Keywords: The foundation of digital marketing | Lecture 7 Description

We rely on immediate access and answers every day, multiple times a day. And this is why keywords are so central to all of digital marketing. The words you use when you search, when you describe what you want, these are critical for understanding intent. Based on that intent, search engines adapt their results, and advertisers modify their ads to capture your attention.

SEO specialists sweat over the details of getting their page to rank highly in the results, because a number one ranking could deliver 35% of searchers to that website. Formulating a keyword strategy is one of the most important activities in marketing, and here's the value of mastering keywords

Activity 7:

1. Watch video 7; Keywords: The foundation of digital marketing

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 4 Ways to Find Low Volume Keywords for SEO

Why keywords? | Lecture 8 Description

Words are the primary components of communication. Here is the amazing importance of keywords. Every marketing channel is made better when a marketer integrates keyword research throughout their entire marketing strategy.

If you dismiss keywords, you are dismissing the greatest amount of unfiltered market research and customer intelligence. In SEO, keywords are used to gain rankings for relevant searches. Using those words makes your page more relevant and keeps visitors engaged, which leads to more business. In paid search, advertisers need to know the right keywords and how to bid on them to be successful and make money.

Activity 8:

1. Watch video 8; Why keywords?

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 4 Questions to Help Vet Your Content Ideas

Keywords research shows intent | Lecture 9 Description

The more words used in a search phrase, the more intent that it communicates. When you know the intent, you can use those words to optimize, label, and integrate into your

content. It starts by making a seed list of search terms. A seed list is oh, about 10 to 15 words or phrases that describe your business.

In this course, I'm going to use the example site of Explore California, and I'm going to start my seed list simply by describing the tours, products, and services that they offer.

Activity 9:

1. Watch video 9; Keywords research shows intent

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on How To Use A Web Cache Viewer: Everything You Need To Know

Keywords provide context | Lecture 10 Description

The search engine results page, or SERP, is your primary focus for rankings. If you're a local business, you'll see local results, listings, pictures, and maps. If you're selling products, you'll see product listings. If someone searches for how to do something, they'll see videos. Or informational searches can show entirely different mixed results.

As you can see, the results change based on the type of search. This has to be taken into account as part of your keyword optimization and marketing plan. It's not just about getting rankings anymore. It's about the visibility in the search results through whatever media may be shown.

Activity 10:

1. Watch video 10; Keywords provide context

2. Complete Assignment 3: Self Assessment 1: Keyword Intent

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on What Is Google Lighthouse?

Research the SERPs | Lecture 11 Description

The search engine results pages, or SERPS are the proving ground for a successful keyword strategy. It is estimated that the number one website in the results will get a 35% share of clicks. This also shows you important areas to consider in your optimization and content tactics. Many times it's not just a webpage that you need to optimize for rankings. It can be a product page, a file, a video or a podcast.

Activity 11:

1. Watch video 11; Research the SERPs

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on Know the Basics of Link Building to Boost Your SEO

Keyword tools: Search engines | Lecture 12 Description

To find keywords that are being used specifically at Google, you can go to Google Ads and use the keyword tool. Now, this is available to you if you are a Google Ads Advertiser. You have access to these tools and you can use them to find keywords for your business.

Activity 12:

1. Watch video 12; Keyword tools: Search engines

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on The 10-Step Guide to Creating a Profitable Google AdWords Campaign from Scratch

Keyword tools: Wordtracker | Lecture 13 Description

In performing keyword research, using a keyword tool is a vital part of this. I love keyword tools because they're able to show you from a large standpoint the bulk of terms that people are searching for. I'm using Wordtracker, and here I can search based on Google data, Amazon, YouTube or Ebay.

