Search Engine Marketing

Overview

Search engine marketing (SEM) options grow every year, so the key to success is planning and management as well as technical knowledge. This structured course will take you through setting goals, budgeting, planning and measurement across paid search and SEO. It will lead to a better understanding and confidence in dealing with both internal and external agencies.

Benefits to you and your organisation

You will gain confidence and knowledge of the terminology and best practice of SEM planning, SEO projects and PPC campaigns. You will be able to judge a search agency or consultant's abilities, look for 'red flags' for poor quality work and focus on the important aspects of search that will make your daily job easier.

Your organisation will benefit from a structured SEM plan that focuses on delivering real business value and KPIs. As a result they will also gain a greater return on investment.

Who this course is for

This course is aimed at marketers responsible for SEM planning in their organisation. It is also suitable for people in the broader web, marketing or PR teams looking to understand how this important channel works. 

What you will learn

• Know free research tools and methods.
• Understand SEM planning and budgeting.
• Evaluate in-house and agency search teams.
• Use tried and tested best practice techniques for managing both free (organic) and paid search (pay-per-click).
• Learn the four signal groups that impact your SEO.
• Use content optimisation to improve on-page signals through keywords and metadata.
• Plan and deploy "white hat" linking strategies which improve your relevance and authority as a site.
• Get quick wins for your social media marketing to improve your SEO.
• Avoid common search pitfalls and technical challenges.
• Improve the search engines trust in your site to improve both your SEO and conversion rates. 
• Learn how to gain real actionable insights to your search marketing using web analytics and other tools.  

Course content

• The importance of search engines.
• Search and off-line media.
• Keyword research for both PCs and mobile.
• Demographic profiling of keywords.
• Defining goals, budgets, metrics and measurement.
• Planning and managing search engine marketing.
• Selecting an agency or consultant.
• Paid search advertising fundamentals.
• Evaluating your bid positioning.
• Planning PPC to reveal ROI.
• Google Adwords campaign strategies.
• SEO signals groups.
• Content optimisation.
• Effective title tags.
• White-hat link building.
• Link baiting.
• SEO, PR and Social Media.
• Building your site's trust rank.

Learning approach

This highly practical workshop encompasses interaction with the web, group/individual exercises alongside a presentation detailing the latest findings and research.