Understand search engine optimization (SEO) | Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Certificate
SPEAKER: Hello. Let's imagine that a potential
customer uses a search Engine to solve their problem. If you're a business
that provides a solution, you'd want to get found in
the search results, right? A really important aspect
of digital marketing is getting your website
found in search engines. In the following lessons,
you'll learn more about how to make that happen. I'll introduce you to how the
Google search engine works and how it determines
website rankings. I'll explain to you
in the structure of the search engine results
pages also called SERPs. Then I'll introduce you to
search engine optimization also called SEO. Now, this is the
practice of getting a website found in a
search engine results page. I'll discuss the pre=steps
to take before you start to consider SEO and then for
your first steps which include keyword research and
organizing a website structure. Personally, I love
working on SEO. The thing is, I can say it
has been my greatest marketing tool for my brand, but I must
admit, when I first started, it didn't really
make sense to me. People talked about
keywords and tagging and being found in search
engine pages, results, all that.
But when I first
started, it honestly sounded like I was
speaking or understanding a language that I've
never read before. After implementing strategies
for several months, something interesting
happened for my brand. I actually remember
a friend reached out to me saying they read
one of my articles and saw an image I posted
online for my business. I remember thinking, what
are you talking about? I didn't share anything.
And they said they were
looking for advice on a topic, and my article and
picture came up. Thing is, I can't
tell you how excited I was when that happened
because years later, a simple Google
search of my name now brings up dozens of
images, content, and videos. My online trust
and my credibility saves me so much time now
not having to re-pitch myself over and over. For me, SEO is one of the
best marketing strategies to expand the exposure
of a brand online. Welcome to the world of search
engines and search engine optimization. I hope you're excited
to get started. [MUSIC PLAYING] Before you learn about how to
optimize content for a search engine, we need to
first understand what a search engine
is and how it works. In this video, we're going to
cover the three main processes of Google search engine– crawling, indexing, and serving. The Google search engine
uses these processes to locate the most relevant
content to a user's search query.
Just quick disclaimer
about the search content you'll learn about, there's
no confidential information in this content. It's all available
publicly, and you can learn more in Google's
official search documentation. So what is a search engine? Think of a search engine as
any software that locates information on a search query. As a marketer, you may work
with several search engines. For example, in
e-commerce, you may work within Amazon search engine
or the Etsy search engine. Every search engine works
slightly differently. However, many of the concepts
and strategies we cover will apply to all. Let's discuss the processes
Google uses to organize information online– crawling, indexing, and serving. The first step the Google
search engine takes is crawling which is the process
of finding new and updated web pages. Google explores the internet
with automated programs called crawlers. These crawlers find new
and updated web pages. Once the crawlers discover
a new or updated web page, Google then stores these
page URLs in a big list to review later. A page URL is the web address
such as www.example.com/blog.
There are several ways the
Google crawler finds a web pages. The main way is to follow links
from pages already identified. Links are any web
addresses on a web page. Let's imagine that as a
marketer you create a new web page for a website. The crawler will primarily
discover that new page by a link within the website
or from a separate website. Before crawling
the page, it will check if it is allowed to
do so by the website owner. Once the new pages are
crawled, Google then stores them in an index. Think of it as an
online index that's similar to an index
in the back of a book. A book index is a list of
content and its associated pages. Similarly, Google
stores web content with its location, the
URL for each web page. What type of content
will Google index? Well, almost anything on the
page including text, photos, and video content. Remember, indexing
is only possible if the website owner allows
the web page to be crawled. If the owner doesn't want
it to be crawled, indexed, and appear in Google
Search, then they can indicate it in
the website's code.
After the web page
content is indexed, the Google search
algorithm goes to work. In this context, an algorithm
is an automated software that helps locate information
to answer a user's query. The Google Search
algorithm sorts through billions of web pages
to deliver the most relevant content for a given search. The purpose of the
search algorithm is to deliver the best
results for a search. For example, if you
search a product, the results are likely the best
available to help you learn about or purchase that product. What does the algorithm
consider when ranking a web page for a search? Oh, it considers many
factors including what's on a website and
information on other websites. Some of the factors are
more obvious than others, such as location and language. Google wants to
really return results that meet the need of users
with a great user experience. We'll discuss five key
factors such as quality of content and usability of
web pages in an upcoming video. Overall, Google
search wants to return results that meet the needs
of users with a great user experience.