Activity 13:

1. Watch video 13; Keyword tools: Wordtracker

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on How To Claim Knowledge Panels In Google For more Organic Visibility

Keyword concepts: Long tail and short tail | Lecture 14 Description

One of the concepts you'll hear often in keyword research and SEO is the long tail and short tail of keywords. The short tails are usually the single word, very general words that command large numbers of searches. For example: cars, insurance, vacations, or phones. These four terms are searched for thousands or millions of times a month. But the thing is they're so general, we can't be sure of the intent. There are very large targets but with very thin relevance.

Activity 14:

1. Watch video 14; Keyword concepts: Long tail and short tail

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on What Are Long Tail Keywords?

Keyword concepts: Plurals | Lecture 15 Description

Did you know that one single letter in your search phrase can predict, with surprising success, your propensity to be a buyer or a browser? If you're shopping and just

beginning your research, you're most likely to use the plural form of a word, like vacations, printers, or presents. If you're ready to make a decision, you're most likely to use a singular version of a word, such as California hiking vacation, or HP laser printer.

Activity 15:

1. Watch video 15; Keyword concepts: Plurals

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on Get More Google Traffic

Keyword concepts: Questions | Lecture 16 Description

One estimate places voice assistant technology at a seven billion dollar a year industry by 2023. Amazon has already introduced a voice-controlled microwave. More and more searches are being performed by voice, rather than by typing. It's faster, more convenient, and interestingly, more detailed.

When people search by voice, they are more precise and provide greater detail about what they need in the form of a question. And this is significant because people typically search using a limited number of words. The tendency is to search using efficient phrases, the least amount of words to get the best results.

Activity 16:

1. Watch video 16; Keyword concepts: Questions

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 5 digital marketing trends of focus for 2021

Keyword research: Buying cycle | Lecture 17 Description

Rather than simply sitting in front of a computer all day, we tend to search multiple times a day for one thing at a time. When an idea hits us, we search for it. Google classifies these micro-moments into four areas: I want to know, I want to go, I want to do, and I want to buy.

Activity 17:

1. Watch video 17; Keyword research: Buying cycle

Resources Summary:

• Youtube on Best live chat software

Keyword research: Observations | Lecture 18 Description

Keyword research isn't just about getting rankings. It is about understanding your customer. The best form of research you can do about your customer is to listen. The value of listening seems to have been lost over the years, as too many businesses want to talk and sell, but forget to listen. Keyword research is a form of listening, like a regular conversation. And you're going to choose how well you listen.

Activity 18:

1. Watch video 18; Keyword research: Observations

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on The Top 5 Qualities of an Exceptional Digital Marketer

Keyword research: Organize by phrase structure | Lecture 19 Description

Have you ever found that explaining what you do for work is sometimes difficult, especially if you have a job that is the slightest bit technical. So many times we get too

complicated, too quickly. I know my mother still doesn't know what I do after 20 years, but she still calls me to fix her computer. This next lecture helps to break down what a customer would say if they were given the opportunity to describe what they want.

Activity 19:

1. Watch video 19; Keyword research: Organize by phrase structure

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on Best SEO Tools To Drive Website Traffic In 2021

Use trends data to complete the picture | Lecture 20 Description

Google Trends allows you to take two words, two people, two events, and compare them to see which gets more search traffic. One of the great things about Google Trends is you can go all the way back to 2004 when Google started keeping track of this type of data. In this lecture we will be taking a closer look at Google Trends and the data it provides.

Activity 20:

1. Watch video 20; Use trends data to complete the picture

2. Complete Assignment 4; Self Assessment 2: Google Trends

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on Top 5 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Make Marketers Change Their Strategies

Apply your data to your website structure | Lecture 21 Description

By now, I hope you've gathered a lot of keyword data and most likely have dozens of the content funnels you offer. You should be learning the words that your searchers use and

additional synonyms that explain their needs. In this way, you can be more precise with your specific content products and more general and more contextual when writing content. In this lecture, we will discuss how to put all the data you have collected into your website structure.

