Unit-I: Introduction

Introduction: digital marketing, Digital vs. Real Marketing, Digital Marketing

Channels, Creating initial digital marketing plan, Content management, SWOT
analysis, Target group analysis, Web design, Optimization of Web sites.

INTRODUCTION

Digital marketing is often confused with online marketing. Digital marketing

is the process of promoting a brand, service or product on the internet. Put
simply, Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it involves
the use of online channels and methods that enable businesses and
organization to monitor the success of their marketing campaigns, often in real
time, to better understand what does and doesn’t work.

The 21st century has witnessed the developing a web presence in most
companies. E-mail was commonplace and there was technology allowing
people to manage this fairly easily. Customer relationship management
(CRM) systems had been in place for some time to manage databases. Some
companies were placing banners on websites with a similar approach to press
advertising. Forward- thinking companies were working on their search
engine strategy and even working with some affiliates. All of this was online
marketing and, in time, online marketing teams and specialists would begin to
appear. (Kingsnorth, 2016).

The most common form of digital marketing is the website of the organisation
and the epicentre of all its online activities. In order to drive qualified traffic to
a website, or encourage repeat visitors and sales, savvy marketers include a
combination of email marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), pay-per-
click (PPC) advertising and social media in their strategy.
 Figure 1.1 Evolution-of-digital-marketing-article

• WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?

Digital marketing is the marketing and advertising of a business,product, or

service using online channels, electronic devices, and digital technologies.Digital
 marketing is the use of the Internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines,
and other channels to reach consumers.Digital marketing is the use of the Internet
to reach consumers.Digital marketing is a broad field, including attracting
customers via email, content marketing, search platforms, social media, and more.
A few examples of digital marketing include social media, email, pay-per-click
(PPC), search engine optimization (SEO),and more.

Digital marketing targets a specific segment of the customer base an dis

interactive. Digital marketing is on the rise and includes search result ads, email ads,
and promoted tweets – anything that incorporates marketing with customer
feedback or a two-way interaction between the company and customer.

Internet marketing differs from digital marketing. Internet marketing is

advertising that is solely on the Internet, whereas digital marketing can take place
through mobile devices, on a subway platform, in a video game,or via a smartphone
app.

• HOW HAS DIGITAL MARKETING EVOLVED?

Figure 1.2: Digital Marketing History Graphic Guide

So what has changed? The social media revolution has completely changed the
internet and consumer behavior. The penetration of board-band has increased
speed, internet usage and user expectation with over 40 per cent of the world
now online and over 90 per cent in many countries (Internet World Stats, 2015).
Analytics has grown to the level where we can understand our consumers’
behavior in real time, including just not their usage statistics but also their
demographics and even interests. Mobile has gone smart and tablets have
stormed onto the scene and both of these changes have brought along apps.
Touchscreen is becoming increasingly common across all devices. Google has
become an enormous organisation and owns search globally. TVs have gone
smart and Bluetooth opens up another level of possibilities. With a naturally
ageing population there is now only a very small percentage who are
technophobes simply due to age.

DEFINITION OF DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketing is basically applying all marketing techniques to digital

channels. Different sources can be used to promote services and products like
SMS, search engines, email, websites, social media and mobile devices. The
digital nature of this marketing method makes it a cost-effective means of
promoting one’s business. (Kingsnorth, 2016)

The use of digital marketing depends on the organisation’s marketing

objective. It could be that the organisation wants to generate more leads, build
their brands, increase sales or improve brand engagement. Digital marketing
means more than just having a website. The website needs to be aesthetically
pleasing and easy to navigate, and also needs to have quality content to reflect
the nature of the business.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important factor as well. Search

engines need to read and index the website properly. There are content and
SEO specialists who can help organisations to design websites which are
responsive and accessed through all devices. Digital marketing also involves
managing the organisation’s social media presence and interacting with fans
as well as marketing the business across major social media channels.
• HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketing first appeared as a term in the 1990s but, as mentioned

above, it was very different world then; Web 1.0 was primarily static content
with very little interaction and no real communities. The first banner
advertising started in 1993 and the first web crawler (called WebCrawler) was
created in 1994 – this was the beginning of search engine optimization (SEO)
as we know it (Kingsnorth, 2016).

Once Google started to grow at pace and Blogger was launched in 1999 the
modern internet age began. Blackberry, a brand not connected with innovation
any more, launched mobile e- mail and MySpace appeared. MySpace was the
true beginning of social media as we define it today, but it was not as
successful as it could have been from a user experience perspective and
ultimately that is what led to its downfall.

Google’s introduction of Adwords was their real platform for growth and
remains a key revenue stream for them to this day. Their innovation, simple
interface and accurate algorithms continue to remain. Cookies have been a key
development in delivering relevant comments and therefore personalising user
experience.“One of the technologies which really brought information
revolution in the society is Internet Technology and is rightly regarded as the
third wave of revolution after agricultural and industrial revolution”
(Gangeshwer, 2013 )

The first search engine started in 1991 with a network protocol called Gopher
for query and search. In 1993, the first clickable banner went live, after which
HotWired purchased a few banners ads for their advertising. This marked the
beginning of a new era, the digital era of marketing. Because of this gradual
shift, the year 1994 saw new technologies entering the digital marketplace.
The very same year, Yahoo was launched.

1998 saw the birth of Google. Microsoft launched the MSN search engine and
Yahoo brought to the market Yahoo web search. In 2000, the internet bubble
burst and all the smaller search engines were either left behind or wiped out
leaving place for the giants. Then in 2006, digital marketing world saw its first
steep surge. At that time, search engine traffic already grown to about 6.4
billion in a single month.

Soon, Google began to expand and along with this social networking sites
began to emerge. Myspace was the first social networking site followed by
Facebook. With this, companies realized that all these new sites are opening
new doors of opportunity for them to market their products and
brands.Products marketed digitally are now available to customers at all times.
Statistics collected by the Marketingtechblog for 2014 show that posting on
social media is the top online activity in the US. The average American spends
37 minutes a day on social media. 99% of digital marketers use Facebook to
market, 97% use Twitter, 70% use Google+, 69% use Pinterest and 59% use
Instagram. 70% of B2C marketers have acquired customers through Facebook.
67% of Twitter users are far more likely to buy from brands that they follow
on Twitter. 83.8% of luxury brands have a presence on Pinterest. The top three
social networking sites used by marketers are LinkedIn, Twitter, and
Facebook. Figure 1.2 illustrates the history and evolution of Digital
Marketing as a field of marketing

• DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL MARKETING AND

DIGITAL MARKETING

Many small businesses struggle with deciding which kind of marketing to do,
because their budget will only stretch to one or the other, not both. The
decisions that must be made are not easy: which method of marketing will
give me the most amount of sales and profits? How do I know if my marketing
is working? Who should I trust with my marketing? Should I do it myself? To
clarify the terms, the use of print ads on newspapers and magazines is a simple
example of traditional marketing. Other examples include flyers that are put
in mailboxes, commercials both on TV and radio and billboards. On the other
hand, when a business invests on building a website, advertising the brand
name through different social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube,
this kind strategy is called digital marketing. (Cave, 2016).

How can organisations Use Both Digital & Traditional Marketing

The traditional marketing methods must support the organisation’s digital

marketing efforts. The two do not operate in exclusion from each other. Only
hard copy marketing materials can be used to further strengthen a relationship
with a contact, referral partner or client e.g brochures to someone who is
interested in the organisation’s services.

Rather than taking an all or nothing approach, it appears that a multi-channel

approach that leverages the unique benefits of paper with the convenience and
accessibility of digital will perform best. Table 1.1 below outline the main
differences between traditional marketing and digital marketing.

Traditional marketing Digital marketing

Communication is unidirectional. Communication is bidirectional. The customer
Meaning, a business communicates about can also ask questions or make suggestions
its products or services with a group of about the business products and services.
people.
Medium of communication is generally Medium of communication is mainly through
phone calls, letters and emails. social media, chat, websites and emails.
Campaigning takes more time There is always a fast way to develop an online
 for designing, preparing campaign and carry out changes along its
and launching. development. With digital tools, campaigning
is
easier.
It is carried out for a specific audience The content is available for general public. It is
throughout from generating then made to reach the specific audience by
campaign ideas up to selling employing search engine techniques.
a product or a service.

It is a conventional way of marketing; It is best for reaching global audience.

best
for reaching local audience.
It is difficult to measure the effectiveness It is easier to measure the effectiveness of a
of a campaign. campaign through analytics.

Table 1.1 Traditional marketing versus Digital marketing

1.8 DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNEL

Digital marketing channels just like so:
“The promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic
media. For example, advertising mediums that might be used as part of
the digital marketing strategy of a business could include promotional efforts
made via the Internet, social media, mobile phones and electronic billboards.”

Types of Online Marketing Channels

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Email Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Video Advertising

Network Marketing

Contextual Marketing

Affiliate Marketing

Content Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO- generated traffic is more likely to convert at a higher rate than ad-
generated traffic, since the person doing the search is actively seeking out
information and has a specific want and need.

SEO will help your website rank higher, in search engine results, thereby driving
more traffic to your site and potentially more business. It also will allow your
business to show up at the right time, when your audience is searching for you.
Optimized conversion content, based on the buying stage your audience is in,
will present them with the right message.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click can prove to be one of the most effective internet marketing
channels if utilized correctly. The goal of PPC is to turn latent users into
engaged prospects and further convert them as buyers. For example, clicking on
an online display ad can lead prospective clients to another page whose content
gives more information about it.If they remain hooked throughout the
experience, they can end up making a purchase.

PPC ads are usually shown as sponsored stories, product listings, or video ads on
websites and social media platforms. Most of the time, these online promotions
are based on profile interests and search terms

Email Marketing

Email offers a much more personal way of connecting with your targeted
customers. It is a type of internet marketing that can truly make you stand out.
You can offer exclusive ‘insider’ content, special discounts, and customized
content to your email subscribers to make them feel special. The attractive
bargains may also prompt non-subscribers to sign up for updates.

By implementing the advanced techniques of email marketing, you don’t just

help in driving more sales and conversions but also develop a sense of loyalty.
This is one of those online marketing channels that lets you match your spending

to individual clients and know where they stand in their purchasing cycle.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is one of the most powerful internet marketing channels today.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, etc. provide a space for
dynamic two-way communication. Internet users spend most of their time in
these online spaces. So, brands cannot miss the opportunity to grab more
eyeballs and effectively need to promote their brands.

Users see promoted content based on their profile, interests, likes, and the
content they share. The “everything to everyone” approach no longer works.
Moreover, social media makes it possible for organizations to connect with
prospects, answer their queries, and enter conversations!

Video Advertising

Video advertising is one of the most entertaining and interactive online

marketing channels. It includes online display ads that have a video within
them. Such ads are also played before, during, or after a video stream. After
watching the ad, the viewer usually sees a call to action to purchase that product
or service or know more about it. With television advertising, there is no way to
do such a thing!

Network Marketing

Network marketing is an offshoot of the social media marketing that makes use
of the associations and groups existing all over the internet. It is all about
identifying a pool of influencers, wholesalers, or professionals who can tell your
targeted audience about your business.

You have to find a way to assemble such groups and keep them updated and
engaged throughout your digital campaign. And your product may become the
next web sensation with a positive word of mouth from them!

Contextual Marketing

Contextual marketing is not just a form of advertising but also a brand image-
building exercise. Here, the marketer intends to advance the business without
being a stickler about the medium used. Companies can engage in this type of
online marketing through guest blogging and purchasing blog reviews. The first
step is identifying a platform with a significant overlapping audience and high
ranking pages. Follow this by promoting your content on the site to optimize
your online presence.

Affiliate Marketing

Online sellers can get other dealers to sell their products and services. This is
called affiliate marketing, wherein one business offers another’s products as an
add-on or deal package along with its own. The guidelines and prerequisites may
be different for every seller. Affiliate marketing is quite similar to a
commissioned sales job.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a way of aligning the content of your online advertising

campaign in a way that it achieves all the key goals. These may include:
Sharing: Is it getting exposure? Is it on its way to becoming ‘viral’ on the
internet?

Discussions: Is the campaign entering conversations? Is it getting people to

talk?

1.9 CREATING INITIAL DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN

In the document where we outline our marketing plan, these items can’t
be forgotten. They help us articulate our campaigns and plan them:

Short, medium, and long term business goals.

• The strategies to achieve the goals at the digital level.

• The channels to use.

• Action and development plans.

• Investment and budget.

• The timing and roadmap.

FIG 1.9 SWOT Analysis

Step 1: Situational analysis
The first thing you need to do when developing your digital marketing
plan is to carry out an internal and external analysis (SWOT analysis) of
the company. A useful framework for this is the SWOT analysis that
allows you to look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
for your company and the market at large.

We need to be familiar with the ecosystem in which we operate , what

our customers' needs are, and where they are addressed. This analysis is
equally qualitative as it is quantitative as it looks at factors such as digital
habits, intermediaries, influencers, and more.

Implementing benchmarking techniques is a very common practice in

companies to identify the best practices and success stories and extract an
example for your digital marketing plan.

We also need to conduct an internal study to know what our company’s

situation is like in the digital age: is our website customer-oriented?
How is the usability and browsing experience? Do we update our blog
periodically? What is our website’s current positioning? And what is our
social media presence?

Step 2: Establish Digital Marketing Goals

Once you have your place in the market and your strong points in mind,
work on establishing some goals to create a clear idea of where your
actions should take you. Everything you plan has to work towards
meeting those goals.

You can work on developing this part of your digital marketing plan
with the SMART goals framework in mind: specific, measurable,
attainable, relevant, and timely goals.

Here’s an example:

Not a SMART objective: “I want to increase the number of visits

to my website.”

SMART objective: “I want to reach 20,000 visits a month on my

website every month within three months. To do so, I’m going to do X,
Y, and Z.”

Step 3: Define the Marketing Strategy

Once you’ve defined your business objectives, what are you going to do to
achieve them? Personalization is becoming increasingly important in
digital marketing. Therefore, when it comes to defining your strategy for
carrying out your plan, keep these factors in mind:

Segmenting your target audience: Know who you want to

address, what their tastes, needs, or preferences are, where are you
looking to meet their expectations, etc. This is the time to create
 your buyer persona.

Positioning: To achieve proper positioning, it's crucial that you are very
clear (and reach your audience in the same way) about what you r value
proposition is and what it entails. It’s also necessary to know how to
transmit this proposition perfectly through digital channels. Why should
the consumer choose you and not the competition? Figure out the channels
where your audience is present (social media, blogs, email, etc.). In
addition to social media, use the “About Us” page to communicate your
proposition.

Content strategy: This is important for creating, distributing, and

managing original content that attracts users and positions the brand as
referential in the user’s mind. Besides, you also have to map out a
specific communication plan (content marketing) for every channel. The
content strategy cannot be separate from the Buyer Persona; they are
intimately connected. Closely analyze your BP: what kinds of content they
consume, in what format, what are their reference measures or the people
and groups that they follow. The more information you extract from their
profile, the closer you will be to producing the right kind of content.

With respect to content strategies, some tools used to execute this

strategy are:

Keyword research: This involves identifying appropriate keywords for

us to use correctly in our content to organically improve our SEO
positioning. This is imperative for every content strategy if you want users
to find you on search engines.

Content calendar: A content calendar is key for ensuring your strategy

makes sense. It provides value and it lets you think long-term and
optimize your resources, help create ideas, and more. In a content
calendar, you should include the date of publication, author, post topic,
keyword, the tags to use/take into consideration, and so on.

Social posting: Writing an article and not promoting it on social media is

a mistake. Posting on social media isn’t spamming, but instead planning
out what you are going to publish and when on every social media
platform with the copies best suited for each one, all while having the
ideal number of characters, links, hashtags, and more. It’s important to
include the team itself in the diffusion of content, and we can suggest to
employees that they share articles, interesting links, etc. on their
professional sites (LinkedIn). The company page can even send a
notification to employees when new content is published.

Step 4: Digital Strategies and Tactics

Based on our objectives (attraction, conversion, and loyalty), we’ll start to

carry out different strategies: email marketing campaigns, social
media, CRM, web optimization, SEO strategies, paid media
advertising, etc. The value formats for acquisition are very varied; you
can do webinars, encourage ebook downloads, create infographics or any
kind of dossier, and also offer discounts, promotions, and offers.

Today, considering that the number of channels to manage is multiplying

and the amount of information we get about our customers is increasing,
it’s critical we use Marketing Automation tools that let us automate our
marketing campaigns.

Thanks to these tactics, you'll be able to create workflows that allow you
to create hundreds of campaigns with mere clicks. You’ll be able to
personalize messages based on your buyer persona, increasing your
chances for success. Not only that, but you’ll also be able to convert
them into clients, depending on their interactions with the
brand.Technology has turned into a fundamental tool for implementing
digital strategies, making it critical for you to learn how to get the most
out of it.

Step 5: Measuring Results & KPIs

The work doesn’t stop after you’ve designed and implemented your digital
marketing strategy. The next step is one of the most important: analyzing
the results. Analytics has turned into a critical pillar for successfully
optimizing digital marketing performance and spending.

We have to measure every action using KPIs to figure out if we earned

the expected ROI. Measuring the effectiveness of the strategies and
activities we have implemented in our digital marketing strategy will help
us correct what doesn’t work to achieve the goals we set.

Having tools that allow us to carry out this analysis is crucial. Sales force,
for example, allows us to completely measure all the actions that are
carried out and see how the user reacts and behaves on each step of the
journey. Therefore, in addition to extracting valuable information, we also
use the Al that Sales force provides to improve the user experience and
offer each lead the content they are looking for at the right time.

Make sure you have an effective, real-time data visualization system.

The digital world evolves rapidly, so you need to be on the lookout at all
times to identify opportunities and room for improvement in an
instant. Data value is very important, because without it we are blind and
it’s impossible to make logical decisions. We insist on the need to use
tools that compile, process, and extract value from the data: Mulesoft is
an integration software used to connect systems with each other and
ensure the exchange and use of as much data as possible. Together with
the Salesforce ecosystem, it can be very helpful for you.

Keep these steps in mind when creating your digital marketing

plan and don’t leave anything to chance; it’s your greatest enemy if
you’re looking to position yourself and boost your presence in the digi tal
space.
Likewise, keep in mind that technology can turn into your greatest
ally when creating personalized, automated, and ultimately successful
marketing campaigns. As the task gets complicated, the new tools out
there let you simplify your work and boost your performance.

1.10 CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Content management (CM) is a set of processes and technologies that supports

the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium.
When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more
specifically referred to as digital content

Digital content may take the form of text (such as electronic documents),
images, multimedia files (such as audio or video files), or any other file type that
follows a content life cycle requiring management.

A CMS is an application that is used to manage and publish web

content, allowing multiple users to contribute, create, edit, publish without
having to beg a developer.

Content Management Process :

Content management practices and goals vary by mission and by organizational

governance structure. News organizations, e-commerce websites, and
educational institutions all use content management, but in different ways. This
leads to differences in terminology and in the names and number of steps in the
process.

For example, some digital content is created by one or more authors

Publishing may take many forms: it may be the act of "pushing" content out to
others, or simply granting digital access rights to certain content to one or more
individuals. Later that content may be superseded by another version of the
content and thus retired or removed from use (as when this wiki page is
modified).

Content management is an inherently collaborative process.

It often consists of the following basic roles and responsibilities:

Creator

Editor

Publisher

Administrator

Consumer, viewer or guest

Creator

Creator is responsible for Creating the content and editing the content

Editor

Editor perform adding images , content enhancement , and adding animation video or images

Publisher

Publish or Distribute the content for the user

Administrator

Administrator is responsible for managing the content and website

Consumer, viewer or guest

Customer received the published content through website or social media

Content Management Types:

1. CMA

2. CDA

content management application

Allows marketers, merchandisers and other content creators to work with

content directly, without needing to involve the IT department.

content delivery application

Acts as the back-end portion of the website, taking the content that you
enter into the templates and turning it into a working website that visitors from
around the world can access.

Features in a CM:
Security
Making sure your business is secure from cyber attacks is incredibly important.
Not only do attacks interrupt the continuity of your business, but they also cost
you huge amounts of money.
A recent report by McAfee suggests that up to $600 billion may have been lost
in 2018 due to cybercrime. Cloud-based CMS systems are an increasingly
common target for cyber attacks.
This results in a number of potential security issues such as data integrity
violations, unauthorized access to data, and malicious codes and scripts.
Most CMSs come with a fairly robust set of security features, including
advanced authentication, strict permissions, firewalls, and protection against
malware attacks.
2. Omnichannel and Multilingual Support
A web content management system that supports easy multi-language, multi-
channel delivery not only makes this job much easier, but it also empowers
local brand and content managers to run localized campaigns on the channels
best suited for their markets while maintaining the global brand identity.
3. User-friendliness
Empowering your employees to support your globalization efforts starts with
simplifying the process they use to do so.
Using a content management system that is intuitive for the end user — and that
allows employees to quickly reuse branded components such as images, designs,
and experiences — will encourage teams to take ownership of the local
experience, especially if it also allows all users to use the system in their
preferred language.
A system that supports straightforward approval workflows will make the lives
of brand managers easier and will in turn support continued effort and
excellence in the globalization process.

4. Testing and Experimentation

To further support your global teams in their localization of the brand into new
markets, it’s crucial that they can quickly evaluate the results of their efforts and
take autonomous action based on this feedback.
The easiest way to do this is to ensure that the CMS/WCM you use has built-in
experimentation capabilities for easy testing of content and experience
elements — whether on desktop, mobile, or other channels.
5. Personalization
A WCM system that allows you to automatically personalize digital experience
elements like campaigns, content, or product grids will provide more agility to
global teams, as they can easily create variants of the site experience from one
global system.
It will also allow businesses more control over the global brand, supporting
globalization at scale.

6. Analytics
Use a content management system that has a built-in analytics engine so that
your marketing teams, content creators, and brand managers can easily spot
visitor trends and opportunities for improvement in the digital experience based
on local visitor data. It’s even better if the system can provide this information
per persona, which will give you much more precision in optimizing the content
served to your visitors around the world.

7. Scalability
Businesses that run their WCM in the cloud will be able to scale their
globalization efforts much faster, with development teams able to roll out
updates to the digital experience worldwide with just a few clicks while also
taking advantage of the uptime and continuous improvements offered by cloud
providers.
Content management systems and tools
content management platforms for specific content types, there are also general
content management systems (CMS) which provide automated processes for
collaborative digital content management and creation.

A CMS commonly includes features such as format management, publishing

functionality and the ability to update content

A digital asset management (DAM) system is another type of CMS that manages
documents, movies and other rich media assets. A few examples of notable
CMSes are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

1.11 SWOT ANALYSIS

A SWOT analysis is a framework used in strategic planning and marketing. It

provides you with the knowledge to create plans to improve your business

SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and

Threats. It is the strategic planning of your company, product, business, or
industry

There are two categories in SWOT analysis

Internal Factor

External Factor

Internal Factor

Internal factors are the strengths and weaknesses of your business, product or
service. It could be the quality of your product, its unique selling proposition, the
strength of your team, your marketing strategy and so on.

The internal factors are something that we have direct control over. These are
things that can be improved or changed as it applies internally to us.

External Factor

External factors are the Opportunities and threats come under the external
category of the SWOT analysis.

These are things that you may not have direct control over however by
understanding the opportunities and threats in your market, you could indirectly
affect your business by making the necessary changes in your approach.
 FIG 1.11 SWOT ANALYSIS

Insightful Digital Marketing steps

> Determine Strength

> Determine Weakness

> Find Opportunities

> Find Threat

> Develop a Strategy

Determine Strength

Strengths are internal and helpful. Strengths are factors that support an Opportunity or
overcome a Threat to give you advantage. Strengths may include …

Financial strengths. A robust balance sheet, good cash flow and good credit rating.