Now, if all of this sounds
confusing, don't worry. By the end of this
course, you'll know a lot more about strategies
to rank a website in the Google search engine. When doing digital marketing,
you'll encounter algorithms frequently. Generally speaking,
an algorithm is just a set of instructions
for solving a problem or accomplishing a task. One [? simple ?] of an
algorithm is a recipe. You want to make a
meal, and the recipe provides instructions
to make that meal.
Websites and platforms
use different algorithms to decide what to show users. A search algorithm
for an e-commerce site may display the
most likely products a shopper would purchase. Factors such as a
price and shipping time might influence the results. A social media
algorithm may focus on what it thinks is most
entertaining for the user. Factors such as popularity
and content length may influence the
results the social media algorithm provides its users. OK, you've been introduced to
how the search engine works and algorithms. As a marketer,
it's likely you'll be thinking about how your
website, products, or post can be delivered to more
and more people. It's part of the job. [MUSIC PLAYING] In digital marketing,
understanding how pages show up
in a search can help you get the most out
of your marketing efforts. In this video, we're
going to go more in depth on ranking results
in search engine results pages also called SERPs.
We'll cover five key factors
which are meaning of the query, relevance of the web pages,
quality of the content, usability of web pages, and
overall context and user settings. Think of these key
factors as concepts. As you will learn,
they can be applied in several different ways. That's why creating content
to rank high in the search is often open to interpretation. For example, how
much information should you write about a
topic, and how should you order the information? Would a searcher prefer the
content with photos or a video? We'll get into more
strategies later.
For now, consider these key
factors from a search engines perspective so you
understand what the search algorithm considers
when ranking websites. The first key factor is
the meaning of the query. A query is simply the words
typed into a Google search bar. To return relevant results,
the search algorithm needs to establish
what the user is searching for, in other words,
the intent behind the query. Google's algorithms have
created language models to decipher the meaning
and intent of a search. As a marketer, you
want to consider the meaning and intent of your
potential customer searches as well.
One of your tasks may be
to create content that addresses the searcher's needs. If you don't do that well, then
the Google Search algorithm may index your quality
content and then show it to potential customers. An effective marketer
will understand the potential customer's
intent and meaning of a search. That's why you want to build
customer personas to better understand your customers. The second key factor is
the relevance of web pages. This is when the algorithm
determines what content is relevant to the search. The most basic signal that
information is relevant is if the web page contains
the same keywords as the search query. A keyword is a word
or multiple words that people use to find
information, products, or services online.
The keyword either matches or is
similar to the search's query. For example, if the keywords
appear in the headings or body text of a web page,
the search algorithms may determine that page
to be more relevant. The Google search algorithms
review more than just keywords for relevance. They will match
phrases and topics that the searcher
may be interested in. For instance, if someone
searches for dogs, they likely don't want the word
dog listed a bunch of times on a page.
They may also be interested
in other content such as dog breeds or dog photos. Depending on the type of search,
different types of content may be relevant as well. Maybe a searcher is more
likely to watch a video than read several
paragraphs of text, or maybe the content includes
photos rather than just text. Another key factor to consider
is quality of content. This is a topic
we'll be discussing throughout this course. As a marketer, you may
be tasked with creating great, quality web content. One way Google determines
quality content is understanding if prominent
websites link or refer to the content. Google uses a number
of factors to try to work out the quality
of a piece of content as well as the quality
of a website overall.
These factors are generally
not technical elements that site owners
can turn on or off but rather try to capture
the bigger picture. For example, just because
a book is well made doesn't mean that
you'll enjoy reading it. Additionally, Google Search
uses aggregated feedback from a search quality
evaluation process to further refine the
algorithms used for ranking. A fourth key factor is the
usability of web pages.