Activity 21:

1. Watch video 21; Apply your data to your website structure

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 5 digital marketing trends of focus for 2021

Map your keyword data to a calendar | Lecture 22 Description

It's been said that if you write down your goals, you will be 70% more likely to achieve them. I find this to be true when developing a keyword content strategy. After evaluating the trend data from your keyword research, the next step is to implement this information into your marketing strategy. Primarily through your marketing plan or an editorial calendar.

Activity 22:

1. Watch video 22; Map your keyword data to a calendar

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 15 of the Best Social Media Tools

Present your strategy | Lecture 23 Description

Many of you taking this course may be working within an organization or an agency and you will most likely have to present all of your research and findings. You'll have to do

one of the toughest parts of the job. That is presenting and articulating your strategy to a stakeholder, owner or a team. A recent study showed that SEO professionals spend about 14% of their time communicating practice and strategy. This is a fundamental skill, but it is also one that can be learned, developed and improved. I found that confidence is the main component of a good presentation. And when you are confident in your data, it gives you confidence in your presentation.

After all, you've done all the research. You found the connections. You've seen the patterns and applied the work to find the insights. You should have more knowledge about search or interest in demand than anyone else in the organization. And now, it's simply time to tell the story of these searchers.

Activity 23:

1. Watch video 23; Present your strategy

2. Complete Assignment 5; Self Assessment 3: Create a keyword Map/Calendar

3. Complete Quiz 1: Keywords

4. Complete Assignment 6: Request 1:1 Coaching and Training from our IIDM™ Certified Immersion Trainer

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 10 Simple Ways To Boost Seo On Your WordPress Website

Start with the page title | Lecture 24 Description

Before we start implementing keywords, there is an important feature that is sometimes overlooked, yet it is the most viewed feature in all of search engine optimization. The following lectures will cover everything you need to know about website optimization.

Activity 24:

1. Watch video 24; Start with the page title

Resources Summary:

Youtube video on 10 Powerful WordPress Marketing Tips

How search engines display your URLs and page descriptions | Lecture 25 Description

The snippet, as it is called in the search engine results page pulls information from the page it links to. These elements are not only important for rankings, but also for moving searchers to click on your result. The green text in the snippet is the URL, or the address of the page. As you can see the green color sets off the URL as it shows people the domain of the website and the page that is being displayed in the rankings. Of course, this is an excellent method to gain additional keywords in your snippet.

By naming your pages with a keyword, you'll get more relevance through the URL and it will be displayed in the search.

Activity 25:

1. Watch video 25; How search engines display your URLs and page descriptions

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 6 Tested Ingredients To Create Landing Pages That Convert Customers

Optimize primary page structures | Lecture 26 Description

Usability expert, Jacob Nielsen, said that how we interact with words on webpages can hardly be called reading. We scan pages within seconds and determine if the information we need is there. And if we don't see it we're on to the next page.

What is it that we scan in order to make our decisions? What if I told you there were key structures that would draw people's attention for longer, and force them to see more of your content and keywords? And by using those structures you can improve your keyword relevance and rankings as well.

Activity 26:

1. Watch video 26; Optimize primary page structures

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 3 Tips to Make Your Virtual Event a Success

A word of warning about SEO | Lecture 27 Description

Early in 2011, Google made a major update to its algorithm, and millions of web sites changed position. The aftereffects have lasted for years, even into today, and it has changed the way that many marketers optimize their web sites. To this point, many web sites would simply optimize by utilizing a repetitive keyword approach. That is, just repeating a primary key phrase numerous times on a single page in an attempt to increase relevance.

Activity 27:

1. Watch video 27; A word of warning about SEO

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on Should You Do 100% of Your SEO In-House?

Take time to optimize the details | Lecture 28 Description

Optimizing a website is rarely an easy task. It's not just one or two things you have to do, it's hundreds of little details that have to be covered. You see, it's all about context. Does

the URL of the page, the content of the page, the headings and subheadings, the flow of the navigation, do they all support the primary purpose of the page?