Technological and production advantages (Plant, machines and associated techniques).

Customer service advantages in marketing, sales and reputation.

Talented, dedicated and well trained employees

Determine Weakness

Weaknesses are internal and harmful. Weaknesses are factors of your business that mean you
are unable to take advantage of an opportunity, or are vulnerable to a Threat. Weaknesses may
include …
Financial weaknesses such as high debt ratios.

Old or inflexible technology.

Customer service weaknesses, for example, long delivery times or poor customer
communications.

Skills shortages or poor employee morale.

Find Opportunities

Opportunities are external factors over which you have no control and are helpful.Opportunities
arise from many sources:

for example, competitors withdrawing from the market, new socialtrends, and technological
innovations.

Oppurtunities may be tangible or intangible such as enhancing the reputation or extenting your
influence.

Find Threat

Threats are external factors over which you have no control and are harmful.

for example, a new competitor, restrictive regulation, hostile takeovers.

What are the barriers?

Does a Government regulation can hurt your business?

Does a technology change can make your product obsolete?

Are competitors working on a better product/service?

Do you have Cash-flow or bad debt issues?

Develop Strategy

SWOT is a data and information gathering framework which records input factors. In a typical
analysis project, each of the four boxes would contain a list of factors — typically as a bullet-
point list Although these four lists are interesting as a classification of input factors, they don’t
yet help us to develop a strategy.

To make SWOT useful, two additional features are needed …

Turn SWOT inside out to become TOWS and reveal generic approaches for development into
specific strategic actions Consider what to do with the factors. This is done by the application
of two verbs: Match and Convert.
Match

Matching is the process of linking the external factors — Opportunities and Threats — to the
internal Strengths and Weaknesses

FIG 1.12 Matching External Factor into Internal factor

Convert

The principle of Converting is to encourage you to think about actions that change harmful
factors into helpful factors. Figure below shows the possible conversions within SWOT:
Threat factors may be turned into a strategic advantage by converting the Threat into an
Opportunity.Weakness factors may be converted into Strengths.

FIG 1.13 Potential Conversion

These four generic strategies are …

With the SWOT model redrawn as TOWS, each intersection between the internal and external
factors results in an indication of the specific type of stategic response arising from SWOT
inputs. The four approaches are illustrated in FIG
 FIG 1.14 Specific type of response to the SWOT inputs

Growth strategies (Opportunity × Strengths)

The essence of a growth-based strategy is to Match the Opportunity to your existing Strengths
and do more of what you’re already good at. A growth-based strategy usually involves
investing in those factors that increase your capacity to do more of the same thing.

Internal development strategies (Opportunity × Weaknesses)

The main consideration in this type of strategy is to Convert weaknesses to strengths so they
can be matched to an opportunity. An internal development strategy is about repairing or
developing internal factors

External development strategies (Threats × Strengths)

This type of strategy is based on using your existing strengths to convert a threat into an
opportunity. An external development strategy may include extending your marketing reach
into new areas or new customers through advertising;

Survival strategies (Threats × Weaknesses)

A threat and weaknesses combined — the worst possible scenario. Here you are faced with
stark choices; for example, fundamentally change what your organisation is or does, or
ultimately dissolve the business and release the capital back to the shareholders

1.12 Target group analysis

A target market analysis is an assessment of how your product or service fits into a specific
market and where it will gain the most traction with customers. Target market analyses help
businesses establish strategies for effective marketing and sales techniques. A company's target
market is their core customer base or the demographics of customers most likely to buy their
product or service.
A target market analysis provides a high-level perspective of the overall business field and
usually outlines opportunities and restraining factors for companies hoping to enter that
market. Benefits of a target market analysis include:

Identifying the most and least valuable markets. Target market analyses help determine
which markets are worth pursuing and which are not.

Developing buyer personas. Often, creating an "ideal" buyer is part of the target market
analysis for businesses to identify the specifics of their target demographic accurately.

Finding gaps in the market to fill. A thorough market analysis might reveal untapped areas of
the market that your company, product or service can accommodate.

Assessing the viability of a product or service. Market testing can be a valuable part of a
target market analysis, particularly for a brand new product or service. Feedback from potential
customers in your target market can help determine how successful your product will be.

Finding new markets. With surveys or other research methods, you may find a new market
interested in your product.

Improving business strategy. With the information garnered from the target market analysis,
you can create a strong business strategy using data to support your decisions.

OUTLINE

• Knowing the customer and market

• Knowing the Competition and Entry Barriers

• Business Model Development

Knowing the customer and market

The first steps in building your company should be about developing revenue models,
developing your brand identity, building digital presence, and having concrete goals.

A great idea is only the beginning of business success. Profitable businesses go beyond
understanding their product or service to fully figuring out and engaging with their target
demographic of customers. In order to be successful, you’ll need to do some market research,
identify your target audience, really get to know your customers, and get feedback to continue
growing.

Knowing the Competition and Entry Barriers

A barrier to market entry is an obstacle (usually high costs) which prevents a product from
gaining traction in a new market. Such obstacles can be natural (i.e., due to the nature of the
product and the characteristics of its target market) or artificial (i.e., imposed by existing
dominant players or governments to prevent newcomers and competition).
 Entering a market usually demands making an investment (even if only in time). Sometimes,
this investment is significant due to the nature of the product or the market it tries to enter (e.g.,
high R&D costs, owning or controlling a resource, the size of the network of existing users)—
these are considered to be natural barriers to entering a market.

Those who do make such investments, however, then have a natural interest in preventing
others from obtaining a foothold in a market—in order to limit competition and therefore
maximize profit.

As such, they may erect artificial barriers, through aggressive pricing strategies, advertising
and image-making, predatory acquisitions, litigation, loyalty schemes, high customer-switching
costs, or lobbying for government support. Regarding government support, special tax benefits
for existing organizations can act as another barrier for newcomer entities.

Business Model Development

When creating a business model, revenue generation model and strategic implementation
plan around a new business idea, graphic presentations are often used to demonstrate the
different issues. These demonstrations can offer remarkable help and create common
understanding, in case there are multiple people involved in the planning process.

The purpose of graphic business model is to describe the business activity in a simple, easily
understandable way. (Website of Gofore 2016) Examples of this kind of graphic tools are
NABC model and Business Model Canvas, which were both used in my business planning
process.

Knowing your Customer

Customer

vs

Consumer?

Consumer Behaviour

"The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select,
secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the
impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society."

Why Study Consumer Behavior?

Marketing strategy

Towards better marketing campaigns

Public policy
Recycling, phones and driving, certain medications, pollution, etc.

Social media marketing

Getting ideas across to people through social media

A better consumer

Educating the consumer

Knowing Your Market

The market analysis is attempting to answer the questions:

- To whom? (Who is the target market)

- How many? (Size of market)

- At what price? ($ Value of the market)

These are simple questions, with often complex answers and a high level of uncertainty.

Product Type and Market Size

Custom products (special electronic equipment,

jewelry) - mostly contract jobs

Small volume 500 – 5000? Depends on industry

Large volume products 50,000 – 50,000,000?

Market Segments

•Demographics

•Geographics

•Behavioral

Demographics

Demographics are statistics that companies keep on business clients and

consumers to help target sales. These marketing statistics may include the sizes of
businesses so companies can better differentiate between small, mid-sized or large
companies. They are more commonly used to identify differences in personal
attributes among consumers.

There are many different types of market demographics companies use for various
purposes, so business use a variety of market research techniques to identify them.

Geographics

Marketing geographics involve the compartmentalization of the consumer market

into smaller, more manageable segments using geographic location as the main
determining factor.

There are many other ways to perform the same basic function of market
segmentation, but geographics are preferred by many companies that either sell
general merchandise on a large scale or value the placement of consumers over any
individual criteria.

Marketing geographics are used by companies of all sizes, although there are
differences in approach depending on the area covered and the goals in mind.

Behavioral

Behavioral marketing is a set of actions aimed at promoting and selling products based on
users’ interactions with your brand’s ads, website, emails, social media pages, chatbots, etc.
These digital marketing channels offer different tools to use people’s behavior patterns to your
company’s advantage.

Market penetration

Market penetration defined as a measurement is the assessment of how much a product is being
sold relative to the total estimated market for that product, expressed as a percentage. This is
also known as market penetration rate.
 Total Market Size

Serviceable Market Size

Target Market

Market
share

FIG 1.15 Market Penetration

1.13 WEB DESIGN

Your website is the representation of your products or services that you offer. It’s the place
where most people will interact with you for business. It only makes sense if you come forward,
interact with your audience, and satisfy their website is often the first point of contact potential
customers have of your company and your brand. It only makes sense then that you put your
best foot forward and effectively communicate what you’re all about through professional and
user-friendly web design.t with their needs.

Web design encompasses a multitude of variables including layout, content, graphics, search
engine optimization and conversion rate optimization.While web design is a significant and
critical component of your promotional efforts, many businesses forget that it’s just one part of
an overall digital marketing plan and should be consistent in look, feel and purpose with your
other marketing efforts such as pay per click advertising.

Importance of web design in Digital Marketing:

According to the tech terms computer dictionary definition, web design is essentially the
process of creating websites. It encompasses several different aspects, including web page
layout, color choice, fonts, graphics, and content production. While the terms web design and
web development are often used interchangeably, web design is technically a subset of the
broader category of web development.

A business website is the common and primary point of contact for customers. It showcases
your business’ professionalism and demonstrates your expertise and market reputation. It is
precisely because of this that website design is so crucial for any digital marketing plan.

Your website is the place where most people will interact with your

business. Both your online and offline marketing activities will most likely
send users to your website. Whether it’s to get information about your

services and products, to make bookings or purchases, or to get contact

details.

your website with the following factors in mind:

Conversion rate – are you converting leads/customers?

Competition – are you outperforming competitors or vice versa?

Branding – does your website reflect your brand?

SEO – are you performing well on search engines?

Responsiveness – is your site responsive?

Site speed – do your pages load quickly?

The goals of web design

To understand how to create well designed websites, it is worth understanding the fundamentals
of design. Good design creates experiences that makes people’s lives easier, and is also
aesthetically pleasing.

Here are some examples: a well-designed store makes it easy for customers to find products
they are looking for, or maybe even products they never knew they wanted.When designing for
the web, there are some unique challenges compared to other disciplines arising from the fact
that web design is still in its infancy and is evolving rapidly.

Even the definition of web design is evolving and difficult to define. Originally, web design
meant designing pages for a web browser. While this is still true, you now need to consider the
rapidly evolving nature of mobile devices, tablets, smart phones, and consumer electronics that
access the web

The web demands user interaction

The experience of a website is defined by the interaction the user has with it. For example, a
user clicks on navigation or scrolls down to read a page.Even the act of reading a book can be
defined as user interaction. In the Western world, people read from left to right down a page,
they turn pages, and scan page numbers and tables of contents in order to find a certain chapter
or topic.

Defining the user experience

When it comes to user interaction, offering too many options can be just as bad as not
offering enough. If there are multiple pathways available to the user, it is the designer’s
responsibility to make sure the user doesn’t get lost.
 The entire sum of a user’s interactions with a website can be called the user
experience.The focus on the user experience differentiates websites from printed
products more than anything else. This job is so important that there are web
professionals called information architects.

User-centered design

It can be difficult to describe how a web designer works because the level of involvement in a
project can vary, from developing a project on her own, to being part of a large team in an
advertising agency

The stages of the planning process

The stages of the planning process can generally be defined as:

⚫ Defining goals and strategy

⚫ Research

⚫ Information architecture

⚫ Sketching

⚫ Wireframes

⚫ Mockups

Defining goals and strategy

When designing a website, an important question to ask is, “Why does this website need to
exist?” It seems strange but a client might not be able to tell you exactly why they want a
website. The answer, “Because everyone else has one,” is not a good answer.

Research

A designer who is practicing user-centered design needs to have some background on what
visitors to a site might be expecting. Competitive research is one way to find this information.
In the Smoothie World example, there may not be many competing smoothie sites; however,
there are certainly a number of popular recipe and cooking sites. You should understand how
these sites are designed and what makes them so attractive to users.
Information architecture

Design is not just about visuals. The word design comes from the Latin word designare, which
means to mark out, devise, or choose. This is a good reminder that you should choose or plan
the structure of a website before you consider the visuals. The term used to describe the
planning

Wireframes

Wireframes are typically created in black and white or shades of gray, using
placeholders for images. Wireframes avoid the visual design of the site and are
more concerned with the organization of the content and features.

Mockups

Mockups are sometimes the result of wireframes, although it is possible to skip the wireframing step for
less-complex sites. You can create them in an image editor such as Photoshop

1.14 OPTIMIZATION OF WEB SITES

Website optimization is the process of using tools, advanced strategies, and experiments to
improve the performance of your website, further drive more traffic, increase conversions, and
grow revenue.Optimizing your website for real people helps you gain your visitors’ trust, starts
building a relationship, and lets you sell products without having to jump on a sales call.website
optimization approach combines a variety of disciplines to make sure your website performs
ideally in all areas:

SEO

Copyright

Analytics

UX Design (Frontend)

Web Development (Backend)

CRO/Landing Page Optimization.

SEO

SEO means Search Engine Optimization and is the process used to optimize a website's
technical configuration, content relevance and link popularity so its pages can become easily
find able, more relevant and popular towards user search queries, and as a
consequence,search engines rank them better.

Search engines recommend SEO efforts that benefit both the user search experience and
page’s ranking, by featuring content that fulfills user search needs.

This includes the use of relevant keywords in titles, meta descriptions, and headlines (H1),
featuring descriptive URLs with keywords rather than strings of numbers, and schema
markup to specify the page's content meaning, among other SEO best practices.

Copyright

Copyright is a legal term describing ownership of control of the rights to the use and
distribution of certain works of creative expression, including books, video, motion pictures,
musical compositions and computer programs.

Copyright refers to the legal right of the owner of intellectual property. In simpler terms,
copyright is the right to copy. This means that the original creators of products and anyone
they give authorization to are the only ones with the exclusive right to reproduce the work.

Analytics

Digital marketing analytics enables marketers to evaluate the performance of their

marketing initiatives and informs future decision-making by providing deep insights into
consumer behavior. The most robust marketing analytics tools gather data from the multitude
of channels today’s enterprises use to connect with and engage customers.

UX Design (Frontend)

UX designers stand for 3 aspects in the process of improving the user experience:

· Usability

· Accessibility

· Pleasure
 The meaning of UX in digital marketing is how the user is experiencing and feels when he
interacts with digital marketing when it comes to the customer to contact with the brand for
conversion between landing pages,contacts, and mobile apps.Those are the examples of the
UX in Digital Marketing:

· Brand voice and tone

· Load speed

Web Development

website is the representation of your products or services that you offer. It’s the place
where most people will interact with you for business. It only makes sense if you come
forward, interact with your audience, and satisfy their thirst with their needs. Even if you do
offline marketing or activity, it will most likely send users to your website. Whether it’s about
purchasing the product or leveraging services or to make bookings, or to get contact details.

CRO

CRO stands for Conversion Rate Optimization. CRO marketing is a method of increasing
the percentage of your website's visitors who take a desired action (or, to use marketing
speak, who 'convert'). Conversions are a marketer's holy grail, but the term can mean different
things depending on your company's goals.

How to optimize your website

⚫ Keyword research

⚫ On-page-SEO

⚫ UX: Improve page speed and experience

⚫ Backlinks

⚫ Learn advanced techniques and tackle more ranking factors

Keyword research

The foundation of any SEO tactic, strategy, or process is keyword research.You need to
understand which keywords and terms your target customers are actively googling. This
knowledge will help you with everything from planning and writing content for your website,
to creating landing pages, campaigns, and tracking your results.There are a lot of different
tools for keyword research out there, but the most basic option is available for free: Google
Ads Keyword Planner.If you have a Google Ads account, you can use it to search for new
keywords to target with ad campaigns, but it’s also useful as a starter research tool for SEO.

On-page-SEO

It’s not just the pages you decide to create that impact your SEO. How the content is written,
the content’s structure, your site’s structure, navigation, external links, and many other little
details matter.

These SEO optimization you can make by just editing your website is referred to as on-
page SEO. And it can make a massive difference.In a case study, only optimizing on-page
SEO improved the top 5 keywords average position from 18.4 to 2.6 in only three days.As
mentioned above, you can use Google Search Console to search for issues and indexation
errors. But you can also analyze other on-page factors.The key is to make sure that important
SEO pages receive a priority when it comes to internal links.

UX: Improve page speed and experience

Dwell time is an important SEO ranking factor. It measures how much time, on average, a
user spends on your page before returning to Google. If a user clicks your page in the search
results, visits your site, and it takes too long to load, chances are they will just return to
Google and choose something else.

So the visitor left without meaningful interaction with your site and brand. And if it
happens too much, Google will assume that your page isn’t as relevant as they thought, and
reduce your rank over time. The more this happens, the lower your Google position is likely
to be.

Backlinks

A backlink, or a link from another domain to your website, is one of the most important
signals to Google that your content is authoritative.The idea is simple. Since other people are
willing to share and co-sign your content, it must be good.It used to be the most important
ranking factor, bar none, and then number of referring domains still has the most visible
connection with SERP ranking and organic traffic volume.
Learn advanced techniques and tackle more ranking factors

Once you’ve learned the basics of SEO, it’s time for you to jump in and learn more about
different ranking factors and advanced strategies. There are over 200 known Google ranking
factors out there, so obviously getting familiar with each one and using it to your advantage is
going to take time.To keep learning about the subject of SEO, you must rely on high-quality
resources that focus on data-based content and cutting-edge strategies. The following is a
non-exhaustive list of websites you can rely on to expand your SEO knowledge:

Backlinko

Ahrefs Blog

SEMRush Blog
Unit-II: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Introduction, writing the SEO content – title, meta tags, image tags, html tags, content writing
essentials, Google adwords, Google adsense, Google webmaster tools, on and off page optimization,
web crawlers, keyword strategy; SEO friendly website design, hosting & integration.

2.1 Introduction

What is SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to techniques that help your website rank
higher in organic (or “natural”) search results, thus making your website more visible to
people who are looking for your product or service via search engines.

SEO is part of the broader topic of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), a term used to
describe all marketing strategies for search. SEM entails both organic and paid search.
With paid search, you can pay to list your website on a search engine so that your website
shows up when someone types in a specific keyword or phrase. Organic and paid listings
both appear on the search engine, but they are displayed in different locations on the page.

So, why is it important for your business‟ website to be listed on search engines?
On Google alone, there are over 694,000 searches conducted every second. Think about
that. Every second that your website is not indexed on Google, you are potentially missing
out on hundreds, if not thousands of opportunities for someone to visit your website, read
your content, and potentially buy your product or service. Practicing SEO basics, as well
as more advanced techniques after those, can drastically improve your web site‟s ability
to rank in the search engines and get found by your potential customers.

How Search Engines Work

Search engines have one objective – to provide you with the most relevant

results possible in relation to your search query. If the search engine is successful in
providing you with information that meets your needs, then you are a happy searcher. And
happy searchers are more likely to come back to the

same search engine time and time again because they are getting the results

they need.

In order for a search engine to be able to display results when a user types in a query,
they need to have an archive of available information to choose from.

Every search engine has proprietary methods for gathering and prioritizing

website content. Regardless of the specific tactics or methods used, this process

is called indexing.

2.2 writing the SEO content

The Purpose of a Search Engine

1. Crawling and Indexing

Through links, search engines’ automated robots, called “crawlers,” or “spiders” can reach
the many billions of interconnected documents. Once the engines find these pages, they
decipher the code and store select pieces in massive hard drives, to be recalled later.

2. Retrieving Answers

When you perform a search, search engines scour the billions of stored documents and do
two things – first, return those results that are the most relevant to your query, and second,
rank those results in order of perceived importance.

Rule of SEO
When building or modifying your website – whether your adding images, restructuring
your links, or changing your written content – always base your decisions on improving
the user’s experience.

On Page SEO

Basic Practices

• Title Tag

• Meta Keywords

• Meta Description

Usability

• Image Alt Tag

• Files Names

• Media Description

Structure

• URL

• Subdomains

• Navigation

Content

• Anchor Text

• Heading Tags

• Keywords

Basic Practices

Title Tag:

The title tag is the clickable title of a webpage that appears with the result on the SERP (search engine
page results page). To set a page title, use the <title> tag in the HTML around your text.

<head> <br/> <title>This is My Title</title><br/></head><br/><br/><br/>

Make sure the title tag on each page of the site is unique and descriptive. It

should be no longer than 65 characters. If possible, place your keywords in

the title tag.

Meta Description:
A meta description is a short snippet, a description tag in HTML, that summarizes a webpage’s
content. On a search engine results page (SERP), the meta description appears under the page title and
URL

Search engines use the meta description tag to describe your web page. Make sure every
page has a unique description. It should be no longer than 160 characters.

Usability

Usability is a reference to how easy it is for a user to accomplish what she wants on a
website.

1. Image Alt Text:

A place where you can provide more information about what is in the image and where
you can target keywords.

2. File Names:
Search engines look at the filename to see whether it provides clues to the content of the
file.

3. Media Description:

A description helps the user and search engines better understand the content contained
in your video, animation, etc.

Structure

1. URL’s:

Keeping your URL’s short and descriptive of your content will improve the user

experience and lead to better crawling of your website by search engines. (Currently there
is no way to change the URL in OpenText)

2. Subdomains:

A subdomain can look more authoritative to users and provide a reasonable choice to
include keywords in the URL. Unfortunately, they have the potential to be treated
separately from the primary domain when it comes to trust value.

3. Navigation:

Ordering your navigation in a logical and concise manner will assist the user (they will
find the site easier to use) and search engines award greater ranking based on increased
subject relevance.

URL examples

www.westga.edu/its/wireless-login.php

Good URL
 www.westga.edu/its/v66613-thjukl.php

Bad URL

Subdomains

http://uwgonline.westga.edu

Good URL

http://university.web.learning.westga.edu

bad URL

Content:

1. Anchor Text:

The actual text placed in a link. If the text is keyword-rich, it will do more for your
rankings in the search engines.

2. Heading Tags:

These tags are designed to indicate a headline hierarchy on the webpage. Search
engines show a slight preference for keywords appearing in heading tags.

3. Content Keywords:

One of the most important on page SEO practices. When a user performs a query, the
more relevant a keyword (or phrase) is to the query, the higher ranking the webpage
will be in the search engine’s results.

HTML tags

An HTML code is made up of elements, each one of which can either be a tag or a meta tag. If a
tag or a meta tag has any additional characteristics, then it is an attribute.
An HTML element is a type of HTML document component that is composed of a tree of simple
HTML nodes like text nodes. Such elements allow the HTML document to include certain semantics
and formatting. Here’s what an HTML element consists of:

2.3 Content writing essentials

▪ Content writing is the process of planning, writing and editing web
content, typically for digital marketing purposes.
▪ It can include writing blog posts and articles, scripts for videos and
podcasts, as well as content for specific platforms, such as tweetstorms on
Twitter or text posts on Reddit.
▪ Content takes many forms, but it only qualifies as content marketing if,
according to the Content Marketing Institute, it aims to drive profitable
customer action.
▪ Content writing has been a medium of communication ever since people
learned to write and present. It was the major form of conveying any kind
of information to the audience before even the internet.
Why Is Proper Content Writing Important?
However, writing content isn’t just important for blog posts.