Google algorithms also consider
the contents ease of use. Now, if you have two web pages
with exactly the same content, the web page that has a
better user experience may perform better. Google calls this the page
experience ranking factor. What does a better user
experience even mean? Well, it means that a
page is mobile friendly so it renders better on a phone
or that a page loads quickly. These are among the
many factors that contribute how a page ranks. The last key factor in the
search is context and setting. Information such as their
location, past search history, and search settings help
the search algorithm deliver relevant and useful results. The country and location of a
search can alter the results.
For example, imagine
you live in Chicago and search for football. You're likely to get results
for American football and the Chicago Bears. Whereas, if you search
football in London, Google will likely show
you results about soccer and the Premier League. Here's another interesting
context feature that may affect search results. Google may tailor results based
on activity in your Google account. For example, if you
search for events near me, Google may tailor
some recommendations to even categories they think
you might be interested in. These systems are designed
to match interests, but they're not designed
to inverse sensitive characteristics. Now you know about how
Google Search works and some factors that SEOs
consider to be important when ranking content. This is great foundational
knowledge to have.
Remember the key factors– query meaning, web page
relevance, content quality, web page usability, and
context and settings. [MUSIC PLAYING] Let's go more in depth on the
makeup of the Google Search results. The search engine results
pages, also called SERPs, appear whenever someone
performs a search query. The first thing
you need to know is that there are different
types of SERP features based on what you search. For example, if your
search is about a product, it may be structured with
shopping or products. Or if the search is
news-related and timely, then it may be structured
with news articles. A best practice is to always
Google search your product or service for the brand name
and several related words. Simply analyze the
results like what are the possible
placements in the SERPs? When analyzing the SERPs,
you should keep in mind that there are both
search listings and ads. Typically, you'll find paid ads
towards the top of the search results page.
After the paid ads
are search listings. You may find Google Ads at the
end of the search results page as well. There are several SERP
features you should know about. Let's cover some common ones. A featured snippet
is a special box that displays information about
a search in the results page. The featured snippet displays
when the algorithm determines the format will help
people more easily discover what
they're looking for. It's a non-paid feature. A digital marketer
or e-commerce analyst can mark a web page
as a featured snippet. Google systems will
determine whether a page would make a good feature
snippet for a user's search request. Rich results provide specific
information about a website.
This information helps
a website display with additional features
in search results. An example of this is for
a product-based web page. Additional product
information may show in search results such
as its review rating, price, and availability. Images may appear
when the Google system determines
that visual content is valuable to the search. The images may appear in any
search position including the top, the middle, or
the bottom of the SERPs. Images are a non-paid feature. Similar to images,
videos may display if the Google system
believes it is valuable to the search query. Videos may also be at the top,
middle, or bottom of the search results. The videos in the SERPs
come from across the web. When searching for a local
business, product, or service, you may get a couple of
different local-based service features. The most prominent feature
is a map and listing of local businesses. The businesses listed are tied
to a non-paid business profile listing provided by Google. The profile is available
to any business who has local customers.
Additionally, if someone
searches for the business name, its business profile
will likely appear as a panel on the
right side of the SERP separate from the
non-paid search results. There are also paid ads. You will learn more
about different types of ads later in this course. So that wraps up our lesson
on the Google search engine results pages. Here's something that I want
you to do to improve your SERPs knowledge. As you conduct searches in
Google or any search engine, study the results. What websites, products,
featured snippets appear? Where are they
located, and why do you think that they are there? By studying these
results, you'll get more comfortable with search
results and one step closer to thinking like a
digital marketer. [MUSIC PLAYING] We've covered some
paid and non-paid ways to get websites found in the
search Engine results pages. Let's chat specifically
about the non-paid process to get websites more visible
in the SERPs, search engine optimization, also called SEO.
This is a process of increasing
the visibility of website pages on search engines in order to
attract more relevant traffic. Think of relevant traffic
as the ideal customers you'd like to visit the website. You may also encounter SEO
as the title of someone who does it for a living, such
as we just hired a new SEO to improve our online presence. Every digital marketer
should learn the basics of search engine optimization. Even if you're
working for a business with a website on a platform
such as Blogger, Wix, or Squarespace, it's worth
really learning a little about SEO.