Utilizing all of your website's structures increases the context in small incremental amounts. None of these tactics work by themselves. It's the sum of extensively addressing your entire website. In this video, I'm going to cover some of those smaller details.

Activity 28:

1. Watch video 28; Take time to optimize the details

2. Complete Quiz 2: Apply Keywords to Optimize Your Website

3. Complete Assignment 7: Request 1:1 Coaching and Training from our IIDM™ Certified Immersion Trainer

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 8 Steps To Optimize Images For SEO

Why are backlinks important?

Backlinks are especially valuable for SEO because they represent a "vote of confidence" from one site to another.

In essence, backlinks to your website are a signal to search engines that others vouch for your content. If many sites link to the same webpage or website, search engines can infer that content is worth linking to, and therefore also worth surfacing on a SERP. So, earning these backlinks can have a positive effect on a site's ranking position or search visibility.

Maintain keyword groups with specific destinations | Lecture 29 Description

When using Google Ads or Bing Ads a clear understanding of keywords is critical. In order to create successful, paid search advertising campaigns it's all in defining the details. If you attempt to create only a few ads but use as many keywords as possible your campaign will flounder.

Your ability to manage a campaign, effectively target an audience, present a relevant message, and gain new customers it's easier when you use a defined keyword target to reach a defined audience.

Activity 29:

1. Watch video 29; Maintain keyword groups with specific destinations

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on How do I improve my chances on Google Ads

Build your quality score with keyword themes | Lecture 30 Description

Have you ever been rewarded for something you thought was just common sense? Well this is how Google Ads Quality Score works, and this Quality Score principle works the same for almost any other search advertising system.

Quality Score is a way of rewarding site owners and marketers who maintain a good campaign by improving and optimizing it. A high Quality Score rewards advertisers by reducing the amount that they pay for ad clicks.

Activity 30:

1. Watch video 30; Build your quality score with keyword themes

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on What Are Smart Campaigns on Google Ads

Utilize negative keywords | Lecture 31 Description

Many terms or concepts will have alternate meanings. Additionally, there may be other words that searchers use that contain our keywords, but aren't relevant.

To mitigate this problem, we need to use negative keywords. And this is one of the most overlooked tools in search ads. It's identifying negative keywords, and adding them to your campaign. I call these stop words. That means if the searcher is using this word as part of their query, my ad will not show. And this is important for primary reasons. This lecture will discuss these reasons.

Activity 31:

1. Watch video 31; Utilize negative keywords

Resources Summary:

• How to Set Up Google Search Ads for Success

• How to create Display Ads on Google AdWords?

Target ads and campaigns with keywords: Location, time, and words | Lecture 32 Description

What I love about using search ads, it's the dynamic nature of the campaign. I can evaluate the performance of the campaign. I can evaluate each individual ad group, and then all the way down to the performance of keywords.

If I see that certain keyword themes are more in demand, then I can use that to create a new ad group, a new ad, and another budget to take advantage of that trend. As you go through keyword research, there are many opportunities that may show up. The three biggest opportunities that can impact your paid search campaigns are location, time, and trends.

Activity 32:

1. Watch video 32; Target ads and campaigns with keywords: Location, time, and words

2. Complete Assignment 8: Self Assessment 4: Paid Search

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on How to Create Successful Search Ads?

Content marketing: Answer questions and anticipate events | Lecture 33 Description

Content marketing is directly connected to your overall strategy as a business. Any content that you develop to attract new customers, communicate to existing customers, or explain your business is content marketing. But to be effective, it must be derived from your company's strategic objectives and goals. It must follow the personality of your company and how you want to be known in the industry. All of your keyword research should point you to your customer's questions, concerns, and ideas. Keyword research isn't just about optimizing a website, it is about learning about your audience and what they want.