In fact, content writing is important for all types of different content formats, including:

• Video scripts
• Email newsletters
• Keynote speeches
• Social media posts
• Podcast titles
• White papers
• Web page copy
• Landing pages
• YouTube video descriptions

Where? (The Places to Publish Content)

• The marketing portion of content marketing is “everywhere.” Distribute

content through email newsletters and social media channels like
LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

• It should be sent to journalists and influencers, and included in comments

on other articles and discussion groups.

• Don’t Forget! You must make it easy to share the content; including social
sharing buttons on your content is a necessity.
Steps for writing the Content :
Creating an outline is a GREAT first step in the content writing process.

Outlines help your content come out better for two main reasons:

First, outlines force you to put all your thoughts down in an organized way (rather than
writing everything off the top of your head). Which really speeds up the writing process.

Second, outlines usually lead to a much better structure for your content. That’s because
an outline lets you see your content from a “high level” that’s impossible to see as you’re
writing.

Plus, because you have an outline, your final content will hit all of the major points that
you set out to before you started writing.

Here are three main strategies that work well:

• Use a previous piece of content that did well: For example, we tend to publish quite
a few definitive guides here at Backlinko.
• So when we start working on a new guide, we use a lot of the structure from our
existing guides as a base.
• Use a template: Most professional content writers work off of proven templates.
Here are 5 content templates you can use to create outlines.
Use top-performing content: Check out BuzzSumo to find popular content that you can use
as the basis for your outline.
For example, let’s say you’re about to write a guest post about the keto diet.

Make It Easy to Consume and Share

Content that’s super easy to read and share is of the keys to great content.

You can have a post written by the world’s top copywriter. But if that post is hard for
people to consume, no one will read it.
Quotable On Social Media
According to a study that we conducted, very few blog posts get shared or linked to.

And to increase the odds that your content ranks in search engines and gets shared on social
media, add shareable quotes.

For text-based content, this can be a statement that you highlight in your post.

Make It Actionable

For most niches, your content can’t just be entertaining.

And it’s not even enough for it to simply be informative.

For your content marketing to work, your content needs to be super useful.

Here’s how:

Include a step-by-step process: Most content out there is just a list of things you compiled
from other people’s lists of things. When you organize a set of tips or techniques into steps,
your content instantly becomes much easier to take action on.Our SEO audit post is a great
example of this. it’s not a collection of random tips. This content is a step-by-step action
plan that anyone can follow.

Make it Trustworthy
For people to share and link to your content, they need to trust it first.
And while design factors in to how much people trust your content, your writing plays a big
role too.

Here are a few tips to make your content more trustworthy.

Use proper grammar: If you want to improve your writing skills, a tool like Hemingway
Editor or Grammarly can be a huge help.
Do your homework: Research and references show that you know what you’re talking
about.

2.4 Google Adwords

◦ Google AdWords is a marketing tool developed to assist you in displaying

ads to promote your products or services online.

◦ Google processes hundreds of millions of searches per day, so it makes

sense to create simple, effective ads and display them to people who are
already searching online for information related to your business.

• Paid search marketing has wide appeal for all types of businesses.The pricing
model is competitive and relative to your budget, so if you are starting with a
“shoe-string” budget, Google AdWords is still within your reach.
• Put simply, AdWords offers precise targeting and measurability, as well as
tremendous reach and it’s possible to achieve a high ROI on a large scale.

Why Launch a Google Adwords Campaign?

• At its most basic level, launching a Google Adwords campaign is an effective way
to drive traffic from the search engine through to your website.

• It can also play a vital role in increasing the reach of your marketing campaign,
especially if it’s a short-term marketing campaign as opposed to a long-term one,
where SEO and other digital marketing technologies can also play a part.

• Organic SEO doesn’t always cut it, either. In fact, for the most competitive
keywords, the top three ad spots receive around 40% of all of the clicks on the
page.

• Google supports both display advertisements, through its two million display
network partner sites, and text advertisements, on its search engine results
page. It’s estimated that the company has an 18% share of all media advertising,
both online and off.
What Are The Benefits Of Google Adwords?
1. Outrank Competitors On The World's Largest Search Engine

• If your target audience can't find your website, they're not going to buy from
your business. That's why many businesses turn to Google ads.

• They know that the powerful advertising platform will allow them to pay to climb
to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for selected keywords.

• This can be valuable for brand awareness and is a particularly common approach
for e-commerce stores, who can bid on keywords related to the products they
stock and use it as an ongoing source of leads and sales.

• E-commerce businesses can even run Google Shopping ads to reach people who
are already looking to make a purchase.

2. Adwords Ads Build A Larger Audience For Your Business Or Brand

• Another key advantage of search engine advertising is that you can tap into a
huge potential audience.

• When a brand first starts out, one of the biggest initial challenges is brand
awareness. Back in the day, building a brand was a long, slow process that took
time, money and perseverance.

3. Google Ads Are Faster Than SEO

 • We've hinted at this elsewhere in this article, but it's more than deserving of a
section of its own.

• In fact, this is arguably the biggest advantage of using Google Adwords Express to
reach your audience. Launching PPC ads is like turning on a fire-hose in that
you'll start to see the results immediately.

• Having an SEO strategy is always a good idea, no matter how large your business
is, but SEO takes time and not all businesses have that luxury.

4. Adwords advertising can be scheduled to reach the right people at the right
time

• There’s a saying that advertising and marketing are all about reaching the right
person in the right place with the right message at the right time.

• Different platforms have different strengths.

For example, YouTube advertising can allow you to tap into the
awesome power of video, while your remarketing list can help you to
reach people who have previously shown purchasing intent.
5. Use A Remarketing List To Reach Your Audience With Specific Pieces Of
Content

• We’ve talked about remarketing (also known as retargeting) quite a lot

throughout this post, and there’s a good reason for that.

• Remarketing works by allowing you to create a list of people who’ve visited your
brand site and to launch a remarketing campaign to bring them back in.
Remarketing can be particularly powerful for ecommerce businesses because
they can encourage audience members who visited the site and left to come
back and complete their purchase
For example, you can split your audience up based on keywords, Google
Analytics data, Facebook data and more. Further, you can develop different
types of content for each different audience.

Adwords Are 100% Measurable And Scalable

• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, one of the biggest benefits of running a
Google Adwords campaign is that, like most aspects of digital marketing, it's fully
measurable.

• This is especially true if you combine it with Google Analytics and other
measurement tools. This holds true for everything from campaign microsites to
e-commerce stores.

• This is important because while driving traffic to your business website is all well
and good, it doesn't achieve anything unless people take an action. You can
achieve a high click-through rate and a low bounce rate, but your advertising
campaign will run at a loss unless you also achieve a high conversion rate.

• Measuring your click-through rate and conversion rate means that once you're
satisfied with your PPC advertising performance, you can scale the ads up to
drive even more traffic and to further boost conversions.

• And if your budget is starting to run low, you can scale them down again, too.

2.5 Google adsense

◦ Google adsense provide a way for publisher to earn money from
their online content. Adsense works by matching ads to your site
based on their content & visitor
◦ The ads are created & paid for by advertiser who want to promote
their product.
◦ These advertiser pay different prices for different ads, the amount
you earn will vary

Adsense follow these three steps :

1. you make your ad space available

2. The highest paying ads appear on your site

3. You get paid

How AdSense Works

Just as ads appear on google.com, you too can display ads on your site. Advertisers
submitand manage their ads to Google by using AdWords while you, the publisher, use
AdSense todisplay these ads on your site.

How do relevant ads display on my site?

Contextual Targeting

These ads created by advertisers are automatically matched to the content of your site (even if
that content changes).

Site Placement Targeting

Advertisers can bid to appear on your site based on demographics, vertical (topic),
geographical location, or audience interest.

Real Time Auction

Ads compete in a real-time auction to appear on your pages, and the winning ads will always
be those that will generate the most money for you.
Creating Ad Units

Step 1) Select a Product

To begin, sign in and click the “My ads” tab. Confirm the product selected is Content and
click New ad unit.

Step 2) Design Your Ad

Now it’s time to name and customize your ad unit!

1. Choose a name for this AdSense unit:

Provide a descriptive name that you’ll recognize so you can easily find this ad unit
later if you want to change its settings. This name will appear in your code, but you
can remove it from the code if needed. Example: 300x250, top right, homepage

2. Pick your ad size from the drop-down:

 We recommend using larger and wider ad sizes, which tend to perform best. For
instance, if you manage a blog, consider a “Skyscraper” for your sidebars, and a
“Rectangle” after individual posts.
To see all the size options, please visit the Ad Formats page in the AdSense Help
Center.

3. Select ad type:

This setting defines which types of ads can appear on your pages. We encourage
you to choose both text and image/rich media ads, which will allow the widest
variety of ads to appear on your pages.

4. Set the ad style:

You can customize the style of your ad units by choosing fonts and colors. We
recommend choosing a color scheme that matches the look and feel of your site.

5. Add custom channels:

Custom channels are used to group ad units together to help you track the
effectiveness of your ads. For now, let’s skip this optional step – we’ll explain
channels in detail later, since they’re a little bit complicated for your first ad unit.

6. Set backup ads:

Backup ads are another advanced option that let you choose what to display on
your pages if Google isn’t able to show targeted ads.

7. Click Save and get code.

Step 3) Get and Paste Code

1. Copy the ad code.

The pop-up box shows the code for the ad unit you’ve designed.

To copy your code, click anywhere in the “Ad code” box to select its contents. You’ll know the
code has been selected when the entire box is highlighted in blue.

2. Paste the ad code.

The next step is to paste the code into your website’s HTML source code. To paste the code
and show ads, you need to be able to edit the HTML source code of your pages.
 Step 4) Confirm The Ad Shows On Your Site
After you’ve pasted the code and saved your site, please confirm your ad unit appears on
your website.

Channels
Channels are like labels that let you group ad units as you choose – for example, by
colors, categories, or pages.

Here are a few types of tracking you can do with channels:

 Track performance of a Leaderboard format on several pages versus a banner

format on other pages
 Compare overall ad earnings from your motorcycle pages against earnings from
your automobile pages
 A channel to track each of your separate domains, so you can see where your
clicks are coming from

There are two types of channels: URL Channels and Custom Channels

URL Channels track the performance of particular pages in your site.

Custom Channels track any ad units you choose to group together, allowing you to get
detailed, customized reports. By pasting channel-specific ad code into your pages, you can
track a variety of metrics across a range of URLs. Use custom channels to track the
 performance of different ad formats, for example, or to compare different page topics to
one another. You can also turn any custom channel into an ad placement on which
advertisers can choose to place their ads.
Creating Channels: URL Channels
URL Channels are easy to implement. You don’t have to change your ad code to use
channels, so you can create channels in your account, then immediately begin tracking
performance.

Create a URL Channel

1. Sign into your account

2. Visit the Performance Reports tab
3. From the sidebar, choose URL Channels
4. Above the table, click Add URLs to track

5. In the text box, enter the URL that you would like to track (For details on how to enter
your URL, see the section below on defining a URL)

6. Click Add URLs

The new URL channel will begin tracking data almost immediately.

 To track a single page: enter the full path of the page

o Example: example.com/sample.html

Creating Channels: Custom Channels

Before creating your custom channels, take some time to consider how channels can best be
used on your site. Think about which metrics you’d like to track.

Create a Custom Channel

1. Sign into your account

2. Visit the My ads tab
3. In the sidebar, click Custom channels
4. Click New custom channel

5. Enter a name that will help you to quickly identify this channel later in your reports.
For example:
 a. If you have pages about cars and bikes, you can make “car_pages” or
“bike_pages” channels to find out which groups of pages is generating more
clicks.

Tracking Earnings & Payment

• You’ll see a daily summary of your estimated earnings on your Home page. For more
granular reporting, you can track your estimated AdSense earnings on the Performance
Reports tab. There is also important information included in the Payments page, which
is linked from the Home tab.
• The Payments page tracks the status of previously issued payments, as well as monthly
account calculations. You can click the Earnings details link for any month to view your
total finalized earnings, as well as any adjustments made to your account. Once your
payment has been issued, you’ll see it listed on this page as Payment issued. Click on
the link to see the payment details.

Performance Reports
The Performance Reports tab is designed to provide more insight into not just how much
you’re earning, but also what impacts those earnings. It includes graphs so you can view
trends and compare important metrics more easily. It also offers ways to segment your
statistics.
2.6 Google webmaster tools
• Google Webmaster Tools (also known as Google Search Console), is a powerful
platform that website owners can use to monitor how their site interacts with Google.
• GWT gives you a detailed insight into the health of your website, reporting technical
issues such as crawl errors, mobile optimization problems, and security concerns. It’s
also packed with a bunch of trackable metrics that are invaluable for SEO, providing you
with the data you need to improve your website’s organic performance.
 • It’s also completely free and integrates with Google Analytics and Google Ads for PPC
testing.
Google Webmaster Features and Uses
There are many things that GWT can do. How useful each is will depend on your
specific business needs. Below, we’re going to discuss some of the most universally beneficial
features and uses of the platform.
1. Monitor your website’s performance.
GWT provides vital metrics for monitoring your website’s performance, including:
Clicks - The number of times that people have clicked on your website through Google’s
search results. This not only gives you an insight into the effectiveness of your page titles and
meta descriptions, but is also a big indicator of how consistent your traffic is.
Impressions - The “impressions” metric refers to how many times your website has popped
up in Google’s search results, which is handy for identifying your ranking keywords. Sorting by
page can tell you which pages rank for specific keywords, adding an extra layer of insight into
your optimization strategy.
• Average CTR - GWT will show you the percentage of people who have seen your
website on Google search results and have decided to click through. Basically, it is your
number of clicks impressions x 100, and is definitely a metric that you want to keep a close
eye on. Through GWT, you can identify your highest (and lowest) CTR queries and monitor
them over time.
Average position - Your average position highlights where you’re ranking on Google SERPs for
specific keywords or pages
2. Watch for indexing errors.
GWT lets you see how many of your website’s pages have been indexed by Google since the
last site crawl.
More importantly, it highlights any indexing errors or warnings and gives you information for
analysis. For example, you might have broken code, blocked URLs, or an issue with your site’s
theme.
3. Submit a sitemap.

Submitting a sitemap to GWT can improve your site’s crawlability and reduce the risk of
indexing errors.
It’s a great tool for large websites because it’s easy for Google to miss changes or additions,
but new websites can also reap the benefits of being indexed faster.
4. Perform a URL inspection.

The URL inspection tool allows you to analyze specific URLs. You can see a side-by-side
comparison of your live URL and the URL that Google has in its index.
This allows you to check for any errors or inconsistencies, and you can also see the date that
the page was last crawled.
5. Keep track of your links.

With backlinks still being incredibly important for any SEO SaaS strategy, GWT’s links section
is one of its most valuable tools.
Not only can you view your website’s total number of backlinks, but you can see which
domains are linking to you and the anchor text that they use to do it.
The internal links section is a good way to analyze your website’s structure and ascertain that
your cornerstone content contains the highest number of links.
6. Security and manual actions.

GWT will send you email notifications if any of your pages are not compliant with Google’s
webmaster guidelines.
For example, if Google detects spam, cloaking or purchased links, it will penalize your site and
provide further instructions via this tab

2.7 off page optimization

Links
• Link influence on search engines
• Link Value Social Media
•Social Media Sites
• Indirect Influence of Social Media
Other
• Sitemap
• DMOZ
• robots.txt
• Google mini
Off Page SEO – Links
Link Influence on search engines

PageRank algorithm
• External links on a webpage can be interpreted as votes.
• Initially, all votes are considered equal.
• Over the course of time, pages which receive more votes become more important.
• More important pages cast more important votes.
• Votes per Page = Page Importance /
Number of Links.

Links
Link Value
1. Anchor Text: Search engines use the anchor text to help it understand what the page
receiving the link is about.
2. Relevance: Links that originate from sites/pages on a closely related topic are worth
more.
3. Authority: A site with higher authority will pass along more PageRank. However, search
engines will not tell you which sites they consider
authoritative.
4. Trust: Trust of a websites takes into account whether the linking page or the website
is easy or difficult for spammers to infiltrate. The trust level of a site is based on how
many clicks away it is from one or more ‘seed’ sites.
Benefits of Social Media
1. It Cost Nothing to Get Started For just a little bit of time and creativity, you can create
department and personal pages and keep students informed of new programs.
2. Blogs are Simple to Create You can create targeted content that focuses on your SEO
content keywords.
3. Results Can Be Faster Than Traditional Websites You have the opportunity to “go viral”
with the content you post using social media.
4. Social Media Posts and Profiles are Included in Search Results All social media
posts and profiles are opportunities to get your site noticed by search engines.
5.

5. You Can Get Ranked Higher Each time your content is shared, it creates a backlink to
your content. This gives you more chances to have PageRank votes passed to your
content.
6. There are Lots of Options Variety is the spice of life.
7. Social Media is Easy To Use You don’t need to dedicate a lot of time to social media –
work on posting quality content and let other users do the work for you by sharing it with
their friends.
8. Builds Brand Awareness As you become more visible, as long as you continue to
produce quality content, you will soon become an authority figure in your niche.
9.Has Unlimited Reach By participating in social media, you will be able to reach users
that would have never stumbled upon the university’s website.
10.Puts Followers to Work for You Let other users share your quality content.
9. Builds Brand Awareness
As you become more visible, as long as you continue to produce quality content,
you will soon become an authority figure in your niche.
10.Has Unlimited Reach By participating in social media, you will be able to reach users
that would have never stumbled upon the university’s website.
11.Puts Followers to Work for You Let other users share your quality content.

XML / HTML Sitemap

A sitemap is a list of pages of a web site accessible to search
engines and users.
Benefits of a Sitemap
1. Helps improve how often and the manner in which search engines crawl
your website.
2. Search engines use additional URL’s to ‘discover’ pages they didn’t know
about.
3. Verification / registration of XML Sitemaps may indicate positive trust / authority
signals.
4. A HTML sitemap can further help a user navigate your website.

FIG : XML SITEMAP

FIG : HTML SITEMAP

DMOZ – Open Directory Project
“The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory
of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of
volunteer editors.”

robots.txt

This is a file that is located on the root level of our domain.

Benefits of robots.txt
1. Prevents search engines from accessing nonpublic parts of our website.
2. Block search engines from accessing out pages of code.
3. Avoid the indexation of duplicate content on our website, such as “print” or “mobile”
versions of webpages.
4. Auto-discover Sitemaps.
Google Mini
Not everyone who enters our website is coming through the front door
(homepage).The Google mini appliance helps user’s navigate deeper into our website
without having to click their way through to the page they need. Within the Google mini
appliance, we have total control over page placement by keyword.

2.8 web crawlers

Web crawling is the process by which we gather pages from the Web, in order to index
them and support a search engine. The objective of crawling is to quickly and efficiently
gather as many useful web pages as possible, together with the link structure that
interconnects them.
Crawling is tracking & gathering URL to prepare for Indexing by giving them a
webpage as a starting point. They will trace all valid links on these pages. Not all links are
able to crawled due to one or more the following cases :

• The server was down when link crawling

• Link coding is in java script for format know as spidertrap
• link market for exclusion via robot.txt
• link with in the page contain no follow directive
• There are no external link there is the ob sense of sitemap.xml known
as orphaned link
Features a crawler must provide
 features that web crawlers must provide, followed by features they should
provide.
Robustness: The Web contains servers that create spider traps, which are generators of
web pages that mislead crawlers into getting stuck fetching an infinite number of pages
in a particular domain.

Politeness: Web servers have both implicit and explicit policies regulating the rate at
which a crawler can visit them. These politeness policies must
be respected.
Features a crawler should provide
Distributed: The crawler should have the ability to execute in a distributed fashion across
multiple machines.
Scalable: The crawler architecture should permit scaling up the crawl rate by adding
extra machines and bandwidth.
Performance and efficiency: The crawl system should make efficient use of various
system resources including processor, storage and network band-
width.
Quality: Given that a significant fraction of all web pages are of poor util-
ity for serving user query needs, the crawler should be biased towards fetching “useful”
pages first.
Freshness: In many applications, the crawler should operate in continuous mode: it
should obtain fresh copies of previously fetched pages.
Crawling:
The crawler begins with one or more URLs that constitute a seed set. It picks
a URL from this seed set, then fetches the web page at that URL.
The fetched page is then parsed, to extract both the text and the links from
the page (each of which points to another URL). The extracted text is fed to a text indexer
The extracted links (URLs) are then added to a URL frontier, which at all times
consists of URLs whose corresponding pages have yet to be fetched by the crawler.
Initially, the URL frontier contains the seed set; as pages are fetched, the
corresponding URLs are deleted from the URL frontier. The entire process may be viewed
as traversing the web graph
In continuous crawling, the URL of a fetched page is added back to the frontier
for fetching again in the future.
Before proceeding to this detailed description, we reiterate for readers who
may attempt to build crawlers of some basic properties any non-professional crawler
should satisfy:
1. Only one connection should be open to any given host at a time.
2. A waiting time of a few seconds should occur between successive requests
to a host.
3. Politeness restrictions
Crawler architecture
• The URL frontier, containing URLs yet to be fetched in the current crawl
• A DNS resolution module that determines the web server from which to fetch the
page specified by a URL.
• A fetch module that uses the http protocol to retrieve the web page at a URL.
• A parsing module that extracts the text and set of links from a fetched web page.
• A duplicate elimination module that determines whether an extracted link is
already in the URL frontier or has recently been fetched.

FIG :The basic crawler architecture

Crawling is performed by anywhere from one to potentially

hundreds of threads, each of which loops through the logical cycle in Figure
These threads may be run in a single process, or be partitioned among
multiple processes running at different nodes of a distributed system.
The progress of a single URL through the cycle of being fetched, pass- ing
through various checks and filters, then finally (for continuous crawling) being returned
to the URL frontier.
A crawler thread begins by taking a URL from the frontier and fetching the
web page at that URL, generally using the http protocol. The fetched page is then
written into a temporary store, where a number of operations are performed on it.
Next, the page is parsed and the text as well as the links in it are extracted.
The text (with any tag information – e.g., terms in boldface) is passed on to the indexer.
Link information including anchor text is also passed on to the indexer for use in
ranking in ways that are described
In addition, each extracted link goes through a series of tests to determine
whether the link should be added to the URL frontier.
The robots.txt file must be fetched from a website in order to test whether
the URL under consideration passes the robot restrictions, and can there- fore be
added to the URL frontier. cache can be used to obtain a re cently fetched copy of the
file for the host.
Next, a URL should be normalized in the following sense: often the HTML
encoding of a link from a web page p indicates the target of that link relative to the
page p.
page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page:points to the URL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer.

Distributing the crawler

The threads in a crawler could run under different processes, each at a
different node of a distributed crawling system. Such distribution is essential for
scaling;
it can also be of use in a geographically distributed crawler system where
each node crawls hosts “near” it. Partitioning the hosts being crawled amongst the
crawler nodes can be done by a hash function, or by some more specifically tailored
policy.
1. Unlike the URL frontier and the duplicate elimination module, document
fingerprints/shingles cannot be partitioned based on host name. There is nothing
preventing the same (or highly similar) content from appearing on different web
servers.

FIG : Distributing the basic crawl architecture.

