1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)<\/h3>\n
People all over the world use the internet to answer their questions and find new items. The primary way they do this is through search engines.<\/p>\n
When someone types words into a search engine such as Google, they receive a list of web pages that match what they are looking for.<\/p>\n
SEO is how businesses get their website to show up in these results. It is one of the best types of digital marketing as it can bring a steady flow of visitors that are highly interested in your products or services.<\/p>\n
What is SEO?<\/strong><\/p>\n Search engine optimization (SEO)<\/strong><\/a> is the process of structuring your website and content so that your pages rank at the top of the results for search terms that are relevant to your business.<\/p>\n There are countless pages all trying to show for the same searches (keywords). Google must compare all these pages to decide which ones to show where.<\/p>\n With SEO, businesses can improve where their pages rank. They can do so by strategizing effectively and optimizing content according to what Google wants.<\/p>\n How SEO Works?<\/strong><\/p>\n To understand how SEO works, you first need to know how Google and other search engines find and rank content<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Search engines like Google seek to provide users the most relevant answers to their search queries.<\/p>\n They do so by sending little robots known as crawlers across the internet. These bots \u201ccrawl\u201d different websites and pages to analyze their content.<\/p>\n They then add the pages they find to Google\u2019s index. The index is a giant record of all the pages the search engine has discovered. Only indexed pages can show up for search results.<\/p>\n Once pages are in the index, Google weighs them against other pages to determine which ones to show for different search queries.<\/p>\n There is a long list of factors Google evaluates when ranking pages. These are broadly characterized as on-page or off-page factors.<\/p>\n On-page factors<\/strong><\/a> are the elements on your website and web pages that impact search rankings. Some important examples include:<\/p>\n Off-page factors<\/strong><\/a> are the external factors that contribute to your page rankings. These factors mostly center around how authoritative your site is.<\/p>\n In short, Google favors more authoritative sites and prefers to rank their pages ahead of less popular sites.<\/p>\n A website\u2019s authority is determined by how many other sites are linking to it and how much traffic the website receives.<\/p>\n SEO tool providers Ahrefs and Moz have created proprietary formulas that calculate the domain authority score<\/strong><\/a> for each website.<\/p>\n With a better understanding of how to optimize your website\u2019s SEO, here is a quick overview of the steps needed to execute an SEO strategy<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Choose your target keywords<\/strong><\/p>\n An SEO strategy begins with keyword research. You want to find all the relevant search terms that your target audience uses. When you discover relevant search terms, you should add them to a list.<\/p>\n This list should include the estimated amount of times a keyword is searched each month as well as how difficult it is to rank for the keyword. Popular SEO keyword research tools provide this data.<\/p>\n Create content optimized for those terms<\/strong><\/p>\n Once you have found your keyword targets, you can then create pages that are optimized for those terms. This involves creating high-quality content that matches search intent while also following SEO best practices.<\/p>\n Set up Google Search Console and monitor your performance <\/strong><\/p>\n Google Search Console is a platform that you can use to manage your website\u2019s SEO performance. It provides a lot of useful data including what pages are currently indexed, which have errors, where pages rank, and how much traffic they are generating.<\/p>\n You can use the insights to track your SEO performance over time. If you see a page\u2019s rankings dropping, you will know that you need to make improvements.<\/p>\n Resources to Learn More<\/span><\/p>\n Getting to the top of the organic search rankings isn\u2019t the only way to market your business through a search engine.<\/p>\n Search engines also allow companies to pay for ads that are shown on results pages.<\/p>\n This type of digital marketing is known as search engine marketing<\/strong><\/a>. It accounts for a large portion of the digital marketing budgets for many organizations.<\/p>\n What is SEM?<\/strong><\/p>\n Search engine marketing (SEM) is the process of using search engines to market your business.<\/p>\n SEM is similar to SEO in that it presents your business through the same platform however there is a fundamental difference between the two.<\/p>\n The difference between SEM and SEO<\/strong><\/a> is that SEM focuses on paid advertising.<\/p>\n These ad placements are highly valuable as they often appear at the top of the results, before the organic (unpaid) listings.<\/p>\n One of the most common forms of SEM is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. With this advertising model, businesses bid against one another to have their ads show for different keywords.