A little knowledge
can go a long way towards helping
people find the site. Overall, a website that has
search engine optimization may make it easier for
search engine algorithms to crawl, index, and
understand its content. SEO is important because if
search engines cannot crawl a website, then it may not get
found in a search engine like Google. And if a search engine
algorithm struggles to understand a
site's content, it may not display when a
potential customer searches for their business
products and services.
SEO is often about making
small modifications to parts of a website. When viewed individually,
these changes might seem like
minor improvements, but when combined with
other optimizations, the impact can be large. An impact to the website's
visitors experience could affect the performance
in search results. Specifically, for the
Google search engine, there's a tool to help with SEO
called Google Search Console. This tool helps people
monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot a website's
presence in Google search results. We'll talk more about
Google's Search Console later in this program. It's important to
remember that there are a lot of opinions on
how best to do search engine optimization. Typically, Google will
publish SEO guidelines. It's often, though, up to
the digital marketer, SEO professional, or company to
determine how to best implement those guidelines. Depending on the company
a digital marketer works for, they may receive
different strategies on how best to implement SEO. Luckily, there are
many separate paths that can result in a site
being visible in search. You don't have to match
other websites one to one.
Let's discuss some tasks often
involved with search engine optimization. Someone doing SEO may review
website content or structure. It's important to have
a well organized website that is easy for the search
engine algorithm to crawl. You'll learn about what exactly
a well organized website means in a later section. For now, though, know that if
a website isn't easily crawled, certain pages may not
display in search results. Another SEO task is technical
website development. This task is more advanced. It could involve tasks
related to hosting, web page redirects, error pages,
or use of JavaScript. JavaScript is a
programming language which is considered a
type of computer code. Technical development
may also involve improving page load speeds. A third SEO task is
content development. Think of content as
anything a visitor experiences on a website. Content includes text,
videos, and photos.
Search engine optimization
also includes user experience. When developing content,
it's important to consider how the website visitor
experiences and interacts with the content. A fourth SEO task
is keyword research. Keyword research is the process
of finding terms and phrases that potential customers are
typing into search engines. It's important to
create website content that aligns with your potential
customers are searching for. Keyword research
is often combined with content development. A company may use
keyword research to inform its content strategy. Keyword research is an
example of an SEO strategy that may different depending
on the company you work for. While some strategies may be
more effective than others, there is no perfect
way to do it. Now you have an overview of
search Engine optimization, why it's important,
and common tasks. Any digital marketer
or e-commerce analyst should have working knowledge
of SEO best practices. Most digital marketers
and e-commerce analysts will at a minimum create
content for a website. It's important to learn
these best practices so that both people and
search engines can easily understand the content. [MUSIC PLAYING] Is a digital
marketer responsible for an organization's SEO? You should do some pre-work.
This pre-work is
done for two groups– the company or
organization requesting the SEO and the potential
website visitors. Implementing SEO without
doing this pre-work can lead to several problems. The work you do may not align
to the organizational goals. You need to make sure
the work you're doing helps the organization
achieve its goals. Another problem is related
to the website visitors. What if the work you're doing
isn't connecting with them? Even worse, what if
it's turning them away? A little pre-work
before implementing SEO can help avoid these situations.
Let's go over a few
factors to consider before doing any search
engine optimization task. The first factor is to know
your website or organization's goals. What would they like
to primarily achieve? For instance, we'd like to
get more sales, more emails or phone calls. The type of SEO work you
do depends on their goals. It's important to get
clear on these goals. You want to work on tasks that
you believe will positively impact these goals,
and remember, as a marketing
professional, you may have influence over these goals. Most business owners
know that they want to make sales
and earn more revenue. It may be up to you to
figure out how to do that. For example, let's
imagine the marketing funnel you create for the
business prioritizes email collection.
