stands for Uniform resource locator and is the address of your webpage.
§ Search engines use URLs to determine the relevancy of your page. If you want to
help your page rank in more relevant search results, you’ll want to optimize your
URLs.
§ When you don’t have a clear URL, it makes it difficult for users and search
engines to understand your page’s context.
§ So, imagine seeing a URL that looks like this: www.baker.com/fnsj/ejnf-
een3234/4392jnr392
§ Now, imagine seeing this URL: www.baker.com/recipes/cakes/chocolate-fudge-
cake
§ When you optimize your URLs, make sure you use your page’s core keyword
within the URL’s end portion.
Contd.
8. Alt Text:
§ AltText or Alternative text is primarily used to describe the images for those
who can’t see it.
§ Helps the search engines to properly understand the description and context
of an image. So, to ensure your photos work for your SEO, follow these two
best practices:
§ Optimize your image file sizes: If your image file sizes are too big, they
slow down your site, which negatively impacts your SEO. To prevent this
from happening, you can use an image compression tool like io to compress
image file sizes.
§ Use image alt tags: Since Google can’t read images, you need to add image
alt tags to help search engines “read” them. These tags offer a short
descriptive blurb about your image. These tags are also helpful if your
pictures don’t load or if someone uses a screen reader.
On-page optimization
§ On-page SEO is a strategy to apply some techniques to the website so
that it gets ranked high in natural search results of Google.
§ On-page SEO (also known as “on-site SEO”) is the practice of
optimizing web page content for search engines and users. Common
on-page SEO practices include optimizing title tags, content, internal
links and URLs.
§ On-page optimization refers to all measures that can be taken directly
within the website in order to improve its position in the search
rankings.
Examples: Measures to optimize the content or improve the meta
description and title tags.
Two major on-page SEO techniques are:
i. Indexing of Webpages
ii. Keyword Placement
All on-page SEO techniques
§ Publish high quality content
§ Optimize page titles and meta descriptions
§ Optimize page content
§ Headings and content formatting
§ URL optimization
§ Page loading speed
§ Mobile-friendliness
§ Internal links
§ External links
§ Comments
Indexing
§ Will your website starts appearing in the google search result in the
context of Keywords?
§ The answer is no. Because your website will not appear on any of the
google search page until and unless it is indexed by the google.
Indexing is the process of search engines visiting and analysing new
and updated web pages before adding them to their index (database) of
webpages.
§ Therefore, the very first step in SEO is to submit your site to the
search engine, so that crawlers or spiders start visiting your website.
§ A web crawler, or spider, is a type of bot that is typically operated by
search engines like Google and Bing. Their purpose is to index the
content of websites all across the Internet so that those websites can
appear in search engine results.
Keyword placement
§ The SE algorithm will consider the placement of the keywords
within the web page, so let’s consider some of those placement
factors – or at least, what they are perceived to be.
§ Proper keyword placement is when the keywords are placed
strategically throughout the content of your website so that the
search engines can properly index your site for those relevant
keywords.
§ When keyword placement is done right, you are able to rank
better for your chosen words in the SERPs.
§ This brings people with relevant search queries to your site.
§ One of the most important things for users is the title tag. This is
the hyperlink which appears on the SERPs.
Contd.
§ A page’s title tag and meta description are usually shown
whenever that page appears in search engine results.
§ Title tags and meta descriptions are crucial for SEO because
they tell both search engines and people what a webpage is
about.
§ They help your page show up in search results and convince
users to click and visit your site.
§ Working together, well-written and compelling descriptions
can attract more users to choose your website from the search
engine results, above the rivals.
Contd.
The Title Tag
§ The Title Tag is the title element of a web page that
summarises the content found on a page. It will appear in
three key places: browsers, search engine results pages, and
external sites such as Facebook or Twitter.
§ If the title tag is clear, the audience is more likely to stay on
your website for a longer period of time; thus reducing the
bounce rate.
Contd.
§ Bounce rate is defined as the percentage of visitors that leave
a webpage without taking an action, such as clicking on a
link, filling out a form, or making a purchase.
§ A high bounce rate lets you know that your site (or specific
pages on your site) has issues with content, user experience
or page layout.