2.There is very little locality in the stream of document fingerprints/shingles.
3. Documents change over time and so, in the context of continuous crawl-ing,
we must be able to delete their outdated fingerprints/shingles

DNS resolution
Each web server (and indeed any host connected to the internet) has a
unique IP address: a sequence of four bytes generally represented as four integers
separated by dots; for instance 207.142.131.248 is the numerical IP address associated
with the host www.wikipedia.org.
Given a URL such as www.wikipedia.org in textual form, translating it to an IP
addressa process known as DNS resolution or DNS lookup; here DNS stands for Do-
main Name Service. During DNS resolution, the program that wishes to per-
form this translation (in our case, a component of the web crawler) contacts a DNS
SERVER DNS server that returns the translated IP address.
DNS resolution is a well-known bottleneck in web crawling. Due to the
distributed nature of the Domain Name Service, DNS resolution may entail multiple
requests and round-trips across the internet, requiring seconds andsometimes even
longer.
our goal of fetching several hundred documents a second. A standard
remedy is to introduce caching: URLs for which we have recently performed DNS look
ups are likely to be found in the DNS cache, avoiding the need to go to the DNS servers
on the internet.
There is another important difficulty in DNS resolution; the lookup imple-
mentations in standard libraries (likely to be used by anyone developing a crawler) are
generally synchronous.
Domain Name Service, other crawler threads at that node are blocked until
the first request is completed.
The URL frontier
The URL frontier at a node is given a URL by its crawl process (or by the host
splitter of another crawl process). It maintains the URLs in the frontier and regurgitates
them in some order whenever a crawler thread seeks a URL.
Two important considerations govern the order in which URLs are returned
by the frontier.
First, high-quality pages that change frequently should be prioritized for
frequent crawling. Thus, the priority of a page should be a function of both its change
rate and its quality (using some reasonable quality estimate). The combination is
necessary because a large number of spam pages change completely on every fetch.

The second consideration is politeness: we must avoid repeated fetch re-

quests to a host within a short time span. The likelihood of this is exacerbated because
of a form of locality of reference:
The two major sub-modules are a set of F front queues in the upper por-
tion of the figure, and a set of B back queues in the lower part; all of these are FIFO
queues. The front queues implement the prioritization, while the back queues
implement politeness.

FIG : The URL frontier

2.9 keyword strategy

Keyword strategies are essential to developing winning search engine marketing

campaigns. Your keyword strategy should involve selecting high-performing
keywords that drive relevant traffic to your business. Choosing the right keywords
for advertising can make all the difference in your campaigns, determining how well
your advertisements rank on Google and other search engine platforms.
When looking to increase traffic on your site or blog, using relevant keywords
should be step one. A strong keyword strategy is important for SEO because it increases
both site visibility and traffic.
 How Do Keywords Relate To Digital Marketing?

When a potential consumer goes to a search engine like Google to look for
something, they type in words or phrases to guide their search. These are keywords: the
key terms website users enter to find what they are looking for.
This is why it is so important to research keywords to see what will work well
for your organization.
Keywords need to be:

• Something users will search for.

• Relevant to your brand.
• Terms that can be seamlessly integrated into all your online content.
Once you know which keywords to focus on, you can begin to use them strategically throughout your
digital marketing content.
Different Types Of Keywords For Digital Marketing

There are three main types of keywords: short-tail (also called head), middle-
tail (also called body) and long-tail. Blogging Wizard does a nice job of explaining each term:
• Short-tail keywords usually consist of one or two words (e.g., ”WordPress themes”). These
keywords are broad and generic but often ambiguous, with a high search volume.
• Middle-tail keywords usually consist of three or four words (e.g., ”WordPress themes for blog”).
They are more specific than short-tail keywords but have lower search volume.
• Long-tail keywords usually consist of four or more words (e.g., ”free responsive WordPress
themes for blog”). These are more detailed and very specific, but the search volume is even lower.
Keyword Research

You have now reached the final step of creating a keyword strategy: keyword research.
Quality keyword research is as essential as doing market research for marketing
strategy. By the same token, forming a keyword strategy for B2B marketing and SEO
needs heavy research as well. When doing keyword research, there are three important
factors to remember:

1. Localized Search Volume

Localized Search Volume tells you how many people are searching for a certain phrase.
There are four factors to localized search volume:

• relevance

• specificity

• popularity
• competitiveness
Bottom line, relevant keywords should match your site’s products, services, and
content. For B2B marketers, the four factors make developing keyword strategy much
easier.
2. Keyword Competitiveness
Keyword competitiveness lets you know which keywords often show up on other
websites. This usually means that your keyword strategy concept exists on other sites. For
B2B marketing and SEO, keyword competitiveness is a little different. Since keywords
and themes are more specific, there’s a lower chance of other sites using the same
keywords. Of course, remember that most B2B companies write about similar issues and
concepts.

Keyword Competition tools can make things much easier on your keyword strategy.
Some tools include the Adwords Keyword Planner (you can tailor this for B2B)
and MozBar. Google Adwords help you discover and compare new keywords.

3. Ranking Competition

Finally, to complete keyword research, you must analyze your keyword’s ranking
competition. Ranking competition helps you find out how powerful your competitors
are. Some tools to help with this stage include:

• MozRank

• PageRank Checker

2.10 SEO friendly website design, Hosting & Integration

SEO website design layout a website framework & details to higher in search
engine results. SEO friendly website allow you to gain more relevant traffic from search
engine & keep user for longer, thus converting them into customer. Well optimized
websites also enable long-term organic growth for the company without the need for
continuous investment like advertising.
The design of a website is one of the most important key success factor & it does
not only affect the user experience , but also SEO campaign
 Developing quality content is important but its not the only part of your strategy
that must be optimized. Displaying the content properly & having a solid hierarchy &
easy navigation is the key for an effective web pretense.

FIG : SEO website design

Guidelines for SEO friendly website design

• Group the content by relevance & use descriptive menu items to help user find
easily the information that they are looking for

• Use Text link is footer to support navigation. Text link is very useful both for the
user & search engine

• Use bread crumb navigation to allow user keep track of their location within your
website & help search engine understand your website structure

• Consider each page as a landing page providing all the information to the user
inform him. Where he is & what to see next

• Don't change the template of your website in every category. It makes navigation
in your website more difficult for the average user

• Avoid horizontal scroll. It is not user friendly

 • avoid pop-up & unnecessary use of blurring image as they are annoying for most
user

• Make the content shareable by incorporating in your design & social media
button

• make your reserve space for ad banner & don't forget to use the standard adsizes

• Avoid using flash for navigation

• Make sure that the design fit to the standard screen resolution . Typically you
should design the website for 1024*768 screens

Which principles can't be missing from this combination ?

Learn the fundamental & essential element to create an attractive website for the both
persona & search engine

1. Navigation & site structure

It can be said that a website is organized in a similar way. We separate products or

content into categories and subcategories while following a hierarchy. They are
available in menus, so that the user can browse according to what they are looking for.

2. Content layout
It is already well-known that SEO content quality is one of the most important factors for
Google’s algorithm. So, value the information that your site has to offer.
3. Responsiveness
A responsive design—having the ability to adapt to the screen size of the user’s device—is
indispensable, especially with the growing use of mobile internet in the world. To illustrate this, mobile
is already the main means of internet access in many countries across the world.

4. Use of images
The visual appeal of a website is crucial to generate a connection between the visitor and the
brand. In this sense, images are important allies to improve the appearance and complement the text
content present on the page.
 Unit-IV: Link building and content consideration
Precursors to link building, elements of link building, finding your competition, analyzing your
competition, competitor tracking, becoming a resource, content duplication, content verticals,
sitemaps.

4.1 What is Link Building & Why is It Important?

Whether you’re brand new to link building or have been doing it for a while, we’re sure you’ll find
something useful in this guide. The landscape of SEO and link building is always changing, and today, the
importance of building high-quality links has never been higher.
The need to understand and implement high-quality campaigns is essential if you’re going to
compete and thrive online, and that isn’t going to change any time soon. This guide is designed to get you
going quickly and in the right direction. There is a lot to take in, but we’ve broken everything up into easy-
to-digest chapters and have included lots of examples along the way. We hope you enjoy The Beginner’s
Guide to Link Building!

Definition of Link Building

Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. A hyperlink
(usually just called a link) is a way for users to navigate between pages on the internet. Search engines use
links to crawl the web; they will crawl the links between the individual pages on your website, and they
will crawl the links between entire websites.
There are many techniques for building links, and while they vary in difficulty, SEOs tend to agree
that link building is one of the hardest parts of their jobs. Many SEOs spend the majority of their time trying
to do it well. For that reason, if you can master the art of building high-quality links, it can truly put you
ahead of both other SEOs and your competition.

Why is Link Building Important for SEO?

In order to understand the importance of link building, it’s important to first understand the basics
of how a link is created, how the search engines see links, and what they can interpret from them.
1. Start of link tag:
Called an anchor tag (hence the “a”), this opens the link tag and tells search engines that a link to something
else is about to follow.
2. Link referral location:
The “href” stands for “hyperlink referral,” and the text inside the quotation marks indicates the URL to
which the link is pointing. This doesn’t always have to be a web page; it could be the address of an image
or a file to download.
3. Visible/anchor text of link:
This is the little bit of text that users see on the page,and on which they need to click if they want to open
the link. The text is usually formatted in some way to make it stand out from the text that surrounds it, often
with blue color and/or underlining, signaling to users that it is a clickable link.
4. Closure of link tag:
This signals the end of the link tag to the search engines.

What Links Mean for Search Engines

There are two fundamental ways that the search engines use links:

1) To discover new web pages

2) To help determine how well a page should rank in their results

Once search engines have crawled pages on the web, they can extract the content of those
pages and add it to their indexes. In this way, they can decide if they feel a page is of sufficient
quality to be ranked well for relevant keywords (Google created a short video to explain that
process). When they are deciding this, the search engines do not just look at the content of the page;
they also look at the number of links pointing to that page from external websites and the quality
of those external websites. Generally speaking, the more high-quality websites that link to you, the
more likely you are to rank well in search results.

However, SEOs soon discovered how to manipulate Page Rank and search results for chosen
keywords. Google started actively trying to find ways to discover websites which were
manipulating search results, and began rolling out regular updates which were specifically aimed
at filtering out websites that didn’t deserve to rank.

Weighting of Thematic Clusters of Ranking Factors in Google

It is generally accepted that if all other factors are equal, the volume and quality oflinks
pointing to a page will make the difference between rankings. Having said that, with recent moves
from Google, including the release of Penguin updates andits push of Google+, there is speculation
that the impact of links is being reduced and replaced with social signals such as tweets or +1s.

➢ Domain-Level, Keyword-Agnostic Features (e.g. domain name length, extension,

domain HTTP response time, etc.)
➢ Page-Level Link Features (e.g. PageRank, TrustRank, quantity of link links, anchor
text distribution, quality of links sources, etc.)
➢ Page-Level KW & Content Features (e.g. TF*IDF, topic-modeling scores on
content, content quantity/relevance, etc.)
➢ Page-Level, Keyword-Agnostic Features (e.g. Content length, readability,
uniqueness, load speed, etc.)
➢ Domain-Level Brand Features (e.g. ofhine usage of brand/domain name, mentions of
brand.domain in news/ media/press, entry association, etc.)
➢ User, Usage, & Traffic/ Query Data (e.g. traffic/ usage signals from browsers/
toolbars/clickstrean, quantity/ diversity/ CTR of queries, etc.)
➢ Social Metrics (e.g. quantity/quality of tweeted links Facebook shares, Google +1s, etc.)
➢ Domain-Level Keyword Usage (e.g. exact-match keyword domains, partial-keyword
matches, etc.)
➢ Domain-Level, Keyword-Agnostic Features (e.g. domain name length, TLD extension,
domain HTTP response time, etc.)

It is generally accepted that if all other factors are equal, the volume and quality of links pointing to
a page will make the difference between rankings. Having said that, with recent moves from Google,
including the release of Penguin updates and its push of Google+, there is speculation that the impact of
links is being reduced and replaced with social signals such as tweets or +1s.
How Can Link Building Benefit My Business?
As we’ve discussed, links are a very important signal that the search engines use to
determine rankings. So, we know that increasing the number of high-quality links pointing at
your website can significantly increase your chances of ranking well. There are other benefits
to link building, though, that may be less immediately obvious yet still worthy of consideration.
1. Building Relationships
2. Sending Referral Traffic
3. Brand Building
Building Relationships
Link building can often involve outreach to other relevant websites and blogs in your
 industry. This outreach frequently relates to the promotion of something that you’ve just created,
such as a piece of content or an infographic. A common goal of outreach is to get a link, but there
is much more to it than just this: Outreach can help you build long-term relationships with key
influencers in your industry, and these relationships can mean that your business becomes highly
regarded and trusted.
Sending Referral Traffic
We’ve talked about the impact of links on your rankings, but what about the impact of links
on referral traffic? A good link from a highly-visited website can lead to an increase in traffic, too.
If it is a relevant website, chances are that the traffic is also relevant and may lead to an increase
in sales, as well.
Brand Building
Good link building can help build your brand and establish you as an authority in your niche.
There are some link building techniques, such as content creation, which can show people the
expertise of your company, and this can go a long way toward building your brand. For example,
if you create a piece of content based upon industry data and publish it, you have a chance of
becoming well known for it in your industry.
What Types of Links You Need
When defining the strategy for your link building campaign, you will need to think about the types
of links you need to get. There are various types to consider:

1. Links to your homepage

2. Links to “deep” pages (such as product or category pages)
3. Links containing your brand / company name
4. Links containing the keywords you’re targeting
4.2 Elements of link building
Within SEO, link building plays an important role in driving organic traffic via search
engines, especially in competitive industries. When combined with strong technical SEO
foundations, great on-page SEO, excellent content, and a good user experience, link building
can be super effective at driving more organic traffic.

Today, the need for quality, relevance, and authenticity has never been more important.
While low-quality, spammy link building techniques can work, they shouldn’t play a part in a
strategy for an organization who is building for long-term organic search success.

Link building is how you create and acquire hyperlinks (or simply links) to your website. There are
essentially two types of links that make up a link building strategy.

Internal Links
• An internal link is any hyperlink that takes people from one page of your website to another.
• Your website’s navigation bar is a perfect example of internal links. For instance, if
someone clicks on How It Works in my site’s navigation bar, it takes them to the page on my
website that details how my business’ services work.

• Internal links can also be found within blog posts and articles. Below is a section of an
article I’ve recently published here where I’ve included an internal link.

External Links
Also called backlinks, these connect content published from another website to a page or article
posted on your site.
One example of this is this link in an author bio of a guest post I contributed to Influence&Co .
Why Should You Build Links for Your Website

Organize Your Website’s Content

• How your website’s content’s organized can significantly impact your user experience and
your website’s search rankings in the long run.
• Search engine bots are scouring the Internet to find and index new content as you’re
reading this. They do this by following links on previously published content like a web page or
blog post.

Improve User Experience

• Through link building, you can map out your website’s content, making it easier for your
visitors to find the information they’re looking for. The same thing goes for Google and other
search engine bots.
• Also, Google recently announced that it’d be rolling out its Page Experience algorithm
update by the middle of June 2021. Among the factors that will now play an integral role in how
Google will rank websites will be your visitors’ overall user experience.

Boost Search Rankings

• Backlinks are one of the critical factors Google considers when ranking websites on their
SERPs. Websites that rank #1 in Google’s search results has nearly 4x more backlinks than
other websites listed on Google’s SERPs.
Build Your Online Reputation
• When you link relevant articles you’ve published to each other, you’re allowing your
visitors to keep on consuming your content while learning more about the topic they’re interested
in.
• Eventually, Google will take notice and equate this to the quality of the content you’re
publishing. As a result, Google will reward you with higher search rankings, especially when
those websites linking back to your website are considered reputable authorities within your
industry.

Scalability
• To grow your business, you’ll need to be able to automate your workflows, delegate tasks,
and even outsource specific processes.
• Unfortunately, you can’t do any of these with link building, especially when building
backlinks to your website.
• The reason: Google puts more emphasis on the quality of the backlinks your content’s
getting over the quantity. Neil Patel and his team discovered this when they tested the effects one
backlink from a high domain authority website will have on a website’s search rankings.

Changes in Google’s Algorithm

• Many of the recent Google Algorithm updates have significantly changed many of the SEO
best practices you’ve grown accustomed to using, including your link building strategy.
• A perfect example of this was when Google released two new link attributes in 2019 for
external links included in guest posts and sponsored posts.
• Although these new link attributes aren’t as harsh as the “no follow” link attribute, it does
give Google the final say on whether or not it’ll consider your backlink in a specific guest post
when they rank your website.

Proving Your Link Building Strategy ROI

• Although link building does provide your business with a host of benefits, it can still be
tough to get your boss to buy into this. That’s because it can be challenging to calculate and track
its ROI.
• There’s no particular metric that clearly shows the direct effects link building has on your
business’ bottom line, for starters.
• Second, other factors can affect your ability to drive qualified traffic to your website so you
can convert them into leads.
• Finally, building backlinks is an off-page SEO technique. As such, you have no way of
knowing how they’ll perform.

How To Build Quality Links With Content Marketing

One of the most popular marketing strategies used today, content marketing focuses on
consistently publishing high-quality content that’s helpful to your target audience. Its goal is to
provide your target audience with the information they’re looking for so that they’d eventually
decide to become your customer.
For this very reason, content marketing is one of the most effective ways to build quality internal
and external links for your website.The key here is to ensure that the content you publish is
appealing to your target audience and Google.
Here are some suggestions:

1. List Posts
Of the different content types published, this is still the most widely used. And for good reason.
List posts make your content easy for your site visitors to scan and skim your content. This
is crucial since studies have consistently shown that people scan—not read—online content, as
these heatmaps show.

2. Infographics
• Infographics are another type of content to include in both your content marketing and link
building strategies.
• If you don’t know what infographics are, they’re a type of content that presents facts,
figures, and other information visually.
• When creating an infographic to publish, the challenge is that you need to find that “perfect”
balance between text and graphics. Even though many infographic-making platforms come with
templates to help you get started, you’ll need to have a good eye for design to complete it.
3. Original Research and Data
• Just like with creating infographics, publishing original research you’ve conducted is
exceptionally tedious. After all, not all businesses have the resources to allocate to do this.
• However, the rewards you’ll get in building quality backlinks for your website will make
this all worthwhile. On top of that, publishing original research as an industry report helps position
you and your brand as reputable experts in your industry.

4. In-Depth Guides
• An in-depth guide is a comprehensive resource that covers everything that your target
audience wants to know.
• There are three reasons why an in-depth guide is great content to use for your link building
strategy.
• Work like original research reports. Since in-depth guides are incredibly comprehensive,
many sites would often use these as references for their articles and blog posts, helping you build
quality backlinks.
• They are evergreen. You don’t need to write a brand-new guide each year on the same topic.
Instead, you can just update this so that it stays current.

4.3 Finding your competition

a)Who are your competitors?
1. All businesses face competition. Even if you're the only restaurant in town you must compete
with cinemas, bars and other businesses where your customers will spend their money instead of
with you.
2. With increased use of the Internet to buy goods and services and to find places to go, you are
no longer just competing with your immediate neighbours. Indeed, you could find yourself
competing with businesses from other countries.
3. Your competitor could be a new business offering a substitute or similar product that makes
your own redundant.
4. Competition is not just another business that might take money away from you. It can be
another product or service that's being developed and which you ought to be selling or looking to
license before somebody else takes it up.
5. And don't just research what's already out there. You also need to be constantly on the
lookout for possible new competition.
You can get clues to the existence of competitors from:
i. local business directories
ii. your local Chamber of Commerce
iii. advertising
iv. press reports
v. exhibitions and trade fairs
vi. questionnaires
vii. searching on the Internet for similar products orservices
 viii.information provided by customers
ix. flyers and marketing literature that have been sent to you - quite common if you're on a bought-
in marketing list
x. searching for existing patented products that are similar to yours
xi. planning applications and building work in progress
b)What you need to know about your competitors
1) the products or services they provide and how theymarket them to customers
2) the prices they charge
3) how they distribute and deliver
4) the devices they employ to enhance customerloyalty and what back-up service they offer
5) their brand and design values
6) whether they innovate - business methods as well as products
c)Learning about your competitors
1)Read about your competitors. Look for articles or ads in the trade press or mainstream
publications. Read their marketing literature.
2)Check their entries in directories and phone books. If they are an online business, ask
for a trial of their service.
3)Are they getting more publicity than you, perhaps through networking or sponsoring
events?
4)If your competitor is a public company, read a copy of their annual report.
5)At exhibitions and trade fairs check which of your competitors are also exhibiting. Look
at their stands and promotional activities. Note how busy they are and who visits them.
6)Look at competitors' websites. Find out how they compare to yours. Check any
interactive parts of the site to see if you could improve on it for your own website. Is the
information free of charge? Is it easy to find?
7)Business websites often give much information that businesses haven't traditionally
revealed - from the history of the company to biographies of the staff.
8)Use a search engine to track down similar products. Find out who else offers them and
how they go about it.
9)Websites can give you good tips on what businesses around the globe are doing in your
industry sector.

d) Hearing about your Competitors

1. Speak to your competitors. Phone them to ask for acopy of their brochure or get one of your
staff or a friend to drop by and pick up their marketing literature.
 2. You could ask for a price list or enquire what an off- the-shelf item might cost and if there's a
discount for volume. This will give you an idea at which point a competitor will discount and at
what volume.

3. Phone and face-to-face contacts will also give you an idea of the style of the company, the
quality of their literature and the initial impressions they make on customers.

4. Listen to your customers and suppliers

5. Use meetings with your suppliers to ask what their other customers are doing. They may not
tell you everything you want to know, but it's a useful start.

How to Do a Competitive Analysis

Learn the best way to conduct a competitor analysis, and how it can help you improve your
products or services.
Conduct a routine competitor analysis to understand your competitors' strengths and
weaknesses, and to identify gaps in the marketplace.
A competitor analysis can help you enhance your product or service, better serve your target
audience, and increase your profits.
A competitor analysis should include your competitors' features, market share, pricing,
marketing, differentiators, strengths, weaknesses, geography, culture
and customer reviews.
This article is for new and established small business owners who want to analyze their
competition to improve their products or services.
Why is a competitor analysis important?
1) It is important to conduct routine competitor analyses throughout the lifecycle of your business
to stay up to date with market trends and product offerings. A competitor analysis can reveal
pertinent information about market saturation, business opportunities and industry best practices.
2) It is also important to know how your customers view you in comparison to your competition.
A competitor analysis will give you a better idea of what services are currently available to your
target customer and what areas are being neglected.

Key takeaway: A competitor analysis teaches you important information about your market
that empowers you to make well-informed business decisions.

What are the benefits of conducting a competitor analysis?

1) Analyzing your business against your competitors can help you in many ways. For example, it
will reveal which areas of your business, product or service need improvement.
2) With this knowledge, you can adjust your processes to better serve your target market and
increase profit. It can also show you new strategic opportunities to enhance your products or services
and grow your business.
3) Once you conduct a competitor analysis, you can use it for bench marking and measuring
future growth. Routine analyses will reveal market trends to keep track of and new players to be
aware of.
4) It will also help reveal who your current competitors are through out every stage of business.
Be sure to keep your analyses up to date.