You know that if
you collect emails from potential customers,
it will lead to sales. So as the person
implementing SEO, you prioritize creating
content for email collection. Another step to take
before starting SEO is to know the customers well. This principle is why
we started this course with customer personas. Before doing SEO, you
need to really understand the people reading and
experiencing your content. Let's imagine a
potential customer visits a website that can
help them solve their problem. If they read a few
sentences or experience visuals that they
don't connect with, they'll just simply leave. They'll go to the next website. There are several
other websites that can help them solve their problem Additionally, you need to
know the visitor's intent. What do they want to achieve? Communicate with them
directly and ultimately, help them fulfill that intent.
A third step to take
before starting any SEO is brainstorming content
for people first. To understand what it means
to create content for people first, you need to understand
what it's like to work in SEO. When you're creating content
or improving content, you'll be reviewing what's
already in the SERPs. It's easy to fall into
the habit of crafting content for what you believe
that Google SERPs want to show people. If it's already working, just
create similar content, right? However, great SEO-based
content marketers don't create content for
Google search results first. They create content for
people first, Google second. What does this mean? It means the marketer
prioritizes and considers what the searcher needs
from their query more so than what is already
in the search results. Is there any information
that is missing? For example, should
the marketer try to explain the
content more visually such as with photos or video? Just because all the
articles and search results are text-based doesn't mean that
it's what the searcher wants.
A last factor to consider is
to know your competitors well. To rank higher in
SERPs, you'll often have to create content that is
better than the competition. Remember, better means different
things to different people. It could be a video
instead of a text. Better could be more in-depth
content such as including a lengthy story or a case
study to illustrate a point, or it could be shorter,
more concise content. That's your job as a
marketer to figure that out. To create better content
than your competition, you must study
what they created. Study what they've
done, and do it better, all while keeping the
ideal customer in mind. [MUSIC PLAYING] As a digital marketer
or e-commerce analyst , an organization may have you
create content for a web page.
Before creating
that content, it's helpful to know the terms or
phrases potential customers type into Google to
find that information. For example, let's
imagine you're writing a web page about a
type of couch and its style. Before writing any content,
it's helpful to know what words potential customers
are typing into a search engine to find that type
of couch information you're writing about. Now, this may seem easy,
but it can be complicated. For instance. In addition to couch, are
they searching for sofas, sectionals, or loungers? Is one word used
more than others, or are words combined
such as sofa sectional? Understanding the
preferred words will help you
create content that closely relates to what your
customers are searching for. This content will connect with
them, and when content connects they're more likely to
take a desired action. In SEO, these words are
referred to as keywords which are the search terms people use
to find information, products, or services online. But how do you come up with the
keywords in the first place? Keyword research is a process
to find the terms people use in search engines.
There's no single correct
way to do keyword research. You may work at
one organization, and they have their
recommended process, and you may work at a
different organization, and they have their
recommended process. It's all a matter of opinion. When doing keyword
research, there are tools that can help you. These tools provide
data on how many times people search for keywords. They also provide how
competitive a certain keyword is. Keyword research varies
depending on the organization you work for.
It also can be somewhat
based on opinion. It is also something
best learned on the job, so we won't spend time
on it in this program. However, Google's SEO
quality guidelines recommend not doing one
keyword-related practice, and this practice is
called keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing
refers to the practice of loading a web page
with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a
site's ranking in the search results. Often, these keywords
appear in a list or a group. They're typically out
of context and not really natural to
the web page content. Filling pages with keywords
results in a negative user experience and can harm
your site's ranking. You should focus on creating
useful, information-rich content that uses keywords
appropriately and in context. Examples of keyword stuffing
include blocks of text that list cities and
states that a web page is trying to rank for or repeating
the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural
such as we sell custom candles. Our custom candles or handmade. If you're thinking about
buying a custom candle, contact a custom
candle specialist. That's our introduction to
keywords and keyword research.
