About SEM

1. Introduction

2. Search engines

3. SEO

4. SEA

SEM logically takes place on search engines, but to be honest nobody cares about Bing or
Yahoo.

Google is where the magic happens. And because of their popularity, it is their mission to
organise the web’s information and make it available.

Introduction

And even though all of the web’s information might be available, we can still hide a dead body
on the second page of the search results.

Only 6% of searches make it past the first page of Google, so while they make the info
available, it’s our job to make it to the first page.
Introduction

Search engines:

Algorithm
Google already works on improving their algorithm to ensure that the right searches end up on
page 1 instead of important sites being buried alive.

Every year, one major update is rolled out along with some minor bug
fi
xes. The major update
always is important as it changes how the algorithm looks at pages and ranks them.

Search engines:

Algorithm
All webpages
fi
rst have to be found and stored, before they can be displayed. This is done
through the process of crawling, indexing and ranking.

This is all done by Googlebots, also known as crawlers.

Search engines:

Crawling
The crawlers previously mentioned are the searcher bots.

They look for new and updated content. Once they
fi
nd a URL, they try to
fi
nd a connecting URL
to start creating their path.

All information they
fi
nd whilst hopping along the path will be indexed, independent of the form
of the content.

Search engines:

Indexing
All of this content is stored in the search engine’s index to make it accessible when a user
searches for information.

Search engines:

Ranking
The
fi
nal step in this process is ranking all content on the SERP based on relevance.

SEO:

White hat, black hat & gray hat
There are three possible ways to approach SEO strategy.

Out of these three strategies, white hat SEO is the most used. It is Google’s golden child and
ensures that there are no penalties.

It might be the tactic that takes the longest to see the results of, but it is guaranteed that these
results will stay and that your site will stay indexed.

SEO:

There is also the dark side of SEO with black hat. This refers to techniques such as keyword
spamming that yield fast results.

However, these techniques often violate Google’s code of conduct and have other ethical
implications.

SEO:

But just like our world isn’t all black and white, there’s also grey hat SEO. It is a relatively new
technique where guest reviews and older content are used. But it’s easy to fall to the dark side
of SEO when using these techniques.

SEO:

Keywords
One thing that’s always part of SEO are your keywords. They form the foundation of it all and
determine how and where you are indexed.

The most logical way of choosing keywords is based on your core business, right?

SEO:

Keywords
It all starts with knowing them.

SEO:

Keywords
1. How can we help provide the best content to cultivate a community?

2. How can we help provide the best content to ful
fi
l the needs of this community?

SEO:

Keywords
Tools like Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner help with mapping out relevant keywords
that can be used.

We can start picking keywords based on what you do as a company, but there’s not a lot of
di
ff
erence between that and going to a casino.

SEO:

Keywords
For example making a superhero show, the best place would be to show up on the
fi
rst page
when people search for hero.

SEO:

Keywords
If you’re making a superhero show, the best place to show up on the
fi
rst page would be for the
query “hero”, right?

But what about GoPro and Enrique Iglesias?
Too bad Enrique Iglesias already takes the
top spot here.

SEO:

Keywords
“Hero” is one of the keywords that’s in the fat head of the curve and has millions of searches
and results under it.

Oftentimes this is the result of ambiguous keywords that can relate to a number of topics.

SEO:

Keywords
Keywordseverywhere

SEO tweets

Google Trends

Google Analytics

Hotjar

Google Ads

Google Search console

Google Tag Manager

Majestic SEO

…

SEO:

On-page
The most important part of on-site SEO optimisation is content optimisation. The keywords that
you have gathered can be used for this, but only keywords won’t su
ffi
ce.

It’s also important to keep in mind the formatting of the content. This helps your site show up in
the snippet or in one of the other highlights on the SERP and is important for the user when
navigating the site.

SEO:

On-page
However, beware the low value tactics that won’t help you at all or might result in penalties:
• Thin content

• Duplicate content

• Cloaking

• Keyword stu
ffi
ng

• Auto generated content

SEO:

On-page
Depending on your business, it also is recommended to optimise for localised searches. This
can be done by placing your location data in the footer and on a contant page and then marking
it up using local business schema.