4.4 Analyzing your competition

A business establishment must always have a competitive analysis of itscompetitors and how
their products and service compare. With such an evaluation, the company can have a gauge
on how its product and service can either have an edge or a deficiency against its competitors.
Consequently, modifying its products attributes will attract its target market.
There are three types of competitors to be evaluated:
Direct
Indirect
Potential New Entrants
Two Ways to Improve your Competitive Position
1. Call for Research Partners
We are currently building our 2017 research calendar and are looking forcompanies
focused on finding out why customers say “yes” in the areas of subscription, lead gen,
nonprofit and ecommerce. To learn more, visit: MECLABS.com/Partners
2. Online Certification Courses
Get the certified in MECLABS Institute’s patented methodology for website optimization
and value proposition development. To learn more, visit: MECLABS.com/Courses
Task 1: Competitor Profile
Complete your competitor profile and a profile for your three most important competitors –
use the recommended sources to find the data and try and get as much info as possible.
Task 2: Competitive Advantage
Think about what makes your company different than your competitors. Next, do the same
thing for your three competitors. If you’re struggling, pick up the phone and give your
competitors a call – just ask them! Go one step further and actually talk to their customers.
Task 3: Target Market
Identify who your target market is (if you don’t already know) and then do some research
on your competitors to see who their target market is. A good place to start would be their
website and looking at their advertising campaigns.
Task 4: Market Share
Complete a market share analysis.
Task 5: Marketing Strategies
Write down your current marketing strategies and any you have in the pipeline. Now get
moving and see what your competitors are doing – give them a call, do some research on
their site – do whatever you can to become more familiar with their strategies.
Task 6: Product/Service Profile
Complete the product/service mix– rate your company then your competitors on a consistent
scale of 1-10.
Task 7: Pricing and Costs
Answer all these questions about your company and your competitors. Pricing is an
observable source so you should be able to get most of the answers by looking at your
competitors offerings.
Task 8: Distribution Channels
Look at your company’s and your competitor’s distribution channels – how many channels
and intermediaries are being used? Do they spend more time in front of the clients?
Task 9: SWOT Analysis
Complete a SWOT analysis for your company and your competitors.
Key Elements of a Competitive Analysis Template
Let’s start with the key elements. When making this analysis, you will have to include
these essential components to make it complete and effective. As long as all the
elements are applicable to your company, you need to add them in. Here they are:
A Complete List of All Your Competitors
First and foremost is acquiring a list of your competitors. Know your enemies. Gather
all available and relevant information about these companies. Rank them by
considering who the chief competitors are. Some can indirectly compete with yours,
but since they offer the same products and services aiming at the same customer
capital, include them in the list as well.
Product Summary of Your Competitors
Do research on all information regarding the competition’s products and services, their
features, their value, their goals. Find out their sales strategies. A customer survey conducted
by the trade press is valuable aids in finding out customer satisfaction about competitors.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Competition
Be objective in assessing the strength and weakness of your competitor’s product. Assume
the position of being the competition.
Here are the different types of competitors:
Direct
Businesses that sell the same type of goods and services that you do to the same
market. Examples of this are: gift shops, convenient stores, flower shops

Indirect
Businesses that sell substitute products and services or items that can be used in
place of yours. If you own a bakery, an indirect competitor will be a restaurant.
Or owning a picture frame shop, an indirect competitor will be a craft store.
Potential New Entrants
The company should be aware of the entry of new business
establishments offering the same products and service. This will result in further
analysis of your current and future competition.
Tips on Writing a Great Competitive Analysis Template
Learn by Being the Customer
Visit competing establishments as a customer. Communicate with these companiesthrough
telephone or better yet, the internet. Observe how they respond to your queries. It will reveal
a lot about your competition, some good (which you can later adapt for your business) and
some bad (which should be avoided).
Look Into Your Competition
The best way to measure the capabilities of your competition is by appropriatingsome time
to investigate your competitor’s personnel. Could you do this face-to- face? if yes, better.
Otherwise, the internet, newspapers, people outside that company will also be an effective
substitute.
Purchase Stocks from your Competitors
This is s good tip. In buying even a few stocks in your competitor’s company entitles to
receive regular updates on the firm’s financial results and business strategies, as well as
information about the firm’s future plans.
Make Use of the Internet
The internet these days is the best source in retrieving information. Some online services
can provide you literature about your competitors, especially if they are large companies.

4.5 Competitor tracking

Competitive marketing strategies are strongest either when they position a firm's strengths
against competitors' weaknesses or choose positions that pose no threat to competitors. As such,
they require that the strategist be as knowledgeable about competitors' strengths and weaknesses
as about customers' needs or the firm's own capabilities. This chapter is designed to assist the
strategist understand how to gather and analyze information about competitors that is useful in the
strategy development process. It discusses the objectives of competitor analysis and proceeds
through the processes involved in identifying important competitors and information needs,
gathering necessary information, and interpreting this information.

THE OBJECTIVES OF COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

The ultimate objective of competitor analysis is to know enough about a competitor to be able to
think like that competitor so the firm's competitive strategy can be formulated to take into account the
competitors' likely actions and responses. From a practical viewpoint, a strategist needs to be able to live in
the competitors’ strategic shoes.
 The strategist needs to be able to understand the situation as the competitors see it and to analyze it
so as to know what actions the competitors would take to maximize their outcomes to be able to calculate
the actual financial and personal outcomes of the competitor’s strategic choices.
They must be able to:
1. Estimate the nature and likely success of the potential strategy changes available to a competitor;
2. Predict each competitor’s probably responses to important strategic moves on the part of the other
competitors; and
3. Understand competitors’ potential reactions to changes in key industry and environmental
parameters. What then should one expect from competitor analysis?
Underneath all of the complexities and depth of competitor analysis are some simple and basic
practical questions, of which the following are typical:
 Which competitors does our strategy pit us against?
 Which competitor is most vulnerable and how should we move on its customers?
IDENTIFYING COMPETITORS
Identifying competitors for analysis is not quite as obvious as it might seem. Two complementary
approaches are possible. The first is demand-side based, comprised of firms satisfying the same set
of customer needs.
The second approach is supply-side based, identifying firms whose resource base, technology,
operations, and the like, is similar to that of the focal firm. However, the firm must pay attention not
only to today's immediate competitors but also to those that are just over the horizon (such as
cellphones once were to cameras, social networking sites once were to web portals, or the internet
once was to video rental stores).
There are three domains for recognizing the sources and types of direct and less direct competitors
to which the firm must also attend. These domains represent (1) the areas of influence, (2) the
contiguous area, and (3) the areas of interest.
Identifying Competitors at the Product-Market Level
The most direct competitor competes for the exact same customers in exactly the same way
as the subject firm. It sells the same product made by the same technology to the same customers via
the same marketing channels. If the firm cannot win customer patronage versus such an identical
competitor, then it is unlikely that it can do any better competing against its indirect or potential
competitors. Why? If the firm's exact counterpart can win in direct competition, then that same
competitor should also win more against the less direct competitors.
Companies, per se, do not compete with each other in the marketplace. Rather, their
individual businesses compete with each other. The strategic marketing literature denotes a business
as a division, product line, or other profit center with a company that produces and markets a well-
defined set of related products and/or services, serves a clearly defined set of customers, and
competes with a distinct set of competitors.3
A business is further defined in terms of a number of key dimensions, which reflect the ways
and places in which it has chosen to compete. Primary among these are the products it offers and the
types of customers to whom it chooses to sell.
The products a firm offers can be defined along three dimensions: functions, technology, and
materials:
 Customer function is concerned with what need is being satisfied. This is the most natural
way to think about a product. Electromechanical devices, for example, can frequently be designed to
satisfy any size set of functions from very narrow to very wide. For example, some cooking
appliances are single function (microwave ovens), others are dual function (combination convection-
microwave ovens), while others are multifunction
Technology tells how the customer function(s) are being satisfied. For example, kitchen
ranges may use two sources of thermal energy (gas or electric) or, alternatively, microwave energy
to cook. X rays, computerized axial tomography (CAT scan machines), and NMR (nuclear magnetic
resonance) are three different technologies used in medical diagnostic imaging
The materials used in the manufacture of the product may also differ, producing slight
differences in products that are otherwise identical. Cabinets may be made of chipboard versus
plywood; bottles of glass or of such plastics as PET, polypropylene, or polyethylene; and beverage
cans of aluminum or steel.
The customer group being served is a key dimension. Automobile parts manufacturers, for example,
may choose to serve either the original equipment manufacture (OEM) market or the automotive
aftermarket, or both. One competitor may focus on serving urban markets while another serves rural
markets.
Identifying Potential Competitors
Depending on the purposes of the competitive analysis, it may also be important to identify potential
competitors. The process starts by identifying firms for whom the various barriers to entry to the
industry are low or easily surmountable. These may include the following:
 Technology: Firms which possess the technologies necessary to operate in an industry represent
one source of potential competitors. Analysis of patent activity frequently signals intentions well
prior to actual entrance.
 Market access: In businesses where market access is a key factor for success, firms with that access
frequently attempt to leverage it by acquiring additional product lines to be sold in that channel or to
 those customers.
 Reputation and image: Brand extension strategies are based on the use of a firm's reputation in
one product area to leverage its entry into another. Clairol used its reputation in hair coloring to enter
into the hair dryer business.
 Operating knowledge and skills: Regional competitors in a business often expand geographically.
Entenmann's Bakeries moved into Florida and Midwestern markets from their original Northeastern base,
similar to the path taken by Thomas's English Muffins. Folger's coffee was originally a regional brand on
the West Coast until purchased by Procter & Gamble which expanded its distribution nationwide.
Identifying Competitors at the Firm Level
The concept of interfirm rivalry extends beyond the product/market level. Competition can also occur
as firms use related resources to bear on individual product/market level rivalry. The theory of
multimarket competition describes those situations in which firms compete against each other in
multiple markets.
The strategic group approach to identifying competitors is based on the differences in firms' strategies
for competing in an industry. As such, it is a more general concept than the business definition
approach. Like the business definition approach, the concept is intuitively appealing and
understandable. For example, a hypothetical industry may be composed of three strategic groups:
1. A set of large firms pursuing a strategy of low-cost production of a full line of standardized
products through mass-market outlets;
2. Another set of firms whose strategy emphasizes high-quality, differentiated, and branded products
sold through specialty shops;
Competitive Blind Spots
Much competitive information is bounded by the assumptions that managers’ have with respect to
their industry and these assumptions may lead to blind spots. The effect of such blind spots may
cause the strategist to not recognize the significance of events, interpret them inappropriately, or see
them only slowly.
1.Misjudging Industry Boundaries. Too often firms define their industry around their current
products, customer groups, and geographies blinding themselves to adjacent competitors which
subsequently enter their current space.
2. Poor Identification of Competitors. Strategists frequently focus on only the largest and most well-
known companies to the exclusion of other viable competitors – those potential competitors noted
earlier in this chapter.
3. Overemphasis on Competitors’ Visible Competence. Competitor analysis often focuses on
competitors’ hard assets and technology skills and ignore equally potent capabilities such as logistics,
 product design, or human resources.
4. Emphasis on Where, Not How to Compete. Strategists too often assume that competitors’
strategies will shift only incrementally to the exclusion of radical repositioning in how they could
compete.
5. Faulty Assumptions about Competitors. Prisoners of assumptions about competitors – the
overuse of stereotypes – cause strategists to misjudge competitors’ competences and competitive
advantages.

4.6Becoming a resource
Having the right set of software tools to manage data insights, content and digital marketing
is essential! Without the right ones, you won't be able to create a strategy which reaches target
customers and follower them through the customer journey - giving you insights into
customer journeys, personas, conversion rate optimization and many more digital metrics
essential to staying ahead of competitors.
The digital tools we recommend will be categorized into our essential toolkits:

1. Search Engine Optimization: Organic search

2. Paid Search: AdWords

3. Analytics

4. Social Media Marketing (PR and influencer)

5. Email Marketing / Marketing Automation

6. Content Marketing

The aim is to provide you with a list of the multitude of different tools available and a comparison
of features for various industries, products or services. If used correctly, they can help streamline
your digital marketing effectiveness.

Search Engine Optimization: Organic search

There are many free and paid premium tools available to help improve and guide your SEO tasks.
It's vital to consider both on-page and off-page SEO techniques to optimize your copy for search
rankings. There are 6 types of SEO tools:
• Audience insights (which is covered later)

• Analytical tools (which is covered later)

• Keyword analysis

• Rank checking

• Site crawling

• Backlink analysis

Keyword analysis and customer search analysis

1. Google Keyword Planner - Google offers a range of different tools and analytical platforms to
keep data analysists happy - they are never without tools which help you plan, manage and
optimize SEM strategies. Keyword Planner can be located within your AdWords dashboard
under 'tools'. You can still use it even if you don't invest in AdWords. This is a great tool which
allows you see the average monthly search volume for keywords and your average organic
position for it. It also allows you to filter keywords by location and set parameters for Google or
Google and search partners.

2. Google Trends - A good tool for understanding seasonal content. It also displays results in a
more visual way but presents much simpler results than Keyword Planner. It shows interest in
keywords and search queries, but doesn't give you the exact number of searches or your organic
position. It is definitely worth having with Keyword Planner, but I wouldn't recommend only
using Trends.

3. SEMrush - a free or paid tool which has features such as seeing keywords your competitors
are ranking, the value of keywords, and the landing page for each keyword. This tool gives you a
great insight into keyword research, a vital stage in planning your SEO strategy.

Rank checking

1. Google Search Console - this does more than rank checking! This gives you a view of your
site via the 'backdoor'. Check your search appearance and how your amp pages are performing,
as well as links to your site and crawl errors.

2. Moz Pro Rank Tracker - Moz Pro tracks selected rankings data over time to see which
efforts are making the most impact as well as schedule automated reports to stay informed on
changes. This is compatible with the major search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
 3. Advanced Web Tracking (AWR) - This allows you to view your
rankings daily, weekly or on demand. You can access reports from any
device. However, it also offers a plethora of other useful services like
localization, Developer API, and even social media exposure.

Site crawling

1. Google Search Console

2. Screamingfrog - Not only does screamingfrog crawl for broken links (404s) it also offers an
SEO crawling feature called SEO spider. This crawls website links, images, CSS, and script
from an SEO perspective and reports on how SEO friendly your pages are.

3. Yoast - a very useful and FREE (or freemium) WordPress plugin which analyses page copy
in a traffic light signal basis for how SEO friendly the copy is based on keyword density, alt-
attributes, SEO titles and Meta descriptions, slug etc. It cannot guarantee ranking, as it in no
way affects search engine algorithms, but gives a great estimate of how well your copy is
written based on your keyword. This is great to use as a guided SEO editor whilst you write and
makes you aware of key on-page SEO techniques you should be utilizing.

Backlink analysis

1. Buzzsumo - Not available on its free version, the backlink tracker allows you to identify
who links to your competitors and analyze their most shared backlinks. With Buzzumo you can
also see your social share for each URL, your most shared content on social and find influencers.

2. Majestic Backlink History Checker - This is a great premium tool. This allows marketers to
see the number of backlinks their site has for their domains, subdomains, and even individual
URLs. They track, over time, the number of backlinks so you can see in a visual graph the
volume of backlinks you receive. you can also compare competing domains.

Analytics

Having the right set of analytics tools is vital - a good analysis tool will give you all the data you
need to know about campaigns that you're running, projects and other key metrics for your
company's all-round performance. They can also give your valuable insight into your customers'
behaviour patterns.
1. Google Analytics - you'll find that unless companies use paid
analytical tools such as Adobe, then you'll certainly have a Google
Analytics account. There is a premium version, but for $150,000 per year.

2. Kissmetrics - This allows segmented conversion tracking, reporting on individual

registered users and simple retargeting options through promotional banners.

Social Media Publishing

1. Buffer - We use Buffer at Smart Insights as it allows us to schedule in posts across LinkedIn,
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram. It has a feature for most popular content that
allows you to 'rebuffer' and share again.

2. IFTTT - This automation tool allows you to connect your social media accounts together.
For example, posting a picture on your Instagram will mean IFTTT automatically posts the
native image to your Twitter, or Facebook depending on how you've set it up. It's great for
keeping all your content aligned on various channels.

Content marketing management

1. WordPress - a free and open-source content management system based on PHP and
MySQL. This is a great content management system to build your site.

2. Smartling - Smartling’s Translation Management Platform is an end-to-end solution for

digital content translation designed to simplify and streamline translation by eliminating 90% of
the manual processes and costs associated with localization. Smartling’s advanced technology
centralizes global content in the cloud and integrates seamlessly with any tech stack to provide
visibility through a centralized workplace and deploy flexible workflows that enable team
efficiency and ensure translation accuracy.

3. Trello - Trello is easy and simple to use and makes organizing content much more efficient.
We have lists for different campaign content, which we assign to internal team members to
remind them of content that needs writing. It's a great way to organize and distribute content to
team members and keep track of ideas.

Marketing automation tools

Email service providers and marketing automation services include:

1. GetResponse - GetResponse offers email marketing, webinars,
landing page creation and marketing automation. Their email marketing
services allows businesses to set up auto-responders, advanced analytics,
a/b testing, and forms. You can also plan and build individual customer
journeys through their marketing automation, with automation segmentation, basket abandonment,
and web event tracking.

2. DataBowl - Operating as a standalone data management platform, or easily integrating with

your existing system, DataBowl generates, runs and automates B2C marketing campaigns from
conception through to completion. Ensuring international, on-demand monitoring of accuracy,
quality and performance, alongside the eradication of fraudulent data.

UX and page insights tools

Making sure your pages/site is accessible and provide a fast and clear user experience is essential
in keeping your audience on your site and browsing. Google has announced that they will now take
Page Speed into account when indexing mobile pages so having a fully optimized page that loads
fast is vital, not just for UX but for search ranking.

1. PageSpeed Insights - this is a simple tool provided by Google which shows the page speed
of your site / URLs (and your competitors) - if it is slow they also offer insights into how to
improve your page speed.

4.7 Content duplication

Duplicate content is content that appears on more than one online location, meaning
different websites. If you publish your own content in more than one place, you have duplicate
content. If you copy someone else’s content onto your site or if they publish yours on their
site, that’s duplicate content.
 Search engines can have a difficult time determining which content is more relevant to a

query in the search engine when content is too similar. The goal of search engines is to give users

the best results possible when they search for a particular term. Google and other search engines

may choose to exclude duplicate content from their search engine queries.

Some Causes of Duplicate Content

In many cases, the use of duplicate content is not intentional or intended to be

malicious. Google refers to duplicate content as blocks of text that are identical or “appreciably

similar” within or across domains. Examples of non-malicious duplicate content include store item

descriptions and printer-only versions of web pages.

Deliberate duplication of content is another matter. When the same content is used on

multiple domains in an attempt to increase traffic or manipulate search engine rankings, it can be

frustrating for people who are attempting to search for information and end up getting the same

content in multiple places. This is why search engines do their best to discourage this practice.

Using Google to check for Duplicate Content

One quick way to check if a page may be considered duplicate is by copying around ten

words from the start of a sentence and then pasting it with quotes into Google. This is actually

Google’s recommended way to check.

If you test this for a page on your website, you would expect to see only your webpage to show

up and ideally with no other results.

If other websites show as well as your site, Google hints that it thinks the original source

is the result it shows first. If this isn’t your website, you may have a duplicate content issue.
Free Tools to Check for Duplicate Content

When you are writing your content, you may unintentionally make your content too

similar to already-published content. It’s always a good idea to double check everything you

write using plagiarism checkers to make sure your content is viewed as unique.

Copyscape – This tool can quickly check the content that you have written against already

published content in a matter of seconds. The comparison tool will highlight content that shows up

as duplicate, and it will let you know what percentage of your content matches already-published

content.

Plagspotter – This tool can identify duplicate pages of content across the web. It’s a great tool for

finding plagiarists who have stolen your content. It also allows you to automatically monitor your

URLs on a weekly basis to identify duplicate content.

Duplichecker – This tool quickly checks the originality of the content you are planning to post on

your site. Registered users can do up to 50 searches per day.

Siteliner – This is a great tool that can check your entire site once a month for duplicate content. It

can also check for broken links and identifies pages that are most prominent to search engines.

Smallseotools – A variety of SEO tools are available, including a plagiarism checker that identifies

fragments of identical content.

Check for Plagiarism

Premium plagiarism checkers come with the ability to check for duplicate content using

advanced algorithms. They give you the peace of mind of knowing your work won’t be attributed

to someone who didn’t write it.

Premium plagiarism tools usually offer reports that can verify proof of originality. Future

implications that your work is not original can be contradicted with these reports that can be saved

in a PDF format.
Grammarly – Their premium tool offers both a plagiarism checker and a check for grammar, word

choice, and sentence structure.

Plagium – Offers a free quick search or a premium deep search.

Plagiarismcheck.org – Detects exact matches and paraphrased text.

Has Your Content Been Scraped?

The content on your website should be completely original, and the above tools can help you to

make sure you have not inadvertently made your content too similar to content that appears on

someone else’s website.

The other reason to continually check for duplicate content is there are websites out there who

intentionally steal content from someone else’s blog to use on their own.

Ways to Catch Content Scrapers

Using premium plagiarism tools on a regular basis can help you locate content that you have

written on someone else’s site. There are a few other options to catch content that has been

scraped.

Trackbacks in Wordpress may show up in spam if you use Askimet. When your content

always includes links to some of your other posts, you may be able to find content scrapers this

way.

Protecting Content with DMCA

You have the copyright to any original content that you publish on your site. One way of protecting

yourself is to place a DMCA badge on your site. The DMCA states that they will do a takedown at

no charge if your content is stolen while protected with one of their badges.

4.8 Content verticals

Vertical content is content that appeals to a business niche. Verticals are major categories or

themes near the top of a brand hierarchy. Vertical content involves the creation of highly
relevant messaging for your intended audience. Rather than casting a wide net, vertical

content addresses specific goals and needs within a niche market.

Everybody is creating content.

This year the number of bloggers is expected to reach 31.7 million… in the United States. On social,
you’re not only competing with influencers, you’re also competing with “petfluencers.” Like
JiffPom, the weird miniature teddy bear dog with 9.8 million Instagram followers.
People are endlessly distracted and attention is divided. Having a content strategy isn’t enough
anymore. You need to discover a deeper content connection, which is where the content marketing
hierarchy lends support.
A content hierarchy is a method and structure for organizing your brand and marketing
content.
It looks like this…

1. Core
2. Vertical
3. Hub
4. Franchise
5. Campaign
6. Pillar
7. Ladder
8. Skyscraper
9. Foundational
10. Asset
11. Element

In case you missed the overview of content level No. 1 core content… pause, read that article, then
proceed with this one. Today we’re covering vertical content to help you fully develop your content
niche then execute accordingly.
What is vertical content?
Vertical content is a piece of content that appeals to a business niche. Verticals are major categories
or themes near the top of a brand hierarchy. Vertical content involves the creation of highly relevant
messaging for your intended audience. Rather than casting a wide net, vertical content addresses
specific goals and needs within a niche market.
Vertical content is the second content level in the top tier of a content hierarchy, just behind core
content. Both core content and vertical content are closely aligned with business goals. Verticals can
be industries, company sizes, or demographics.
Some marketers refer to verticals as “channels,” usually in the context of major media organizations
— think television and radio, not distribution channels like social and search. To sync up content
creators and strategists, be crystal clear about the definition of content verticals for your brand.

Horizontal vs. vertical content

The easiest way to grasp the definition of vertical content is to understand what vertical content is
not… horizontal content.
Simply think about the shapes of buildings, horizontal versus vertical — horizontal is wide and
vertical is narrow. With horizontal content, you create content that has mass appeal (wide range,
larger audience). With vertical content, you create content for a select few (narrow focus, smaller
audience).
Here are several solid points from Corporate Finance Institute about operating in horizontal markets:

• A business that operates in a horizontal market has a broad and diverse set of customers.
• Their products are versatile so they can serve a large consumer base across multiple industries
that have a wide range of needs.
• Traditional methods such as billboards and television ads are sometimes a much more
effective strategy for selling their products.
• The main disadvantage of operating in a horizontal market is having a marketing strategy that
is not targeted, which can result in lower profit margins as compared to a vertical market.