Just like creating
customer personas is crucial before developing
marketing materials, doing keyword research is
crucial before developing web page content. Keywords are the topics
of your web page. Getting accurate
keywords will help you create content that connects
more closely with searchers. When you connect,
you can drive action, and getting your potential
customer to take action will make you successful in
your digital marketing role. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome. Welcome back. An important aspect of SEO is
having a well organized website structure. Think of a site structure
as how the web pages are all linked and connected. It's also how a visitor
navigates through the website. You consider the structure
when first creating a website, or you may be on a team tasked
with overhauling an existing website structure. Many large companies
have entire departments focus on website architecture
and user experience. Even if you're on a
team with experts, it's important to understand how
website structure affects SEO.
Site structure generally
falls under technical SEO. A smaller business
may have 10 pages. This is fairly
easy to structure. However, if it's an
e-commerce business with thousands of
products, the organization can get complicated. Overall, a good site
structure is hierarchical which means web pages fall
under and are associated with another web page. For example,
e-commerce sites often organize products
into a hierarchy using product categories. Visit a home
improvement website, and you'll encounter categories
such as hardware, electrical, and plumbing. In general, the hierarchy
should be a flat structure. As a best practice,
every page should only be three, maybe four
clicks from the home page. From a technical perspective,
the Google crawler should have no issue
moving from page to page and understanding
the flow of the site. From a user's perspective, the
web page should be easy to use.
Think about your own
experiences on a website. Have you ever been on
a website and found it difficult to navigate or it
may be just plain confusing? With good site organization,
that shouldn't happen. There are a few reasons to
plan out a website structure. The first is that it assists
the search engine crawlers. Remember, the primary way the
Google crawlers discover a new or updated web page is through
links from other pages. So if you create a page
that has no links to it, it could take longer for
Google crawlers to discover it. There's another way
crawlers discover web pages, and that is through a site
map which is particularly important for larger websites.
You'll learn more about site
maps later in the program. Another reason is for a
consistent and readable URL structure. Remember, the URL is the
address of a web page. It's a best practice
to have clear URLs. Website visitors
may be intimidated by extremely long
and cryptic URLs that contain few recognizable words. Additionally,
remember that a URL may be displayed in some
form in a Google search result near the document title. Potential customers may read
it before actually deciding to click on the search result.
A third reason to plan
out a website structure is for the improved
user experience. If a user has trouble
navigating a website, it's likely that they'll leave. This increases your bounce rate. Remember, a bounce is a percent
of visitors that view one page and then leave the site. A high bounce rate
means that even when users come to your
website from search, they tend to leave without
converting into customers. Let's discuss a few
tips to consider when creating a website
structure and navigation. One tip is to use https://
whenever possible and ideally for every URL on the website. HTTPS is an internet
communications protocol that protects the integrity
and confidentiality of data between the user's
computer and the site. When you create a
web page or a website with HTTPS instead
of the older HTTP, it provides protection
to your website's user, connection regardless
of the site content.
Another tip is to create a
navigational page for users. A navigational page
is a simple page on the website that displays
the website structure. It usually consists of
a hierarchical listing of all the pages on the site. Users may visit this page
if they're having problems finding pages on the site. While search engines will also
visit the Navigation page, it's mainly aimed
at human visitors. A third tip is to
show useful 404 pages. A 404 page is a URL that tells
the user that the web page does not exist. Occasionally, a user
will come to this page either by following
a broken link or typing in the wrong URL. Creating a custom 404
page for the website kindly guides visitors back to
a working page on the website. This can greatly improve
a visitor's experience. Consider adding a link back
to the home page or links to popular content
on the website. A fourth tip is to make your
website navigation Google crawler friendly. To help Google find
all pages on the site, make sure that the pages are
reachable by following links through the site's navigation. For an e-commerce
website specifically, the product category page should
link to the subcategory pages and then to the product pages.
Website structure
may seem simple, but it can get complicated,
especially as you are adding more pages to the website. A little work before
creating the website can avoid challenges such as a
disorganized website with pages not being crawled
by the Google bots. As a digital marketer,
you may find yourself reorganizing a website. Maybe they didn't consider
the site structure when first creating the website. You'll be a big help to them. MIRIAM: Congratulations
on finishing this video from the Google Digital
Marketing and E-commerce Certificate.
Access the full experience on
Coursera including job search help, and start earning
the official certificate by clicking the icon or the
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