<\/p>\n After someone clicks on an ad, the business pays the advertising platform (Google) for the visitor.<\/p>\n When used properly, SEM campaigns can be a great way to build brand awareness and find new customers.<\/p>\n How does SEM Works?<\/strong><\/p>\n SEM marketing centers around PPC advertising campaigns. This type of advertising is based on an ad auction.<\/p>\n Different businesses set bids for how much they are willing to pay for someone to click on their ad. They are only charged for the ad after someone clicks it.<\/p>\n The ad auction happens in real-time every time someone searches a keyword. Google determines the ad auction winner by evaluating several factors including your maximum bid and the quality score for your ad.<\/p>\n Building an SEM strategy starts along the same lines as an SEO campaign. You first need to know what keywords your target audience is using.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve identified your keyword targets you can begin setting up your advertising account.<\/p>\n A Google Ads account <\/strong><\/a>uses the following hierarchical structure:<\/p>\n When you create a campaign, it is common to follow a top-down approach.<\/p>\n Start with the campaign objective, budget, and bidding strategy. You can move on to segmenting different ad groups and choosing their respective keywords and creating the ads themselves.<\/p>\n When your campaigns are up and running, you can track the performance of your ad campaigns directly within your Google Ads account. You can also connect your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts to get more detailed data into your ads\u2019 performance.<\/p>\n Resources to Learn More<\/span><\/p>\n People across all demographics use various social media networks to connect with others and discover new products.<\/p>\n Businesses can use the active engagement offered by social platforms to get in front of their target audience.<\/p>\n What is Social Media Marketing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing<\/strong><\/a> where businesses use social media platforms to engage with their audience and find new customers.<\/p>\n SMM consists of both organic and paid methods.<\/p>\n Organic SMM involves actively posting content and engaging with the community to build a following.<\/p>\n Paid SMM involves running various forms of advertisements to drive people to your website before ultimately turning them into a customer.<\/p>\n How SMM works?<\/strong><\/p>\n SMM starts by understanding the user base for different social networks so that you can know what platforms your audience is using.<\/p>\n Each platform is popular among different types of users. For example, Pinterest is more popular among women with high incomes while Facebook has more of a balance of users across gender and age groups.<\/p>\n With an understanding of which platforms your target audience will use, you can begin crafting a social media strategy and creating content.<\/p>\n Your content should be specific to each channel that you are using. This will make it more effective as it will resonate more with that particular following.<\/p>\n The goal for your SMM doesn\u2019t necessarily need to be bringing in more sales. Instead, you can use your social media profiles to engage your audience and improve brand awareness.<\/p>\n For a more sales drive approach, you can run paid advertisements on social media platforms. Like SEM campaigns, most social media advertising campaigns tend to follow a PPC model.<\/p>\n Social media advertising differs from SEM advertising in that there are many more ad formats at your disposal. With social media, you can use video ads, image ads, gallery ads, stories, and more.<\/p>\n Targeting for social media campaigns focuses more on audience characteristics rather than keywords. You can define your target audience<\/strong><\/a> by a variety of criteria including age, gender, location, and interests, among others.<\/p>\n You can also create custom audiences to target a specific group of people such as those who have visited your website but haven\u2019t made a purchase.<\/p>\n Social media advertising platforms provide in-depth data and performance metrics so that you closely monitor the success of your campaigns.<\/p>\n Resources to Learn More<\/span><\/p>\n Content marketing is the jack-knife of digital marketing. Most other forms of digital marketing whether it is SEO, social media, or email will involve some use of content.<\/p>\n Content is how you provide value to your audience. You can use it to strengthen the connection with prospects and stand out from the competition.<\/p>\n What is Content Marketing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Content marketing is a type of digital marketing where a business creates valuable content and distributes it to its target audience to build a connection and move prospects through its sales funnel.<\/p>\n Content can come in a wide range of forms including blog posts, listicles<\/strong><\/a>, videos, social media posts, downloadable resources, and more.<\/p>\n Content marketing is an important component of any digital marketing strategy<\/strong><\/a> because traditional forms of advertising are less effective with some people.