Why vertical content matters

At this point, you might be thinking that using this horizontal and vertical content terminology is old
school. Even if these terms aren’t this month’s content marketing buzzwords, they still make sense
for today’s content marketers.
When you work within the wonderful confines of content verticals, you challenge yourself to refine
messaging rather than blast it into some random person’s face like an annoying TV commercial.
3 Ways to apply content strategies to vertical content

Vertical content translates to personalized content, which gives you a competitive edge as your competitors
succumb to the “spray and pray” approach. When applying content strategies to vertical content, messaging
success depends on analytical research and human observation.
1. Analytics
Big surprise, we’re starting with analytics. Google Analytics will certainly give you unbeatable insights
into search performance, behaviour patterns, and top-performing content.
Follower demographics for Superneat Marketing by industry:
Follower demographics for Superneat Marketing by company size:

2. Personas

Personas technically fall into the realm of core content, which sits at the very top
of the content marketing hierarchy. Often brands will diligently work out their
brand messaging foundations — like mission and vision statements — but
personas somehow fall off.

Example of female persona for Clear Voice:

3. Customers

Persona development is an important step in creating relevant vertical content.

However, without the external perspectives of your customers and prospects,
there is a high probability that your team doesn’t really get what your niche
audience is aiming to achieve.
Branded content examples of vertical content
You’re all jazzed up about creating vertical content. Now you need inspiration on how to
reach that niche audience through various content interactions.
One of our clients at Superneat Marketing is RFPIO, an RFP response software provider.
Their platform helps business professionals who respond to RFPs, security questionnaires, and a
multitude of other complex documents. Their solution is pretty specific, but we reach their niche
audience by creating fluid vertical content experiences.

4.8 Sitemaps

A sitemap is a file that lists all of the pages of a website and how they’re related to each other.

Sitemaps can be lists of pages, media or files on a website. Your website may have one sitemap for

your pages, one sitemap for your blog posts, one sitemap for your images and so on. Sitemaps

make it easier to find all of a website’s pages quickly and in one singular location and are normally

saved in an XML or HTML format.

What Is an XML Sitemap?

XML, or Extensible Markup Language, is a format for encoding information in an easy-to-

read format for search engines.
An XML sitemap looks similar to a plain list of URLs but with some additional information
added in. These are the tags <changefreq> (signifying how frequently the content of a page
updates) and <priority> (which is a hint to website crawlers on a URL’s level of importance).
The more frequently a page changes, the more frequently it must be crawled. Using
the <changefreq> tag in a sitemap helps to inform Google’s website crawlers — Googlebot — that
a page should be crawled as frequently as possible so that any new content is found and submitted
to Google’s index.
The <priority> tag helps to highlight which pages are the most important to your website.
The priority number system goes from 0-1 in .5 increments. The closer to 1, the higher the priority
level for a page.
When a website has thousands of pages, it’s important to highlight which pages Google
should crawl first. This is because Google will only crawl a certain number of pages each time it
visits a website. If an important page, such as a high-value service page, has a low priority level
(0.1, for example) then Google may not re-visit that page and detect any improvements a page has
had for hours, days or sometimes several weeks.
The higher the change frequency and priority level, the more frequently that page is
crawled.
Lower value pages, such as a website’s privacy policy page, may have no change frequency
at all and may instead list a <lastmod> (last modified) tag which will include the date (in YYYY-
MM-DD format).

What Is an HTML Sitemap?

HTML sitemaps are a visual representation of a website’s site structure. Like an XML sitemap, it
lists all of the most important pages of a website but in a more human-friendly way.

HTML sitemaps make it easier to find a page when it is difficult to in a website’s main navigation
menu or within internal links.

HTML sitemaps are not as common as XML sitemaps, as they aren’t well-known by casual
internet users, and for websites with thousands of pages, they can be near impossible to maintain.
Do I Need a Sitemap?

Every website should have a sitemap. Sitemaps are the perfect format for handling and
maintaining URLs, especially when you’re handling tens-of-thousands of URLs, like an online
eCommerce store with thousands of products.
Because you can create multiple sitemaps for a website, you can segment and manage
sections of your website individually.
The most common split between sitemaps on websites is a page_sitemap.xml file and
post_sitemap.xml file (due to the number of websites built using WordPress and the Yoast plugin).
This allows you to review your website’s pages and posts separately, which is useful, as the blogs
of websites are typically more frequently updated than pages and they total larger numbers (10
pages versus 100 blog posts, for example).

How to Create a Sitemap

Some websites come with sitemaps automatically built as part of their system. The
biggest example of this is the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), which has an
automatically updating sitemap file built-in.
To make the WordPress sitemap easier to handle, some people use the Yoast SEO plugin
for WordPress, which segments pages, posts and so on.
Each CMS has its own sitemap management system, although some systems may need a
plugin.

Follow these instructions to create a sitemap using Screaming Frog.

Step 1 – Crawl Your Website Using Screaming Frog

Enter your website’s domain address into the toolbar and press “Start”. Depending on the size
of your website, this may take some time as every page will need to be discovered and crawled.

Step 2 – Remove Any Unwanted URLs

Once the crawl is complete, review the complete list of URLs and look for any you do not want to
include in your sitemap. If you have URLs you’d like to exclude, right-click these and select
“Remove”. If you hold the Shift or Ctrl button (on Windows), you can select multiple URLs to
remove at once.

Step 3 – Open the Sitemap Menu

Open the Sitemap menu on the toolbar and select “XML Sitemap”. A menu will open with
several options. The default options will be to include only Status 200 URLs within the
sitemap, but you can choose to include pages with noindex tags, paginated pages or those with
301 redirects.
Step 4 – Save Your Sitemap

Once you have finished making your edits, click the “Next” button and a Save menu will
open. The default file type will be XML.
Step 5 – Upload Your Sitemap
Now that you have your new sitemap, you’ll need to upload this to your website.
Unfortunately, we’re unable to advise on the best way to do this, as every website’s CMS will
differ.
 Unit-III: Social media in business

PART-A: Wikipedia, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google – advertising, analytics,

ads visibility, bulk emailing essentials, integration of social media buttons into business
website.
PART-B : Campaign budgeting, cost control, resource planning, strengthen your brand,
Generate leads, Get more visibility online, Connect with your audience, link exchange,
registering with directories, data visualization.

3.1 Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an online free-content encyclopedia helping to create a world where

everyone can freely share and access all available knowledge. It is supported by
the Wikimedia Foundation and consists of freely editable content
It is supported by the wikimedia foundation & consist of freely editable content .
Since its created on jan 15, 2001. has grown into worlds largest reference website
attracting 1.7 billion unique devices visitor monthly as Nov 2021.
Wikipedia is a free, open content online encyclopedia created through the
collaborative effort of a community of users known as Wikipedians. Anyone registered
on the site can create an article for publication; registration is not required to edit articles.
A wiki is a hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own
audience directly. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the
project and could be either open to the public or limited to use with in organization for
maintaining its internal knowledge base.
A wiki enables communities of editors and contributors to write documents
collaboratively. All that people require to contribute is a computer, Internet access, a web
browser, and a basic understanding of a simple markup language (e.g. MediaWiki markup
language).
 A single page in a wiki website is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire
collection of pages, which are usually well-interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A
wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing, and searching through information.
A wiki allows non-linear, evolving, complex, and networked text, while also allowing for
editor argument, debate, and interaction regarding the content and formatting
Characteristic
Editing
"Wikitext" redirects here. For the Wikipedia help page, see Help:Wikitext.
Source editing
Some wikis have an Edit button or link directly on the page being viewed if
the user has permission to edit the page. This can lead to a text-based editing page
where participants can structure and format wiki pages with a simplified markup
language, sometimes known as wikitext, wiki markup or wikicode (it can also lead
to a WYSIWYG editing page; see the paragraph after the table below). For example,
starting lines of text with asterisks could create a bulleted list.
Layout consistency
Wikis have favored plain-text editing, with fewer and simpler conventions
than HTML for indicating style and structure. Although limiting access to HTML
and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) of wikis limits user ability to alter the structure
and formatting of wiki content, there are some benefits.
Visual editing
Wikis can also make WYSIWYG editing available to users, usually through a
JavaScript control that translates graphically entered formatting instructions into
the corresponding HTML tags or wikitext. In those implementations, the markup of
a newly edited, marked-up version of the page is generated and submitted to the
server transparently, shielding the user from this technical detail. An example of
this is the VisualEditor on Wikipedia.
Version history
Some wikis keep a record of changes made to wiki pages; often, every version
of the page is stored. This means that authors can revert to an older version of the
page should it be necessary because a mistake has been made, such as the content
accidentally being deleted or the page has been vandalized to include offensive or
malicious text or other inappropriate content.
Edit summary
"Edit summary" redirects here. For the Wikipedia help page, see Help:Edit
summary. Many wiki implementations, such as MediaWiki, the software that
powers Wikipedia, allow users to supply an edit summary when they edit a page.
This is a short piece of text summarizing the changes they have made
Navigation
Within the text of most pages, there are usually many hypertext links to other
pages within the wiki. This form of non-linear navigation is more "native" to a wiki
than structured/formalized navigation schemes. Users can also create any number
of index or table-of-contents pages, with hierarchical categorization or whatever
form of organization they like
Linking and creating pages
Links are created using a specific syntax, the so-called "link pattern".
Originally, most wikis[citation needed] used CamelCase to name pages and create
links. These are produced by capitalizing words in a phrase and removing the spaces
between them (the word "CamelCase" is itself anexample). While CamelCase
makes linking easy, it also leads to links in a form that deviates from the standard
spelling.
Trust and security

Controlling changes

Wikis are generally designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct
mistakes, rather than making it difficult to make them. Thus, while wikis are very
open, they provide a means to verify the validity of recent additions to the body of
pages.

Trustworthiness and reliability of content

Critics of publicly editable wiki systems argue that these systems could be easily
tampered with by malicious individuals ("vandals") or even by well-meaning but
unskilled users who introduce errors into the content, while proponents maintain that the
community of users can catch such malicious or erroneous content and correct it

Security

The open philosophy of wiki – allowing anyone to edit content – does not ensure
that every editor's intentions are well-mannered. For example, vandalism (changing wiki
content to something offensive, adding nonsense, maliciously removing encyclopedic
content, or deliberately adding incorrect information, such as hoax information)

3.2 FACEBOOK

Facebook, American online social network service that is part of the company Meta
Platforms. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin
Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, all of whom were students at Harvard University.
Their Mission is “Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build
community and bring the world closer together.
Facebook became the largest social network in the world, with nearly three billion
users as of 2021, and about half that number were using Facebook every day. The
company’s headquarters are in Menlo Park, California. The attractiveness of Facebook stems
in part from cofounder Zuckerberg’s insistence from the very beginning that members be
transparent about who they are;

users are forbidden from adopting false identities. The company’s management argued
that transparency is necessary for forming personal relationships, sharing ideas and
information, and building up society as a whole. It also noted that the bottom-up, peer-to-
peer connectivity among Facebook users makes it easier for businesses to connect their
products with consumers.
Facebook allows you to send messages and post status updates to keep in touch with
friends and family. You can also share different types of content, like photos and links. But
sharing something on Facebook is a bit different from other types of online
communication. Unlike email or instant messaging, which are relatively private, the
things you share on Facebook are more public, which means they'll usually be seen by
many other people

3.3 Instagram
Instagram is a free, online photo-sharing application
and social network platform that was acquired by
Facebook in 2012.
Instagram allows users to edit and upload photos and short videos through a mobile
app. Users can add a caption to each of their posts and use hashtags and location-based
geotags to index these posts and make them searchable by other users within the app. Each
post by a user appears on their followers' Instagram feeds and can also be viewed by the
public when tagged using hashtags or geotags. Users also have the option of making their
profile private so that only their followers can view their posts.
Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform in the world at present

• It has over a billion users worldwide (June 2018)

• Over 60% of users log in daily, making the platform second only to Facebook in
terms of engagement
• The platform is estimated to receive over 100 million new image uploads per day
• Users engage via comments or likes and the platform produces over 10,000
engagements every second
Instagram has huge penetration with the tech savvy Millennial audience (18-30)
who are also the top online spending demographic.
Health, beauty and fashion are dominant categories within Instagram but travel and food
are also very popular.
Until recently Instagram was completely untouched by advertising formats. A
user’s Instagram timeline is only populated with images posted by other users they have
purposely elected to ‘follow’. Thus the platform is seen as one of the most controlled
and non-invasive social media platforms around. That said, despite being the least
invasive, Instagram has a very personal connection with its users. It’s often said to be a
highly motivational and inspiring platform within which personal discovery is
seamlessly promoted.
Instagram has added video functionality to their platform within the last 12
months. This allows for videos (with sound) of up to 15 seconds to be used in place of
an image. As a brand, this means you can use Instagram with a greater range of
creativity. You can also use it to build a more personal connection with users. Some
Instagram users have earned celebrity status similar to that enjoyed by YouTube
Vloggers (Video Bloggers) showing just how powerful the platform can be and why it’s
worth including in your social media marketing plan.

History of Instagram
Instagram was started in San Francisco by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who
initially tried creating a platform similar to Foursquare but then turned their attention
exclusively to photo sharing. The word Instagram is an amalgam of "instant camera" and
"telegram."
The iOS app was released through the iTunes App Store on Oct. 6, 2010, and the
Android app was released on April 3, 2012. The platform's popularity skyrocketed, with
the company reporting more than 40 million active users just two years after launch. This
caught the attention of Facebook, which officially purchased Instagram for $1 billion in
the summer of 2012.

Editing tools and features

Instagram provides a wide range of digital filters that can be applied to users' photos,
including ones that add a vintage or faded look. Other editing features include Lux, an
effect that lightens shadows, darkens highlights and increases contrast, and photo-tuning
tools allow users to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, structure,
straightness and tint. A manual tilt shift and vignette effect can also be added to photos.

In 2017, Instagram rolled out a feature that allows users to post multiple photos or
videos at once, presented in a carousel format.

3.4 LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business

community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document
networks of people they know and trust professionally.
A LinkedIn member’s profile page, which emphasizes skills, employment history
and education, has professional network news feeds and a limited number of customizable
modules. Basic membership for LinkedIn is free. Network members are called
“connections.” Unlike other free social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter,
LinkedIn requires connections to have a pre-existing relationship
LinkedIn was co-founded by Reid Hoffman, a former Executive Vice President in
charge of business and corporate development for PayPal. The site, which was launched
in May 2003, currently has over 300 million members from 200 countries, representing
170 industries. According to Reid Hoffman, 27 percent of LinkedIn subscribers are
recruiters. LinkedIn allows members (both workers and employers) to create profiles and
connect with each other in an online social network which may represent real-world
professional relationships. Members can invite anyone (whether an existing member or
not) to become a connection. LinkedIn can also be used to organize offline events, join
groups, write articles, publish job postings, post photos and videos, and more.

Platform and features

User profile network
The basic functionality of LinkedIn allows users to create profiles, which for employees typically
consist of a curriculum vitae describing their work experience, education and training, skills, and a
personal photo. Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates. Users can find jobs, people
and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network. Users can save jobs that
they would like to apply for. Users also have the ability to follow different companies .
Embedded in profile
In October 2008, LinkedIn enabled an "applications platform" which allows external online
services to be embedded within a member's profile page.
Mobile
A mobile version of the site was launched in February 2008 and made available in six lan-
guages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. [99] In January 2011, LinkedIn ac-
quired CardMunch, a mobile app maker that scans business cards and converts into contacts
Groups
LinkedIn also supports daily the formation of interest groups. In 2012 there were 1,248,019
such groups whose membership varies from 1 to 744,662. [104][105] Groups support a limited form of dis-
cussion area, moderated by the group owners and managers
Knowledge graph
LinkedIn maintains an internal knowledge graph of entities (people, organizations, groups) that
helps it connect everyone working in a field or at an organization or network. This can be used to
query the neighborhood around each entity to find updates that might be related to it
Usage
Personal branding
LinkedIn is particularly well-suited for personal branding which, according to Sandra Long, en-
tails "actively managing one's image and unique value" to position oneself for career opportuni-
ties. LinkedIn has evolved from being a mere platform for job searchers into a social network which
allows users a chance to create a personal brand.
Job seeking
LinkedIn is widely used by job seekers and employers. According to Jack Meyer the site has
become the "premier digital platform" for professionals to network online.In Australia, which has ap-
proximately twelve million working professionals, ten million of them are on LinkedIn, according to
Anastasia Santoreneos, suggesting that the probability was high that one's "future employer is probably
on the site

3.5 Google – advertising

Google Ads is Google's online advertising program. Through Google Ads, you can create online
ads to reach people exactly when they're interested in the products and services that you offer.
 Google Ads is a product that you can use to promote your business, help sell products or services,
raise awareness, and increase traffic to your website.

Google offers paid advertisements which appear in search results on google.com with the use of
Google Ads or advertisements that appear on other websites through the Display Network and Google’s
AdSense program.

Below is an example of a Google search engine results page (SERP). The sponsored results, or
ads, are denoted with an “Ad” label. There are two sections of paid Google ads, one above the
“natural” or organic results and one at the bottom of the results page.

Google Ads Appear

The Google Ads auction is focused around keywords – advertisers choose a list of
keywords to target that are relevant to their business offerings, the words that people are
most likely to use when searching for their product. They then bid on these keywords,
basing each bid on how much they are willing to pay for a Google user to click on their
ad.

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is a paid online advertising platform offered by Google.

Originally called Google Adwords, the search engine company rebranded the service as Google Ads in
2018.
The way it works remains essentially the same: When users search a keyword, they get the results of
their query on a search engine results page (SERP). Those results can include a paid advertisement that
targeted that keyword.

Google Ads work

Google Ads operates under a pay-per-click (PPC) model. That means marketers
target a specific keyword on Google and make bids on the keyword — competing with
others also targeting the keyword.
The bids you make are “maximum bids” — or the maximum you’re willing to pay for
an ad.
Marketers have three options for their bids:
1. Cost-per-click (CPC). How much you pay when a user clicks on your ad.
2. Cost-per-mille (CPM). How much you pay per 1000 ad impressions.
3. Cost-per-engagement (CPE). How much you pay when a user performs a spe-
cific action on your ad (signs up for a list, watch a video, etc).

Types of Google Ads

Google offers a variety of different campaign types that you can use:

Search campaign
Display campaign
Shopping campaign
Video campaign
App campaign
1. Search Ad Campaigns
Search ads are text ads that are displayed on Google results pages. For example, here are the
search campaign ads for the keyword “laptops”:
2. Display Ad Campaigns
Google has a network of websites in various industries and with an array of audiences that opt
in to display Google Ads, known as the Google Display Network. The benefit to the website owner is
that they’re paid per click or impression on the ads. The benefit to advertisers is that they can get their
content in front of audiences that are aligned with their personas.

3. Video Ad Campaigns
Video ads are displayed before or after (and sometimes in the middle of) YouTube videos. Remem-
ber, YouTube is a search engine, too. The right keywords will place you in front of a video, disrupting
the user’s behavior just enough to grab their attention.

Here's a video advertisement that pops up in the middle of another video on how to tie a tie:
4. App Ad Campaigns
Google App Campaigns promote your mobile application through an ad displayed on Google Search
Network, YouTube, Google Play, Google Display Network, and more. You can run ads that encourage
your audience to install your app or, if they already use it, to take a certain action within your app.

3.6 Google analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service that provides statistics and basic analytical tools for
search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing purposes. The service is part of the Google Marketing
Platform and is available for free to anyone with a Google account.

Google Analytics is used to track website performance and collect visitor insights. It can help
organizations determine top sources of user traffic, gauge the success of their marketing activities and
campaigns, track goal completions (such as purchases, adding products to carts), discover patterns and
trends in user engagement and obtain other visitor information such as demographics. Small and me-
dium-sized retail websites often use Google Analytics to obtain and analyze various customer behavior
analytics, which can be used to improve marketing campaigns, drive website traffic and better retain
visitors.

Types of data

Google Analytics can provide businesses with multiple types of data for marketing purposes.

1. User acquisition data

2. User behavior data

User acquisition data: provides insight into how customers are arriving at the website. Customers
may come from a variety of channels, such as paid search engine results, unpaid search engine re-
sults, social media links or simply typing in the URL. Understanding user acquisition data is critical
for maximizing website traffic

User behavior data: shows what customers are doing on the website, and how they are engaging
with the site. This includes how long they spend on each page, how many pages they visit, and if
they engage with videos and graphics. This data can be used to create web layouts that better connect
visitors with the content they are looking for, leading to a more effective user experience..

How does Google Analytics work?

Google Analytics acquires user data from each website visitor through the use of page tags. A Ja-
vaScript page tag is inserted into the code of each page. This tag runs in the web browser of each visitor,
collecting data and sending it to one of Google's data collection servers. Google Analytics can then
generate customizable reports to track and visualize data such as the number of users, bounce rates, av-
erage session durations, sessions by channel, page views, goal completions and more.

The page tag functions as a web bug or web beacon, to gather visitor information. However, because it
relies on cookies, the system can't collect data for users who have disabled them.
When a user visits the website, the code collects various data, including the HTTP request of the user,
the browser they use and the first-party cookies they agree for you to collect. This may sound compli-
cated, but essentially, this data is used to provide insight into user demographics and behaviours, such
as their language, location, age and gender. The code sends this data to Google Analytics, which ag-
gregates it into four levels:
 User Level (the actions of each user)
 Session Level (the individual visits)
 Pageview Level (the individual pages visited)
 Event Level (video views, button clicks and similar actions)

Metrics
Google Analytics at the most basic level will deliver a whole range of business benefits, including al-
lowing you to:
 Track and measure your website’s performance and adapt your digital marketing strategy ac-
cordingly
 Identify successful marketing activities and plough more resources into these, and weed out
campaigns that are not working and redirect resources elsewhere
 Plan an effective content marketing strategy by monitoring the success of individual blogs and
articles
 Segment your audience for more targeted marketing campaigns that focus on groups at differ-
ent stages of the buyer’s journey

 Users. A user is a unique or new visitor to the website.

 Bounce rate. The percentage of visitors who viewed only a single page. These visitors only
triggered a single request to the Google Analytics server.
  Sessions. The group of visitor interactions that happen in a 30-minute window of activity.

 Average session duration. How long on average each visitor stays on the site.

 Percentage of new sessions. The percentage of website visits that are first-time visits.

 Pages per session. The average number of page views per each session.

 Goal completions. The number of times visitors complete a specified, desirable action. This is
also known as a conversion.

 Page views. Total number of pages viewed.

3.7 Google ads visibility

Google Ads is a popular online advertising platform. It is useful in reaching your target audience,
but like everything related to Google, it is constantly evolving. As a result, even experienced marketers
can have some difficulty keeping up.

While there are excellent metrics to help you identify gaps in visibility and opportunities for growth, it
can be a bit difficult to determine precisely which metrics to use. Keep reading to review six metrics
we can use to find growth opportunities in search campaigns.
Active view
Active View is a technology on YouTube and certain Display Network websites and apps that
allows Google Ads to determine if your ad is viewable by potential customers. Active View metrics
can be used for Video and Display campaigns to help you better understand how often your ad appears
in a position on a webpage, device, or app that people can see.

viewable ad
Active View metrics have been created in compliance with industry standards for measuring
the viewability of online ads, as developed by the Media Rating Council (MRC). According to MRC
guidelines, the standard for measuring the viewability of ads are as follows:

• A display ad is counted as viewable when at least 50% of its area is visible on the
screen for at least 1 second.
• For large display ads of 242,500 pixels or more, the ad is counted as viewable when at least
30% of it’s area is visible for at least 1 second.
• A video ad is counted as viewable when at least 50% of its area is visible on the screen
while the video is playing for at least 2 seconds.
Active View metrics

• Measurable impr.- An impression is counted whenever your ad is served. Measurable

impressions represent the number of times your ad appeared in locations on websites or
apps that could be measured by Active View technology. Not all impressions are
measurable by Active View, as some factors may prevent the data from being captured.
This metric can help you understand how often your ad appeared in locations measured
by Active View.