Activity 33:

1. Watch video 33; Content marketing: Answer questions and anticipate events

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on Brand Awareness

AI-Powered Content Creation Tools for Social Media Managers

Here’s the thing. Whether you’re a one-person shop or you have a full marketing team, keeping up with your brand’s content creation needs is always a challenge. From social content to emails to blog posts to sales pages, digital marketing just requires So. Many. Words.

AI-powered content creation tools can't replace great writers — but the truth is, they help writers and marketers save time and use their skills for more strategic aspects of content creation. AI-powered content writing is a way to improve the writing process and make it more efficient, not replace human writers outright.

When artificial intelligence takes care of mundane writing tasks, writers (and non-writer marketers) can use their skills for more valuable aspects of content creation, like content mix and conversion strategies.

Jasper: AI Tool to create Social media posts

Now let’s look at a practical example of an AI tool for social media, more specifically for copywriting.

The AI copywriting tools that are now available are fantastic for writing product descriptions, ad copy, social media posts, and even doing SEO copywriting for blog posts.

There are many AI copywriting tools out there now. Not all of them are great, and t

hey all have their pros and cons.

But first, what is AI Copywriting?

AI Copywriting refers to a myriad of different products that use machine learning and artificial intelligence to augment or generate text.

Most recently, GPT-3 by OpenAI has unleashed a flurry of new copywriting software.

GPT-3, quickly, is an autoregressive language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text. It uses natural language processing to learn context and generate copy from that understanding.

In layman's terms, this means it writes text using pre-trained algorithms that have been fed text data by crawling the internet (using a publicly available dataset called CommonCrawl) and all of Wikipedia.

Jasper

Jasper is really the only AI copywriter that can actually generate long-form blog content.

Their AI-based writing assistant is trained by conversion and copywriting experts, which helped it acquire incredible writing skills and write copies that convert.

They even claim that every line of their website copy was written by their own copywriting tool. For some reason, they do search-engine-optimized content quite well.

Introduction to ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI that uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to natural language input. It is one of the most advanced chatbots available today, with the ability to converse on a wide range of topics and provide accurate answers to complex questions. ChatGPT has been trained on a massive corpus of text data, allowing it to understand and respond to natural language queries with high accuracy. It is used in a variety of applications, from customer service chatbots to virtual assistants and more.

Social: Engage by knowing the need, the time, and the language | Lecture 35 Description

I'm amazed at the number of businesses that will post to social media just to get five posts a week. Seems like the number of posts is more important than the substance of what's being posted. Somewhere along the line, someone thinks that frequency is more important than quality.

This kind of tactic results in people stressing out at the last

minute, trying to find an idea for a post, and the result is simply information posted without a larger purpose, strategic importance, or a customer-centric need. Your keyword research should influence your social conversations. When you create a content calendar based on popular keywords, keyword ideas and trends, you then have great ideas as to what people want to know and see about your business.

Activity 35:

1. Watch video 35; Social: Engage by knowing the need, the time, and the language

2. Complete Assignment 10: Self Assessment 6: Content Calendar

3. Complete Quiz 3: Optimizing for Paid Search & SEO

4. Complete Assignment 11: Request 1:1 Coaching and Training from our IIDM™ Certified Immersion Trainer

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 6 Social Media Tools That Experts Use To Streamline Their Marketing

• Youtube video on 10 Social Media Marketing Tips for Social media content

Email: Educate and engage the needs of the audience | Lecture 34 Description

One of the best methods to increase your email campaign click-through rates is to have a relevant subject line. Of course, relevance is based on the words you use according to the context of the email recipient. Your keyword research, optimization, and application extend to any communication that you create, not just web pages or blog posts. Implementing keywords in your emails creates relevance to your recipient. As you're using words they use and cover content that they demand.