<\/p>\n Many have been bombarded with ads for years and are no longer interested in hearing a brand\u2019s commercial messaging.<\/p>\n Content marketing provides a solution to this challenge by giving organizations a natural way to communicate with their audience.<\/p>\n How Content Marketing Works?<\/strong><\/p>\n The main purpose of content marketing is to provide your audience real value while also keeping them engaged with your business.<\/p>\n Like other types of digital marketing, you need to clarify your strategy before you begin creating content. Your objective will ultimately determine what type of content is best and how you should promote it.<\/p>\n The objective of your content marketing strategy could be to increase brand awareness by increasing social followers or it could be to educate your audience about a topic that is important to them.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve established the objective for your content marketing strategy, you can determine what type of content will best help you reach your goals. If you want to nurture leads, this could be resources like eBooks or how-to blog posts. If you want to build brand awareness, it could be a set of posts on social media.<\/p>\n When you know what type of content you want to create, you can then decide what channels you will use to distribute the content.<\/p>\n Oftentimes, the type of content you use will determine this for you. If you want to create a series of social posts, you can only do this through social platforms.<\/p>\n Content marketing tends to be tied closely to SEO. If you want to use your content to bring visitors to your website it will likely be heavily focused on targeting specific keywords.<\/p>\n Resources to Learn More<\/span><\/p>\n Email marketing is one of the oldest types of digital marketing. With its many benefits, it is still commonplace among businesses today.<\/p>\n What is Email Marketing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Email marketing is a type of digital marketing where businesses engage with their audience through email.<\/p>\n Customers sign up for a business\u2019 email list, giving the company permission to contact them via email.<\/p>\n Businesses can then send various types of email messages including promotional offers, educational material, or just general updates.<\/p>\n How Email Marketing Works?<\/strong><\/p>\n Email marketing begins and ends with your list of email subscribers. You need a list of people to market to before you can begin your campaigns.<\/p>\n The best way to grow your email list<\/strong><\/a> is to place sign-up forms across your website. You can embed these forms in your pages, add them to your sidebar, or display them in a popup.<\/p>\n A common practice businesses use to increase the rate at which people opt-in to their email list is to create lead magnets<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n A lead magnet is a free resource or gift that you give to a visitor in exchange for their contact information. For example, a lead magnet could be a discount for a product or an eBook explaining how to do something specific.<\/p>\n Once a subscriber joins your email list, you have the ability to contact them with marketing messages directly.<\/p>\n One of the best parts of email marketing is the ability to set up automated campaigns.<\/p>\n With an email autoresponder software, you can configure a campaign to automatically send subscribers a predefined sequence of messages.<\/p>\n This is a highly effective way to move people through your digital marketing sales funnel<\/strong><\/a> as you can send them content related to each stage of their buying journey.<\/p>\n Here are some common examples of automated email campaigns:<\/p>\n Another major advantage to email marketing is the level of control you have over your list.<\/p>\n Most email marketing software lets you group different types of subscribers into segments.<\/p>\n These segments can be based on any criteria that you specify. For example, you could create a segment for people in a specific geographic area. Or you could create a segment for people that have engaged with your business a certain number of times.<\/p>\n This lets you send personalized messages that often result in higher conversions.<\/p>\n Resources to Learn More<\/span><\/p>\n One of the best ways to market your business is to have other people do it for you. This is the focus of affiliate marketing.<\/p>\n By creating an affiliate program, businesses can leverage the effort of others to reach new audiences and grow their customer base.<\/p>\n![\"SEO](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/seo-overview.png\")
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2. Search Engine Marketing (Paid Advertising)<\/h3>\n
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3. Social Media Marketing<\/h3>\n
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4. Content Marketing<\/h3>\n
![\"Content](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/content-marketing-plan.jpg\")
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5. Email Marketing<\/h3>\n
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6. Affiliate Marketing<\/h3>\n
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