• Viewable impr. - This metric shows the number of times your ad’s impressions were
considered viewable. An ad is counted as viewable if at least 50% of its area is visible for at
least 1 second for display ads, or at least 2 seconds for video ads. It can help you understand
how often your ad appeared where people could see it.
• Viewable rate - This is the viewability rate of your ad. It’s the percentage of time when
your ad appeared on sites or apps with Active View enabled and was viewable. This percentage
estimates how many of your measurable impressions were actually viewable to potential
customers.
• Measurable rate - Measurable impressions over total impressions represents the
percentage of your total impressions that were measured by Active View. Total impressions
include both measurable and non-measurable impressions. This metric can help you understand
how often your ad appeared in places that were able to be measured by Active View
technology.

• Non-measurable impr.- A non-measurable impression means that your ad was displayed on

sites, apps, or devices unable to capture Active View viewability information. This does not
mean that your ad was or was not seen. It just means that your ad appeared on websites, apps,
or devices that Active View was not able to measure.

• Non-viewable impr.- A non-viewable impression means that your ad did not have at least 50%
of its area displayed for at least 1 second for display ads, or at least 2 seconds for video ads

• Viewable CTR- Your viewable click-through rate (CTR) represents how often people click
your ad after it becomes viewable. This rate is equal to the number of clicks your ad receives
 divided by the number of times your ad becomes viewable on a website or app.

• Measurable cost- Your measurable cost is the total cost of all the impressions you received
that were measurable by Active View technology. This can help you understand how much of
your spend was on impressions that were measurable.

3.8 Bulk emailing essentials

Bulk email marketing is an email sent to large groups of people at once to advertise the
goods or services provided by a business or maintain a relationship with customers. When
done right, it allows us to increase the number of loyal clients and boost ROI.

Two Types of Bulk Emails

Legitimate bulk emails

When a business from which a person has procured service or product sends a reminder, it’s
a bulk email. It qualifies to be a legitimate bulk email if it meets the following requirements:

• The recipient consented to it.

• The email provides the “unsubscribe” button.

• The name of the business is clearly shown.

If bulk emails satisfy the above requirements, they become effective marketing channels for
the businesses that send them.

Unsolicited bulk emails

As the name suggests, these are emails sent to people without their permission. Apart from
that, other qualifying features for this type of marketing emails are:

• Absence of an unsubscribe link.

• Contain information that is not personalized.

Now, businesses ought to be very cautious with bulk email marketing to
avoid spamming their mailing lists. A valid email marketing campaign can be achieved by
using SendPulse. This service provides the necessary tools to create and automate bulk email
marketing tasks.

Benefits of Bulk Email Marketing

Allows real-time messaging

Given that marketing emails can be created fast, they allow marketers to send “day-of” emails
to ensure the timely promotion of a limited time particular or inform customers of reduced
stock

Enables marketers to send personalized messages

It is difficult for marketers to speak to their target customers in a personalized manner via radio,
television, or print advertisingWhy? Most of the marketing campaigns on these media are often
done in a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

Helps in mailing list segmentation

With bulk email marketing, it is also possible to segment the customer list into a smaller, more
effective one, and send out personalized emails. For example, a marketer can identify all
customers from say, Los Angeles, and then proceed to create an email marketing campaign

Offers information sharing

Bulk email marketing allows you to share advertising content. People can quickly forward an
email containing a piece of information or an enticing offer. In turn, this allows a brand to gain
advocates who further push the business within their networks.
Results in reduced overhead costs

Bulk email marketing can be done at an incredibly low overhead cost. For instance, there is no
need to hire marketing analysts, designers, and many employees. An excellent bulk email
marketing strategy only requires an active email marketing service such as SendPulse and a
competent marketer who can provide the right offers, content, and graphics to the relevant
customer list. So far, there is no marketing channel out there that offers a more
significant ROI than email marketing.

How to Do Bulk Email Marketing

Identify your target audience.Marketers should determine the demographic groups that are
most interested in the products and services their business offers. One can look at aspects such
as nationality, income level, education, age groups, gender, ethnicity, among other
demographic characteristics ahead of creating a bulk email campaign.

Focus on the benefits. Clearly describe what the customers stand to gain from a particular
brand. By highlighting the interests of consumers, a marketer can cause them to respond.

1. Be brief and to the point. A marketing email ought to be concise. Thus, the
reader should see the significant bits quickly enough to allow them to make a decision.

Give special discounts. Marketers should entice readers by giving special discounts that are
exclusive to them. For example, “We have a 20% discount just for you, if…”

1. Communicate the deadlines. Show the need for immediate response by

mentioning the date the offer expires. By doing this, customers will be kept from any
procrastination that, at times, leads to forgetting.

2. Provide communication channels. Give customers a chance to respond to your

email. For instance, a marketer can give a contact number, hyperlink, and so forth that
allows the potential customer to conveniently reach out to the company in case of any
inquiry.
3.9 Integration of social media buttons into business website.

Social media integration gives your audience more way to engage & interact with your brand.
You are creating more opportunities for them to share your content & promote services for you. It is easy
to do.

With the right tools you will be able to integration social media with your website, email, &
other channel

Guidelines for Integrate social media onto your website :

• Add social sharing link to your blog post

• Add social post to your website
• Create social login
• Add social sharing link to your footer
Way to integrate social media into your website:
Social media Icon :
First & most obvious step on the road int include placing visible social media button on
your site. Placement of your website is very important. There are certain location location that
individual are used to looking. You will want to sure that their placement is intuition.
Social share button :
Regardless of whether your website is pushing out blog posts or featuring products, you want
your content to be shareable so that visitors can easily post to their own social media accounts
directly from your website. “Share this” or “Add this” are examples of share buttons across e-
commerce websites with the possibility to see analytics of who and how your content is shared.
Social Login Plugins:
Incorporate a social sign-in to allow your visitors to sign into your e-commerce website
through one of their social media accounts. Research has shown that users prefer to bypass
the need to create a separate account for a website and sign in with a social login instead.
Social Live Feeds:
Social live feeds allow you to display your live activity from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
YouTube, or other social media accounts directly on your website. So, instead of merely
linking to these social media channels, you can show your current and recent social activity,
so your visitors can see, follow, and otherwise engage without leaving your website.
Social Assistance Account:
Customers not only appreciate, but often expect, immediacy. It has been shown that brands that
are able to offer immediate assistance not only have higher brand affinity, but customers are
more likely and willing to pay a higher price for their products and/or services.
Hashtags and Social Shoutouts:
Hashtags are an easy crossover between your social media and website. It is also a fantastic
way to solicit engagement, which is literally free advertising done by your customers for
you, in a way that is both authentic and organic.

3.10 Campaign budgeting

A marketing budget outlines all the money a business intends to spend on
marketing-related projects over the quarter or year. Marketing budgets can include
expenses such as paid advertising, sponsored web content, new marketing staff, a
registered blog domain, and marketing automation software.
Marketing budgets should be comprehensive and include all of the projects that
your team plans to develop in the short and long term. A marketing budget is more
complete than an advertising budget, because it includes all areas of marketing, not just
ad campaigns.
Marketing Budget for Small Business
Marketing budgets are especially important for small businesses. Small business
owners may lack the experience drawing up budgets; moreover, it's critical that these
companies keep costs as low and lean as possible as they scale.

Ironically, you need marketing to scale. Without it, it's hard to sell your products
and services. In addition to the budgeting templates provided below, check out some of
our free offers and courses to mitigate your company's marketing costs.

How much should a company spend on marketing?

Well, digital media makes up more than half of both U.S. and global advertising
spend. This includes initiatives that cater to audiences on desktop computers, search
engines, video streaming platforms, social media, and mobile devices.

Given the success marketers have seen in it, you might consider planning to
spend at least half of your marketing budget on some of these digital channels.

Marketing Costs
Marketing costs are all of the expenses a company incurs in order to sell, promote,
develop, and market its brand. These expenses can include advertising, software and
services, personnel, and content creation.
Marketing Cost Examples

1. Software
When it comes to digital and even print media, you may need software to create your
marketing campaigns or handle your daily processes. There’s a marketing tool for just
about any task you can think of, but they are generally broken down into the following
categories:
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Online advertising
• Social media
• Content creation and design

2. Freelancers
If you have a temporary campaign or want to test out a new marketing strategy, you
might want to hire a short-term freelancer before bringing on a full-timer. Reach out to
your network for recommendations or consider using a site like UpWork. Freelancers
typically charge an hourly rate, so be sure to examine your budget before hiring.

3. New Personnel
When you do hire full-time employees, you'll want to budget costs including their
computer, technology, benefits, and onboarding-related needs. According to research
from Zippia, the average cost of hiring a new employee is $4,425.

4. Advertising
Budget how much money you'll spend on paid opportunities such as physical ads, native
ads, sponsored content, search engine ads, and social media promotions.

5. Content Creation
When you create content such as videos, photos, or even blog posts, you'll need to put
paid time into it. Content marketing brings in 3X as many leads as traditional options,
so it’s worth dedicating funds to this area. Budget how much money will go into
creating this content so you can adjust accordingly based on its return on investment.
Marketing Budget Breakdown
Companies generally spend 7% to 10% of their overall company revenue on
marketing. According to a Gartner CMO survey, marketing budgets as a proportion of
company revenue dropped to 6.4% in 2021, down from 11% the previous year.

MARKET REVENUE
Allocation by Channel

How you allocate your budget per channel depends on your company’s particular
goals, so there is no hard and fast rule.
 FIG : MARKETING BUDGET
Paid Search Advertising
You’re probably familiar with the ads at the top of a Google results page that
show up above the list of search results. Those are a form of paid advertising called
pay-per-click (PPC). You can create and run ads on Google, and each time someone
clicks, you pay. The cost-per-click (CPC) can range anywhere from a few cents to a few
dollars. You can use Google’s keyword planner to help estimate costs.
How to Create a Marketing Budget
1. Know your buyer's journey.
Your buyer's journey is the steps your audience takes as they 'journey' from prospect to
paying customer. Knowing your buyer's journey allows you to understand how your
audience interacts with your marketing — and where to set your goals and budget to
better reach your customers.
2. Align your budget with your marketing goals.
What you spend and where you spend it will depend on what you're trying to
accomplish. So, when starting to create your marketing budget, make sure you're only
spending money on the things required by your current marketing goals — goals set
based on your audience and their journey from prospect to customer.

3. Beware of hidden marketing costs.

One of the great advantages to having and maintaining a budget spreadsheet is that it
helps you avoid those end-of-the-quarter or end-of-the-year freak-outs when you
realize, "Whoa … what did I spend all that money on?"

In many cases, unanticipated costs can force marketers to fork over cash that they didn't
plan on spending.

4. Remember where your priorities lie.

Marketing is overflowing with add-ons and extras, upsells, and "premium" versions.
One of the best ways to assess what's nice to have versus what's absolutely necessary is
to (you guessed it) organize all of your expenses.

5. Spend your budget smartly.

When you open up these budget templates and check out all the various expenses
detailed in them, don't fret if you can't tick every box. I'm not advocating for an "always
spend more" approach to marketing.

6. Prepare to measure ROI.

When you put a certain amount of money into a certain area, you'll want to determine if
your budgeting helped you or hurt you as you plan out future budgets. The best way to
do this is by measuring ROI — or return on investment.

3.11 Cost control

Cost Control is one of the most efficient tools that businesses use to decrease the
production cost. In this, important details are provided to the management, so they can
know that actual costs and predetermined costs are aligned.
 Cost control is the identification of business expenses and taking steps to
reduce them. This is how a company can start making more profits.
Cost control begins with the creation of a budget. By having a budget in place,
the business owner can make a comparison between the actual cost incurred, and the
cost accounted in budgets.

So, Cost Control is an integral part of the Cost Management System.

FIG : CMS

If the costs incurred in reality are lower than the budgeted costs (this rarely happens), it
is good for the business. However, you do need to check whether the accounting and
budgeting systems have skipped to record a source of expense. In most cases, however,
the actual cost would either be close to the budgeted cost or may exceed the budgeted
costs.
When actual costs incurred are too high from the budgeted costs, the
management needs to take some serious steps. One option can be to deal with a new
vendor who offers to provide goods at a lower price than others. Another very common
form of cost control is outsourcing some functions of the company

Importance of Cost control

Cost control can be defined as a particular regulation by certain executive actions

which result in the cutting of costs in certain operations of the company.

The main goal of cost control is to achieve a target set for the sales of the
businesses. There are some standards which are set in the cost control measures, and the
firm needs to make sure that it properly complies to all the standards and rules that are
set.

The deviations that happen in the performance of the company due to these
standards can be easily analyzed and then reported as well to make sure that the
executives can take some corrective actions for the company.

Role of Cost Control in various Aspects of Management

#1 Planning

#2 Employees’ role in the plan

#3 Monitoring

#4 Assessment

#5 Taking decisions

#1 Planning

The first and foremost thing in starting the process of cost control is planning. You need
to make a plan and set aside targets in estimates, budgets, and standards.

#2 Employees’ role in the plan

If planning was the first step, communicating it to the staff marks the second. Nothing
will happen if the initial plans and targets just remain limited to papers. They need to be
pulled out from theory and put in practice.
#3 Monitoring

When the execution part of the plan starts, it is also the time to start monitoring and
evaluating the performance. The various cost incurred is recorded, and the information
about them is collected.

#4 Assessment

After the start of keeping a record for the actual costs incurred, it’s now time to run a
comparison between the actual costs and the projected costs. If the target performance is
not being achieved, then it’s time to sit down and devise strategies to achieve those
target performances.

#5 Taking decisions

After assessment of different performances, it is up to the administration of the business

whether they wish to revise the targets or put certain steps in place to reduce the
recorded deficiencies.

Standards of Cost Control

1) External standards

External standards are when the performance is compared with outsiders, i.e., other
companies in the same industry. The cost performance, in this case, is judged based on
several cost ratios.

2) Internal standards
Internal standards are when the performance is compared within internal departments or
internal cost elements. These internal cost elements of a firm can be anything ranging
from overheads, labor costs, or material costs.

Advantages of implementing Cost Control

#1 Provides a yardstick for measuring performance

Cost control plays a huge role in bringing attention to those areas of businesses that are
not performing well. It also helps in determining whether a business activity is working
efficiently or inefficiently.

#2 Allows comparison

Cost control lays down some concrete standards. These standards allow measurement and
evaluation of actual performance with the expected ones.

#3 Decreases debt

When cost control is done properly, it’s the most prized outcome is a reduction in debts.
This is possible because when the cost is strictly controlled, resources work to their
maximum potential, and there is a reduction of monetary loss due to wastage of resource.

#4 Reduces the replacement and repair costs

When cost control practices start bearing results, the business owner can spend the money
on buying new equipment.

#5 Allows allocation of money to other avenues

With more money to spend, cost control allows a company to invest the money in different
avenues like advertising and marketing.
#6 Provides a competitive advantage

A company to survive in the market needs to be ahead of its competitors.To stay ahead in
the competition, efficient business operations are a must for any business. In this, cost
control plays a major role.

3.12 Resource Planning

Resource planning is a process of allocating tasks to team members based on their

capacity, skill sets, and the best fit for the job. It maximizes efficiency by helping
teams to manage their utilization rates, track capacity, and monitor progress, to keep
projects on budget and work on track.

With resource planning, it's possible to organize your team so they know what to work
on and when. A resource planner can help to accurately manage capacity and your
team’s time efficiently so you don’t burn anyone out.
Companies save 28 times more money when they resource plan because their output is
more reliable. Not only that, 83% of senior executives say strategically managing
resources is the top lever that powers company growth. It’s important to remember that,
ultimately, the most important resource your business can plan for is its people.

This guide will walk you through:

• Resource planning for teams

• Why resource planning is an essential part of project management

• The steps in the resource planning process

• How to use the right resource planning tool

• The key features of an agile resource planning tool

Resource planning for teams

Maximizing project outcomes by allocating tasks to both human and non-human

resources is the textbook definition of resource planning. But what does that actually look
like for teams in practice? If done well, your resource planning will help you:

• Be more efficient

• Maximize all of your resources

• Deliver the best results for projects by being more organized

• Plan and predict your resource availability for future projects

• Improve job satisfaction and retention in your team

• Stop team burnout

• Improve your relationships with clients

• Steps in the resource planning process

• Plan to project
In the plan to project phase, you’ll want to decide which project your team should tackle
next strategically. This is also when you’ll determine and request the resources needed
for the project.

Hold a resource management meeting

We all love to hate meetings, but they’re a necessary part of the resource
management process. Imagine planning an expensive trip to Vegas with five of your
friends but never telling them. Chances are, your trip won’t turn out as planned. It’s
the same with resource planning

Match resources to tasks

Managing team workloads means matching resources to tasks. However, it’s

important to remember that you’ll never nail matching resources to tasks perfectly—but
you can get close.

Set a budget and track time

In project management, budgets and time are closely correlated. You can try to
track your time and budget with an Excel spreadsheet, but it’s no match to the power a
resource planning tool like Float gives you at this stage of the planning journey.
Forecast future planning

Freelancers, small agencies, enterprise-grade businesses, and everyone else in

between that manages projects need to get a handle on their future planning.

What’s happening in the future that we need to take care of now as we juggle ten other
things? When you forecast future planning it becomes easier to answer that question.

Update your resource plan

Though it would be nice for it to be a one-and-done process, resource planning is

something you’ll constantly have to update as you go.

3.13 Strengthen your brand

successful business owner about the secret to a business's success, the answer is
almost always branding. Building a brand is one of the essential With branding, your
company can establish itself as a distinguished identity in a crowded marketplace. Being
renowned gives you an added advantage to target the right customers while letting you
spread your business roots exponentially.

Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind. - Branding
pioneer Walter Landor. The physical value of your products may be easy to calculate, but
your consumers' perceptions are what really determine the value your brand and products
have in the marketplace. Because of this, your ability to build value into your brand and
communicate that value to customers through your marketing is essential to the long term
success of your company.
The benefits of building a good brand

Brand equity is the perception customers have of your products and services based on
what they think of your brand. Apple, Google and Microsoft are all considered to have
high brand equity.

Awareness

Credibility

Reputation

Customer satisfaction

The mindful consumer

The mindful consumer is willing to buy, but craves value. In the search for value, they
consider factors like:

Research.

Social proof.

Identity and preference.

KNOWING WHAT YOUR BRAND NEEDS

Business success is mostly dependent on your potentialcustomers and target

audience. The primary focus here needs to be on knowing the needs of you
These questions include:

What is the purpose of your brand?

Who is your audience?

Have you analyzed your business rivals?

What is the voice of your brand?

potential customers.

WAYS TO COMMUNICATE BRAND VALUE

1. Work from the inside out

‘The world is full of boring stuff – brown cows – which is why so few people pay
attention,’ Seth Godin writes. ‘Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth
noticing right into your product or service.’

2. Target your brand message

‘You have to find a group who really desperately cares about what you have to say,’
according to Seth Godin in his TED talk How to get your ideas to spread.

3. Use a consistent tone of voice (ToV)

 ‘Brand consistency’ is so important that it’s become a defined phrase in the world
of marketing. The more often your organisation’s personality is presented to potential
customers, the more likely they are to remember you.

4. Maintain high standards for design

Design is visual communication. How you use colour, shapes and font or organise
elements on a website page, email campaign or even a product package will dictate
whether or not your brand is perceived as valuable.

Give your brand meaning

Make it a status symbol

Connect to emotions

Provide thought leadership and valuable information

Content is a prime way to communicate your brand’s value and continuously increase its
strength.

Build loyalty

you can keep them coming back to your brand and build loyalty. Content on social
media

3.14 Generate leads

A lead is any person who indicates interest in a company's product or service in some way,
shape, or form.Leads typically hear from a business or organization after opening
communication (by submitting personal information for an offer, trial, or subscription) …
instead of getting a random cold call from someone who purchased their contact information.

Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects to your business and increasing their
interest through nurturing, all with the end goal of converting them into a customer. Some ways
to generate leads are through job applications, blog posts, coupons, live events, and online
content.These lead generators are just a few examples of lead generation strategies you can use
to attract potential customers and guide them towards your offers.

Why do you need lead generation?

When a stranger initiates a relationship with you by showing an organic interest in your
business, the transition from stranger to customer is much more natural.Lead generation falls
within the second stage of the inbound marketing methodology. It occurs after you've
attracted an audience and are ready to convert those visitors into leads for your sales team
(namely sales-qualified leads).
Lead Generation Process

ead generation fits into the inbound marketing methodology, let's walk through the steps of
the lead generation process.

First, a visitor discovers your business through one of your marketing channels, such as your
website, blog, or social media page.

That visitor then clicks on your call-to-action (CTA) — an image, button, or message that
encourages website visitors to take some sort of action.

That CTA takes your visitor to a landing page, which is a web page that is designed to capture
lead information in exchange for an offer.

Lead Generation Marketing

Once you put all of these elements together, you can use your various promotional
channels to drive traffic to your landing page to start generating leads.But what channels should
you use to promote your landing page? Let’s talk about the front-end of lead generation — lead
gen marketing.
 PROMOTIONAL MARKETING CHANNEL

Content

Content is a great way to guide users to a landing page. Typically, you create content
to provide visitors with useful, free information. You can include CTAs anywhere in your
content — inline, bottom-of-post, in the hero, or even on the side panel.

Email

Email is a great place to reach the people who already know your brand and product or service.
It’s much easier to ask them to take an action since they’ve previously subscribed to your list.

Blog

The great thing about using your blog posts to promote an offer is that you can tailor
the entire piece to the end goal.
Lead Generation Strategies

Facebook Lead Generation

LinkedIn Lead Generation

PPC Lead Generation

3.15 Get more visibility online

Digital marketing is more than putting something on the internet and

hoping it reaches the right people. Digital marketing is a strategic way to
simultaneously build brand awareness and provide incredible value to online
audiences. The more targeted and intentional you are with your digital
marketing efforts, the more visibility you’ll have online.

steps for increasing visibility in digital marketing

1. Establish Your Brand’s Website

A fundamental step in increasing visibility in digital marketing is establishing your

brand’s website. If your brand doesn’t have a website, you’re missing out on incredible digital
growth. According to fit small business.com, only 50% of small businesses have a website and
nearly 90% of people use the internet to find local businesses. That means if you don’t have a
website, you’re missing out on viable online traffic.
Here are the

essentials you’ll need for your website:

1. Your logo

2. Your branding color scheme

3. An “About Us” section

4. Contact information

5. Hours of operation

2. Create A Blog

One of the most effective ways to increase visibility in the digital landscape is by creating a blog
for your brand. Establishing a blog is a strategic way to establish a loyal following while simultaneously
boosting your online presence.

When done right, a content strategy can drive massive traffic to your blog and ultimately, your
website. The keys to a successful blog content strategy include:

1. Identifying who your target audience is

2. Knowing what topics they’re searching the internet for

3. Making sure topics align with your brand

3. Make SEO A Priority

 Blogging also increases your website’s SEO (search engine optimization). Having an SEO
strategy in place is crucial for increasing visibility in digital marketing.The better your SEO is,
the more likely you’ll rank within the top pages of Google.

4. Don’t Forget About Off-Site SEO

You can’t discuss an SEO strategy without talking about off-site SEO. Off-site SEO refers to
the things you do outside of your website to boost your online rankings. Off-site SEO
strategies include:

1. Being responsive on social media

2. Create a Google My Business listing

3. Obtaining online reviews (Google Reviews, Yelp, etc.)

Off-site SEO makes your brand look more legitimate and trustworthy to online audiences.