Meta description:
A meta description tag generally informs and interests users
with a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is
about.
Point out the title tags and meta
descriptions in the next image.
Off-page SEO

§ Off-page SEO (search engine optimization) refers to efforts to

improve a website’s unpaid search engine rankings without
making changes on the website itself.
§ Common tactics include link building, guest posting, and
social media marketing.
§ Off-site search engine optimization can be divided into two
key elements:
(1) the website’s history, and
(2) the links that go into it from other sites.
Off-page SEO techniques
Let’s take a look at five different off-page tactics you can use to
boost your site’s authority and organic (unpaid) search traffic:
1. Link Building
§ Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to
your site.
§ In SEO, these links are called backlinks.
§ The more backlinks a page or domain has, the more authoritative
it may seem to Google, especially if those backlinks come from
domains that are authoritative themselves.
Contd.

2. Broken Link Building

§ It is the process of finding relevant backlinks that don’t work
properly and convincing creators to update them with links to
your site.
3. Content Marketing
§ It is an important off-page SEO technique.
§ Publishing great content is an effective way to earn backlinks,
gain media attention, and show E-E-A-T (experience,
expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness).
Contd.

4. Digital PR (public relations)

• It involves using PR techniques to gain backlinks and is now
the link-building tactic of choice for many SEOs. It’s a great
way to earn authoritative links at scale.
A great PR campaign can also:
• Increase brand awareness and branded searches
• Put your business in front of your target audience
• Drive referral traffic
• Show E-E-A-T
Contd.

5. Social Media
• Social media doesn’t directly impact Google rankings. But
it’s great for getting more attention.
• The more people share your content on social media
platforms, the more traffic and links to that specific piece of
content you’ll probably get.
• And even if you don’t get a link or immediate traffic, you’ll
get more attention. And more attention leads to more branded
searches and mentions.
• That’s a win-win for your off-page SEO.
Other SEO techniques
§ White hat SEO: It refers to any practice that improves your search
rankings on a search engine results page (SERP) while maintaining the
integrity of your website and staying within the search engines' terms
of service. These tactics stay within the bounds as defined by Google’s
guidelines.
§ Black hat SEO: Black hat SEO is a practice against search engine
guidelines, used to get a site ranking higher in search results. These
unethical tactics don't solve for the searcher and often end in a penalty
from search engines.
§ Grey hat SEO: Grey hat SEO is an SEO practice that combines white
hat and black hat SEO. Grey hat SEO is riskier than white hat SEO
because it exploits the search engine guidelines to increase a page’s
rankings on the SERPs.
Important key terminologies
§ SERP: Search Engine Results Pages (also known as “SERPs” or “SERP”)
are Google’s response to a user’s search query. SERPs tend to
include featured snippets, knowledge graphs and video results.
§ Organic links: Organic linking, also known as natural linking, is a
marketing strategy that involves creating high-quality content that attracts
other websites to link back to it.
§ Sitemaps: A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the
pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between
them.
§ Bounce rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of visits to your website where
only 1 page was viewed.
§ Offline keyword research: It refers to identifying keywords without
using an online tool. A lot of different methods like brainstorming,
marketing materials, customer surveys, listening to customers, etc. can be
used at an offline level to choose the most appropriate keywords.
Display advertising

§ Display ads are a type of online advertisement that combines text,

images, and a URL that links to a website where a customer can learn
more about or buy products.
§ There are many ad formats. These ads can be static with an image or
animated with multiple images, video, or changing text (also called
rich media ads).
§ An ad campaign can have different goals, and some display ads
educate about the product while others are designed to entertain and
engage through simple games or puzzles.
§ Banner ads are a common form of display ads that are frequently used
for awareness campaigns.
Types of display ads

1. Responsive display ads

§ Responsive display ads are generated from a set of assets
(images, headlines, descriptions, etc.).
§ The main features of responsive display ads are:
You can upload your assets and Google will use a machine learning
model to determine the optimal combination to show ads.
Multiple assets can be uploaded per asset type. The ads that Google
assembles automatically adjust their size, appearance, and format
to fit just about any available ad space.
Contd.
2. Retargeting display ads
§ Retargeting display ads remind your website visitors of your products
and services after they leave your website without buying.
§ After visiting specific pages, it allows you to retarget them and show
your visitors relevant visual or text ads when they visit other websites.
§ Before someone decides to buy your product or service, they need to
feel like they know you. A good marketing rule of thumb to help
customers make up their mind about purchasing is to ensure they hear
your message at least 7 times.
§ Retargeting builds visibility for your brand, allowing you to reach an
audience that has already expressed interest in your products.
Contd.
3. Native ads
§ Native advertising is a form of paid advertising in which the ads
match the look, feel and function of the media format where they
appear.
§ As consumers become more resistant to traditional forms of
advertising, including display ads and banner ads, Fortune 500
brands and consumer startups alike are allocating bigger budgets
and more ad spend towards content marketing and non-disruptive
ad formats.
Contd.