Activity 34:

1. Watch video 34; Email: Educate and engage the needs of the audience

2. Complete Assignment 9: Self Assessment 5: Email Marketing

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on 6 Smart Ways to Integrate Email Marketing with Social Media

• Youtube video on TIPS FOR EMAIL MARKETING

SEO for Ecommerce - Optimizing product pages for SEO | Lecture 36 Description

Optimizing your e-commerce product pages can help you to increase your sales by driving additional traffic via the search engines. Firstly, you want to ensure that your keywords are in your URL. Don't be afraid to add a descriptive title to your e-commerce pages. And where necessary, you can add a line as well and have two keywords potentially here. This increases your chances of ranking in the search engines because if you don't start ranking for your first keyword, you might start ranking for your second keyword.

Activity 36:

1. Watch video 36; SEO for Ecommerce - Optimizing product pages for SEO

Resources Summary:

• Youtube video on How To Use Google Analytics To Boost E-Commerce Sales

Optimizing eCommerce content pages | Lecture 37 Description

With regards to your eCommerce website, you don't just want to focus on SEO for your eCommerce products pages. Whilst you do want your eCommerce products pages to be ranked in search, you also want to be creating a content strategy that allows you to rank in search for other keywords for people who might be at a different stage of the buyer journey. For example, I recommend creating a blog for your website that you can update regularly.

Activity 37:

1. Watch video 37; Optimizing eCommerce content pages

Resources Summary:

Youtube video on 5 Powerful Types of Blogs

Buyer journey and keywords | Lecture 38 Description

The ability to rank your e-commerce website in Google is great. However, you want to make sure that you're actually ranking in Google for the types of keywords that will drive business results for you. I see a lot of companies obsessed with ranking in search engines for keywords that will simply not move the needle for their business.

You want to rank for keywords that suggest clear buying intent, that also suggest that your searcher is seeking some sort of information regarding your product, or that suggests searchers may benefit from your product at some stage. Someone who is in the ready-to-buy mindset is simply someone who has decided that they would like to purchase a product to help them to solve some sort of problem.

Activity 38:

1. Watch video 38; Buyer journey and keywords

2. Complete Assignment 12: Self Assessment 7: Buyer's Journey

Resources Summary:

Youtube video on The Best of b2b marketing content: 5 examples

Understanding how ecommerce SERP works | Lecture 39 Description

The SERP, which stands for the search engines results page is what potential website visitors see after performing a search on the search engines. You can edit the meta title and the meta description of each page of your website to ensure that both search engines and users have a better understanding of what your webpage is all about.

A meta title is the title of a webpage that displays in Google. There is no exact title limit. However, according to Moz, if you keep your title below 60 characters, your title should appear correctly 90% of the time.

Activity 39:

1. Watch video 39; Understanding how e-commerce SERP works

Resources Summary:

Youtube video on 14 Ways to Get More Opt-Ins From Your Content

Continue learning SEO for ecommerce | Lecture 40 Description

Google is obsessed with user experience. They want to return results to users that are of higher quality. If you can prove that your website is of high quality, and if you can give your website visitors a great experience on your website, and also if your web pages are

relevant to the keywords that you're trying to rank for, chances are you're going to perform well in the search engines.

Activity 40:

1. Watch video 40; Continue learning SEO for ecommerce

2. Complete Assignment 13: Self Assessment 8: E-commerce optimization

3. Complete Quiz 4: SEO for Ecommerce

4. Complete Quiz 5 Certification: SEO & SEM III

5. Complete Assignment 14: Request 1:1 Coaching and Training from our IIDM™ Certified Immersion Trainer

Resources Summary:

IIDM Learning Leaf™

Congratulations on completing your SEO & SEM Master III™ training with the International Institute of Digital Marketing™!

We are proud of you, of your accomplishment, and of the contributions and effort you have provided. To acknowledge your personal milestone, we are excited to share your well-deserved certificates with you. Please accept your globally recognized Digital Marketing certificates as our sincere appreciation for your dedication to our organization.

We are glad that you were part of our journey. Thank you for all your time and effort.

On behalf of the IIDM™ Team, we wish you all the best.