SEO:

On-page
Sites usually are better if they’re not only simple text. Images and videos can help your site, but
they can also hurt your SEO. Always keep loading times in mind when working with images as
they a
ff
ect both SEO score and user patience.

A second part of images that a
ff
ects SEO is their alt-text. This description helps search engines
better understand the images or videos.

And
fi
nally, the crawlers might miss some images, but this can be resolved through the usage of
a sitemap.

SEO:

Technical
There’s also a more technical SEO. And this all starts with the HTML, CSS and JavaScript of the
website.

All of them are necessary to make a complete website that performs optimally.

SEO:

Technical
HTML is the backbone of the site, all element sof the website are de
fi
ned here. It is THE most
important part of the site, as without this there is no website.

As for SEO, it is also important as both the meta-descriptions for the website and the header
tags are de
fi
ned here.

The meta descriptions are only for the crawlers, the title tags are for both the crawler and the
user. However these title tags are mostly for the user as they make the navigation of the site
easier.

SEO:

Technical
CSS is all about the website looks. Background colours, font usage… is all de
fi
ned here instead
of being coded into the HTML.

This is bene
fi
cial to the loading time, which is a SEO factor, if these
fi
les are compressed.

SEO:

Technical
And
fi
nally JavaScript, the youngest of the three brothers. This is used to describe the behaviour
of the webpage, to make it dynamic (adding pop-up windows etc)

But JavaScript can cause SEO-issues if used badly.

SEO:

Technical
URLs also hold some signi
fi
cance, as keywords can be added here. There are a few things to
avoid such as long URLs, nesting them under the wrong category or not having a SSL
certi
fi
cate.

SEO:

Technical
And
fi
nally for the technical side of things, the schema markup. This is used to structure your
website for the crawler. This way it knows better how the index certain pieces of information on
your site.

It also helps provide rich website snippets.

SEO:

Linking
To make sure that your site is easily navigated, the website should be interlinked.

We as users can
fi
nd links in drop-down menus, but crawlers can’t. So the links should also be
easily found by them.

But this also shouldn’t be overdone as adding more links lowers the amount of equity to the
destination page and it just looks ugly.

And to be honest, links themselves are ugly. But using anchor text helps make them disappear.

SEO:

Linking
Even more important than internal links, are external links. They are a form of social proof of
your website and help boost your ranking.

The more external sites that link to yours, the better your score as Google perceives your site as
Expert, Authoritative and Trustworthy. However, these external sites also have to follow this EAT-
principle.

SEO:

Summary
In short, there’s a lot of things to keep in mind for your SEO ranking. The most important thing
is, you’re not doing SEO for your site. You’re using SEO techniques to make your site as useful
and easy for the people.

SEA:

Keywords
Your SEO might be perfect, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll show up
fi
rst. Because right at the
top are the sites that have paid for a speci
fi
c keyword.

It all comes down to one basic principle:
fi
nding the right keyword and de
fi
ning how much a
click to the website is worth.

SEA:

Keywords
And in the past, the spoils went to the victor. Highest bidder got the goods.

But now, a number of factors such as bounce rate in
fl
uence the rating the website receives.This
quality score is now multiplied by the bid to determine the winner of the auction for that speci
fi
c
keyword.

SEA:

Keywords
This means that content optimisation also here plays a role, but more indirectly.

The less users bounce from the site, the longer they spend on the site and the more conversions
there are all impact the Quality Score positively.

SEA:

Keywords
CPC bid X Quality score = Ad score
Advertiser 1 € 2 X 10 = 20

SEA:

Keywords
Ad rank of
person
below you
/
Own quality
score
+ 0,01 = Actual CPC
Advertiser
1
16 / 10 + 0,01 = € 1,61
Advertiser
2
12 / 4 + 0,01 = € 3,01
Advertiser
3
8 / 2 + 0,01 = € 4,01
Advertiser
4
N/A / 1 + 0,01 = € 8,01

SEA:

Keywords
SEA isn’t too complicated. If you’re focussing on boosting your SEO, then your content should
already be optimised. The only thing left then is
fi
nding your Adwords and bidding on them.

About SEM

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