4. Social ads
§ Social media advertising is a form of digital marketing in
which ads are served to a target audience via social media
networks.
§ These ads allow marketers to reach desired consumers,
promote their brand, and drive sales on popular media
channels that house billions of active users.
§ These are ads you see on social networks such as Facebook
and LinkedIn. Like responsive display ads, they are a
combination of text and images with a CTA.
Contd.

4. Discovery ads
§ Discovery ads on YouTube appear as in-feed video ads in the form of
image thumbnails, with a brief headline, and description, followed by
the business name and logo next to the ad icon.
Using display ads
§ Creativity
When you’re developing display ads, the way you design your creative
asset (i.e., the image itself) should be determined by the channel,
campaign type and placement.
Things to consider include your call to action or CTA (e.g., “Learn
More”), the value proposition, tagline, business name and logo. And
don’t forget colours and other imagery and the emotions they can
invoke.
§ Sizing
The most common and effective display ads come in several standard
sizes. For example, Google’s display network lists sizes for both mobile
and desktop display ads.
Contd.
The sizes that paid media team uses the most are below, in pixels:
ØGoogle Display Network
300 x 250
728 x 90
120 x 60
ØSocial Networks
1080 x 1080
1200 x 768
Contd.
§ Display Networks
Determine where to place your display ads based on available audience
targeting, your budget, etc.
Google Display Network
YouTube
Gmail
Social Networks
§ Targeting
Choose who will see your ads. Here are some common types of display
targeting:
Contextual Targeting
Contextual targeting uses behavior-based keywords, topics or specific URLs
to reach the target user. The ad platform algorithm then analyzes user
browsing history and website content to best match your targeting selection
with an ad placement.
Contd.
§ Interest Targeting
Interest targeting will use predefined or custom audiences known as
“affinity,” “in-market” to reach consumers based on what they are most
commonly searching. Ads are placed based on web content that best
matches the audience selected for targeting.
§ Remarketing/Retargeting
Remarketing serves ads to users that have previously interacted with
your web property within a specified time frame but without completing
a desired action. A large variety of interactions can be used for
retargeting – like users visiting a specific page (or combination of
pages), spending a certain amount of time on site or viewing a certain
number of pages.
Advantages of display advertising
§ Widespread reach: The biggest advantage of display advertising is its wide outreach that
allows businesses to find prospects all over the world.
§ Helps build brand awareness: Unlike search advertising, display ads don’t reach
audiences with the purchase intent, however, they allow businesses to make people who
have never needed their product before remembering the brand. This way, they manage to
evoke initial interest and let people recall it once they have a need for it. As a result, this
particular brand is associated with this or that product.
§ Provides targeting opportunities: With display ads, you can narrow down your
audience to the most high-performing prospects. This is possible due to various targeting
opportunities available. You can reach people based on demographics, their geographical
position, language, general interests, behavior, and previous interactions. The last one
means that you can win back leads who liked your products and added them to their cart
but didn’t buy.
§ Enables to track results: After launching your display ad campaign, you can monitor the
number of clicks, get to know when a prospect converted into a client, find out the
platform where conversion took place, and reveal the most effective advertisements. This
is a great chance to improve your future campaigns and invest in successful strategies.
 Disadvantages of display advertising
§ Low conversion rates: Compared to search advertising, display ads show lower
conversion rates. This is not a surprise, because search ads are designed for leads with
the purchase intent, while display ads allow businesses to create interest in a product.
So, if you aim at increasing sales, display ads may be not the best choice.
§ Lack of reputation management: Since you can’t influence much on the choice of
platforms for your ads, they can sometimes be irrelevant to your business. Besides,
such irrelevant ads may irritate site visitors. If your brand is famous and authoritative,
display ads on irrelevant sites may damage your reputation.
§ Banner blindness: It has become a common phenomenon for many internet users in
the last few years. This helps us deal with information overload and ad fatigue. People
ignore advertisements subconsciously especially when they are designed as separate
blocks that strike the eye. To stand out, make use of rich media that attract users’
attention better.
§ Ad blockers: More and more people are using ad blocking technologies every day
because of ad fatigue. Some brands ask them to allow ads or buy subscriptions.
Consider these variants.