5. Utilize Social Media

Another important step for increasing visibility in digital marketing is utilizing social media.
These days, internet users expect your brand to not only have social media accounts but post
on them frequently. Some social media platforms you brand should be on include:

1. Facebook

2. Twitter

3. Instagram

4. YouTube
5. TikTok

6. Capitalize On Email Marketing

In terms of increasing visibility in digital marketing, email marketing is a viable tool that can
provide an impressive return on investment (ROI).

7. Invest In Paid Ads

One of the best tactics for increasing visibility in digital marketing is investing in paid
ads. Paid ads are advertisements you pay to run online. Common platforms where marketers
run paid advertising include search engines (Google Ads), social media platforms (Facebook
Ads), and paid content (sponsored blog posts).

Encourage Online Customer Reviews

Online customer reviews can really help your brand grow online and increase your
visibility. Online reviews contribute to your brand’s social proof, aka validation that your
products and/or services really work. Statistics show that reviews make customers 71% more
comfortable purchasing a product.

Ways to Increase the Visibility of Your Online Content

Quality Over Quantity

Engage With People

Post at the Right Time

Include Visuals
Use Hashtags

3.16 Connect with your audience

One of the most important aspects of marketing is to connect to the target audience.
Connecting to the target audience is vital for any business or organization, particularly in order
to determine how the target audience reacts to events, items, or situations.

The reactions of your target audience will directly relate to business growth. The ability
to connect with the target audience separates the great companies from the ones that are just
doing okay. Connecting to your audience will allow you to understand their reactions, wants,
and needs.

Since many audiences are constantly changing, it’s a great idea to get connected and stay
connected with your audience.

This way, you keep up with your target audience and adapt whatever you need to in order
to stay relevant. In fact, you might even need to update your marketing strategy to stay relevant.

Who is your target audience?

If you’re going to connect with your audience, then you need to have a good, rough
idea of who they are. Typically, it might be a great idea to learn the demographics of your
target audience and update that information frequently.

This way, you can develop marketing strategies to help you connect with your
audience. Once you have that good, rough idea of who your target audience is, you’re
going to want to get specific details in order to understand them better.
 Understanding who your target audience is and whether or not they are changing
will be extremely important to your marketing strategy, particularly if you want to make
sure you’re maintaining a creative marketing strategy. Keep in mind what your audience
is going to want from your company or organization in the end when addressing issues.

Roles of Your Target Audience

An important step in understanding your target audience is to go beyond learning

theirdemographic information, and understand what role they play in the path to purchase.
These roles can often be divided into the following categories:

The Decision Maker:

This is the person who ultimately makes the purchase decision. In some cases, the
decision-maker is the same as the supporter, but in other cases they are different. When
different, you must acknowledge this and gear ads to the decision- maker. Take, for
example, the transformation of the Old Spice brand in 2010.

The Supporter:

The supporter may not have the power to make the decision, but they will have
a heavy influence on whether or not an item gets bought. For example, a child may not
directly make a purchase, but if they want something for Christmas, they influence that
decision.

Types of Target Audiences

Interest
 Separate groups out based on their various interests, including hobbies and
entertainment preferences. This can help you make data-driven, highly personalized

messaging that allows you to connect with your audience in meaningful ways that can
help drive brand loyalty

Purchase Intention

Define groups of people who are looking for a specific product, such as a new entertainment
system or car. This will help you understand your audience’s pain points so you can create
tailored messaging that addresses their needs.

Subcultures

Subcultures refer to groups of people who share a common experience, such as music genres
or entertainment fandoms. By understanding some of your target audience’s motivations, you
can better understand who you’re trying to connect with.

Have clear buyer personas

Creating personas is a great way to drill down into the specific segments that
make up your target audience.This is especially helpful if you have a product that
appeals to a wide swath of consumers. Personas allow you to determine the general
demographics, personalities and needs of your target consumers.

Provide relevant content

Try to provide content that is unique and exclusive that gives users a reason to come to
you over a competitor you can do this by providing research you've gathered through your
own business or by providing a new approach to a problem faced in your industry
 Don't forget to make of your existing customer base too. By creating case studies
on exiting customers or re-sharing content they've created about your brand / product you
can feel secure in the knowledge that your audience will have an interest in what you are
sharing with them because it's about them.

Utilise your channels

When you have new content or promotion to share . It's important that utilize all
the channels where you have an audience. Even if your different platform to others. You
should make sure you are regularly sharing content across all of them.

Be responsive to feedback

If you receive complaints either publicity or privately respond to them in a timely

manner. Ideally you should send some form of response within 5 minutes of them
contacting you even its just a quick message to let them know you have received it and
an idea when you will get back to them properly

3.17 link exchange

Link exchange is link building tactic whereby one or more websites exchange links. Such
an exchange of links is discussed an agreed on beforehand and results in advertising
opportunities for the websites involved. Link exchange may also be a factor influencing link
popularity.

“Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be
considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This
includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”
On the same page, they also talk about guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor texts
links, buying links, and a number of other things that could get you into trouble.

3-Way Link Exchanges

As the name implies a 3-way link exchange is simply when:

Website “A” links to website “B”

Website “B” gets a link to website “A” from website “C”

When this is done between relevant websites with similar authority it can be very beneficial and
it is more difficult for Google to identify as anything other than a naturally occurring editorial
placement. This is one of the safest and most effective ways to use link exchanges as part of
your link building strategy

ASSESSMENT BY SEARCH ENGINES

The Google search engine assesses inbound links according to various criteria such
as quantity, quality, relevance, domain strength, and many other factors. Inbound links
can therefore influence Google ranking positively or negatively. However, Google
Webmaster Central clearly speaks out against the manipulation of incoming links. In other
words, any attempt to generate links in an “unnatural way,” including through a link
exchange, represents a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

TYPES OF LINK EXCHANGE

Reciprocal

This is the simplest form of link exchange since one party links to the other and vice versa.
Non-reciprocal

A non-reciprocal link exchange does not just include two partners that exchange links,
but rather a network of several partners created by linking.

LINK EXCHANGE IN SEO

Link exchange is a pretty straightforward process. In order to promote your business on

as many websites as possible, you would find your partner website. After that, you would make
a deal with that specific website to market their business, while they market yours. If you wanted
to have your business featured on your partner's website, you would need to do the same favor
on your website.

What is link exchange in SEO today?

Search engines have noticed that these types of backlinks aren't really an honest measure
of your website's reliability and popularity. They have also realized that these links are just a
way for businesses to boost their SEO rankings without much effort.

In order to deal with this problem, search engines started giving less value to reciprocal
links that crawlers would find on your website. Furthermore, all of the reciprocal links that were
previously found on your website were devalued.

This was a major change in the link exchange strategy. In a short period of time, all of
your partner's links were deprived of their SEO value. Some people took down all of the links
from their partners because they feared search engines might penalize them for having such links.

Websites you should avoid

 • Websites that are unrelated to your business's niche.

This sounds reasonable enough, you don't want to market your restaurant business on a
website that offers car services.

• Websites that look terrible.

These websites have no valuable information and their creative design is non-existent.
Websites that have a lot of outbound links. This means that these websites have exchanged links
with a lot of partners, while you have done this with only a few particular sites.

• New websites.

Websites that have been created recently don't have good PR, they didn't establish their brand
and they rarely have good SEO scores.

• Websites that give out nofollow links.

Having your business promoted with a nofollow link on one of the most popular websites
can't be bad for your SEO rankings.

• Websites that send link exchange requests via e-mail.

These websites have a higher chance of being 'spammy',

3.18 Registering with directories

What is directory?

1. . directory makes a memorable web address for anyone who offers listings of people, places
or files.

2. Whatever you catalog – residential listings, service providers, membership lists or even data
for the software industry –. directory is where you belong.

How to Register a Domain Name

1. Part of creating a website, is buying a domain name that has to be unique.

2. In this step-by-step guideline, we’re going to show you several options on how to register a
domain name and also cover some commonly asked questions that might pop up in your mind
while registering a domain.

What is a Domain Name?

1. A domain name is your unique identifier among billions of other websites on the web.

2. That’s why having a memorable and easy-to-type name is essential for having an online
presence.

A domain name is the address of your website that people type in the browser to visit your
website. For example, wpbeginner.com.

In simple terms, if your website was a house, then your domain name will be its address.
 Now, this address is not easy to remember or memorize. Imagine if you had to use this
kind of address to visit your favourite websites. To fix this problem, domain names were
invented.

Your domain name serves as an extension of your personal or business name.

In that sense it:

1. Improves recognition and awareness.

2. Adds extra credibility to your venture.

3. Eventually boosts visitors’ recall.

Also, choosing a good domain name is important for SEO. Several years ago exact match
domains (EMDs) were all the rage, but today most people choose brandable domain names.

Memorable domain names get typed to Google more frequently. Algorithms keep track of that
and assign more authority to your website.

How to Register a Domain Name: 4 Options

1. Using Domain.com

2. Using GoDaddy.com

3. Using Namecheap.com

4. Using Bluehost web hosting (offers free domain for 1 year)

 To get a domain name, you’ll need to ‘call dibs’ with ICANN. ICANN is a global non-profit
authority that maintains records on which domain and IP address belongs to whom and manages
access to them.

But ICANN doesn’t provide registration services, it only maintains records. That’s where
domain name registrars come into play.

The primary role of a register is to:

1. Coordinate claims on different domain names.

2. Match specific domain names with Domain Name System (DNS) nameservers.

3. Ensure that there are no duplicate domain names.

Technically speaking, you are not buying a domain name from a registrar company, but reserve
its usage for a specified time. You can pay to reserve a domain for 1-10 years at a time, depending
on the registrar.

After your initial subscription expires, you’ll need to renew it and pay a fee again. You can re-
purchase your domain name over and over again. When registering a domain name, you sign a
long-term lease of your domain (without the ability to buy it out for good). You can read more
about the domain costs here.
How to Choose the Best Domain Name?

1. Domain names play a very important role in your website’s identity and success. This is why
it’s important for you to carefully think about the domain name you choose.

2. However, it’s also important to not overthink it otherwise you will never get past the research
phase. Following are some general tips to keep in mind when searching for a domain name.

1. Make sure that your domain name is easy to pronounce, spell, and as short as possible.

2. Stick with the .com extension because most users find them easier to remember than any other
domain extensions.
3. Use your keywords and brand name in the domain name search. For example,
stargardeninghouston.com is more SEO friendly, than stargardeningcompany.com

4. Do not use numbers or hyphens in your domain name. It makes them harder to pronounce and
difficult to remember.

a) Need more advice? See our expert tips on finding the best domain name for your website.

b) You can also use a domain name generator like Name boy to speed up yoursearch.

3.19 Data visualization

Data visualization is the process of translating large and complex datasets and
summarizing them in a visual format. This not only makes the data easier to understand
but also pleasant to look at, which helps you get people’s attention more effectively.

why or how data visualization is important for marketing analytics, here are a few reasons
according to smart boost.

They display the data in ways that assist company owners in making better and faster
decisions.To develop corporate goals, they make a story out of raw facts.They assist
business owners in concentrating on business insights.Decision-makers may quickly
create data analysis reports using a variety of visuals.

• Visuals aid in the development of various business strategies and growth ideas.

Types of Data Visualization

Bar Graphs

A bar graph presents categorical data with rectangular bars. We can count the values of
various categories using bar graphs. The length or height of bars is proportional to the
count of the category.

FIG : BAR GRAPH

Pie Charts

A pie chart is a circular chart that uses pie slices to show the relative size of categorical
data. The arc length of each pie slice is proportional to the count of the category. There
are different variants of pie charts available.
 FIG : PIE CHART

Scatter Plots

A scatter plot shows the relationship between two variables or categories of data. We
use scatter plots to find a correlation between continuous variables.

FIG : SCATTER PLOT

Heat Map

A heatmap is a graphical representation in which we use colors to represent data values

that communicate the relationship between two variables. Values of correlation are between -1
to 1. 1 denotes perfect positive correlation. 0 means no correlation and -1 means the highest
negative correlation.

FIG : HEAT MAP

Advantages of data visualization

1. Provide greater insight

The most obvious advantage is that it helps connect the dots between different
datasets to uncover patterns and trends, thus enhancing comprehension

2. Improve your decision-making process

With improved insight and better comprehension, data visualization helps

improve the decision-making process. As critical decision-makers won’t have to go
through the tedious process of sifting through data to uncover the insights they need,
they can avoid analysis paralysis and make informed decisions much faster.

3. Engage the audience

There’s no doubt that well-designed visuals are attractive and engaging. Data
visualization combined with data storytelling can help you draw in your target audience
and engage them. It can add more substance to the information you want to share and
help you get your message across more effectively.
Unit-V: Applications

Travel portal - Makemytrip, Yatra, IRCTC; E-commerce – Amazon, flipkart;

Song portals – Wynk.

5.1 Case Study : Makemy trip

• MakeMyTrip is an online travel company headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana founded by
Deep Kalra. The company provides online travel services including flight tickets,
domestic and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets. In
2011 and 2012,
• MakeMyTrip made strategic acquisitions in pursuit of growth through new channels and
markets in the South-East Asia region. Recently, it launched Travel Apps for mobile
devices.
• The company has been consistently recognized as one of India’s best travel portals. In
addition to a full-service online portal, the company also operates through 59 retail
stores across 37 cities in India along with international offices in New York and Sydney.

• After consolidating its position in the market as a brand recognized for its reliability and
transparency, MakeMyTrip followed its success in the US by launching its India
operations in 2005. With the foresight to seize the opportunities in the domestic travel
market, brought on by a slew of new airlines, MakeMyTrip offered travellers the
convenience of online travel bookings at rock-bottom prices.

• MakeMyTrip’s rise has been lead by the vision and the spirit of each one of its employees,
for whom no idea was too big and no problem too difficult. With untiring innovation and
determination, MakeMyTrip proactively began to diversify its product offering, adding a
variety of online and offline products and services.

• MakeMyTrip also stayed ahead of the curve by continually evolving its technology to
meet the ever changing demands of the rapidly developing global travel market.

History and Growth

• MakeMyTrip was founded by Deep Kalra, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad. Prior to setting up MakeMyTrip, Deep had worked with GE Capital as the
 Vice President - Business Development (Retail) and had also worked with ABN AMRO
Bank and AMF Bowling.
• MakeMyTrip was launched in the US market in 2000 to cater to the overseas Indian
community for their US-to-India travel needs. The founding team consisted of Deep
Kalra, Keyur Joshi (Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer), Rajesh Magow ( Co-
Founder & CEO - India, formerly Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer) and
Sachin Bhatia (ex-Chief Marketing Officer). After serving a long tenure of 10 years, since
the company’s inception, Sachin Bhatia quit MakeMyTrip as an active member and
decided to work as an independent advisor and a prime shareholder in the company.
• With the success of IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation)'s online
business model which enabled the Indian traveller to purchase railway tickets on the
Internet, things started to look brighter for the travel market in India. This was also the
time when Low-Cost Carriers entered the Indian Aviation space. MakeMyTrip started its
Indian operations in September 2005 offering online flight tickets to Indian travellers. To
broaden its travel portfolio, the company also started to focus on non-air businesses like
holiday packages and hotel bookings. On August 13, 2010, MakeMyTrip was listed on the
NASDAQ and went public, making a debut in the US market. Trade Analysts believed
that this was an encouraging sign for both the investors and other Indian firms.
• In 2011, the company strengthened focus on the mobile route by creating several travel-
related Apps for all types of mobile devices (Smartphone’s and basic cell phones). In the
same year, MakeMyTrip also made three acquisitions, namely, Luxury Tours and Travel
Private Limited (Singapore), Le Travenues Technology Private Limited (Gurgaon, India)
and My Guest House Accommodation (New Delhi, India). MakeMyTrip’s other
acquisitions include travel operators like ITC Group and Hotel Travel Group to enter new
markets in the South-East Asian region in the year 2012.

Products and Services

• Air, Rail and Bus tickets

MakeMyTrip sells online rail tickets and flight tickets within India and from India (domestic
& international) to its customers offering features like return tickets with single payment
option, flexi-search and automatic alerts and updates on the availability of tickets. It also
offers bus tickets across different categories like Volvo, Air Conditioned, Non Air
Conditioned, Deluxe, Semi-Deluxe and Sleeper vehicles.

• Cab Service

In May 2010, the company introduced online cab rental services on its website offering
travellers an option to book a chauffeur-driven car in major metropolitan cities within India.

Work Culture
The company has been consistently ranked among the Top 10 “Great Places to Work for in India”
by the Great Place to Work® (GPTW) Institute, a study by The Economic Times, for four years
in a row starting from 2010 to 2013.
Recent developments
While makemytrip.com continues to exert pressure on competition by constantly upgrading
technologies, it has an ear firmly tuned to consumer need. Two observations have moulded the
company: the first is that many people still prefer the traditional touch and feel method of booking
tickets. In deference to them the company has opened 23 regional office across the country. The
second realization was that every passanger is not an air traveller.

Brand Values
That many brands fail is a reminder that the consumer is a hard task master and the market, an
unforgiving testion ground. The success that MakeMyTrip.com has achieved is the result of its
unblinking focus on three core values: customer centricity, integrity and accountability. Founded
to empower the Indian traveler with choice, MakeMyTrip.com strives to offer its customer best-
value travel products and services. Supported by cutting- edge technology and a vision to stay
relevant it is and will remain the brand choice.

HR policy
The cornerstone of the MakeMyTrip human resource Management philosophy is the conviction
that the well-being of the company and of its people are interdependent; and that the company's
most valuable assets are its people.

Our commitment

• To employ the most competent, on the basis of merit

• To ensure that every employee is treated with dignity and respect, and in a fair, consistent
and equitable manner
• To create a stimulating, enabling and supportive work atmosphere
• To aid and encourage employees in realizing their full potential

Job Analysis
Organizations consist of positions that have to be staffed. Job analysis is the
procedure through which you determine the duties of these positions and the
Characteristics of the people to hire for them. Job analysis produces informa-
tion used for writing job descriptions (a list of what the job entails) and job
specifications (what kind of people to hire for the job).
 FIG : USES OF JOB ANALYSIS
Recruitment and Selection: Job analysis provides information about what the job
entails and what human characteristics are required to perform these activities
Compensation: Job analysis information is crucial for estimating the value of each
job and its appropriate compensation. Compensation (such as salary and bonus)
usually depends on the job's required skill and education level, safety hazards, degree of
responsibility, and so on all factors you can assess through job analysis.
Performance Appraisal: A performance appraisal compares each employee's actual
performance with his or her performance standards.
Training: The job description should show the activities and skills and therefore
the training that the job requires.
Discovering Unassigned Duties: Job analysis can also help reveal unassigned duties.
For example, your company's production manager says she's responsible for a
dozen or so duties, such as production scheduling and raw material purchasing.

5.2 Case study : Yatra

Yatra.com is India’s leading Online Travel Portal offering solutions for all your travel needs.
From air tickets to hotel rooms to holiday packages to buses to car rentals, yatra.com has
everything for its customers. Yatra.com based in Gurgaon, started with 3 members in 2006 that
rose to 700 in 2008 and 1000+ in 2016.
Yatra.com provides reservation facility for more than 50,176 hotels in India and over 500,000
hotels around the world. The portal has reached to such a height that the company is doing 20,000
domestic tickets and 7500 hotels and holiday packages a day.

Growth
Yatra.com provides an access to the best travel deals across numerous national and international
destinations. It is among leading aggregator of hotels in India. Yatra.com provides reservation for
50, 176 hotels across 500+ destinations in India as well as 430,000 hotels worldwide. The brand
has reached the height of trust by its customers and till date it has more than 31,538,129 happy
travelers.
Currently Yatra.com is doing average revenue of Rs 100 crores a month and a volume of more
than 6,500 air tickets and 300+ hotel room nights per day.
Today, more than 80% bookings comes from online media like computer or mobile browser or
apps and other 20% comes from call centers. With booking of more than 20,000 domestic tickets
and 5,000 hotels per day, Yatra.com has achieved a huge success in his journey till now

Marketing Strategy
Yatra in its initial timespan used Print media as a method of advertisement. Soon people started
knowing about the services of the company and then Yatra it moved on to TV advertisement and
endorsed Boman Irani as its brand ambassador. In the year 2012, it endorsed Salman Khan as its
brand ambassador. It helped the company in many ways and in short it increased the customer
base for the company. Side by side, Yatra also performed online marketing using different
marketing strategy like google AdWords that helped the company grow rapidly.

Social media campaigns

Yatra.com started a Facebook Page around the “Happy Travelers” theme. It included the pictures
of the happy customers of Yatra. The brand also ran Facebook Ads to create its loyal fan base.
Yatra engaged with its fans through its Facebook Page by timely responding to their queries,
posting special offers and promotions on the Page and hosting apps like the “Happy Travel
Jigsaw” where fans can solve puzzles. As a result of the targeted Facebook ad campaign, Yatra
generated INR 1.5 million/month only from Facebook advertisement.

5.3 Case study : IRCTC

he Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a business of the Indian Government. They
were created in 1997 to help with catering, tourism and online ticketing services for rail journeys. The
Indian Railways are the most essential railway network in India. More than 6.5 million people travel by
trains on a daily basis, making them the world’s 3rd largest railway network. Due to the immense
popularity of this Indian Railway website, it is well recognized as one of the most popular online ticketing
agencies in India.

IRCTC is a 100% subsidiary of Indian Railways. It provides catering services at every railway station in
India and also has a number of restaurant cars on trains. The IRCTC also provides tourism related services
such as hotel reservation, tour packages and bus service from railway stations to tourist places etc.

Services :

Online ticketing
It is known for changing the face of railway ticketing in India. It pioneered internet based rail
ticket booking through website, as well as from the mobile phones via GPRS or SMS In addition
to e- tickets , Indian railways and catering tourism corporation also offers .

Tourism

Railway catering and tourism corporation also organizes budget and deluxe package tour for
domestic and foreign tourist .

Tatkal Booking

Under the tatkal scheme, passenger who plan their journey at short notice can book their tickets in
almost all mail/ express train through the Indian railways internet portal.

Catering and hospitality

IRCTC introduced pantry cars inside long or medium distance trains which catered to passengers
by serving freshly cooked food. IRCTC has exclusive rights for onboard catering of food on all
trains operated by the Indian Railways. It also operates food plazas, Jan Aahar cafeterias and
refreshment rooms at various railway stations. In 2014, IRCTC launched e-catering services
which allowed passengers to order food from partner restaurants online or through phone call and
have it delivered to their seats.

Tourism

Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation also organises budget and deluxe package
tours for domestic and foreign tourists. A popular tourism package for budget tourists covering
important tourist destinations across India is called "Bharat Darshan". Luxury tourism packages
are also available, that involve special luxury trains such as Buddhist Circuit Train and Maharajas'
Express operations.

Passenger data and privacy concerns

The IRCTC has been criticised for failing to maintain privacy of the data that it has collected on
passengers for the purposes of bookings and travel, and there have been multiple reports of data
leaks and exposures, as well as concerns that passenger information has been used by the
government to send promotional content with demographic targeting.

In 2016, cyber police officials from Maharashtra reported a potential leak of personal information
relating to 10 million passengers. The IRCTC denied the leak, but a committee consisting of
officials from the IRCTC and Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) was constituted to
examine the report.IRCTC officials claimed that the reports were unfounded and that there was no
leak of "sensitive" passenger data. An IRCTC official later admitted that data that IRCTC had
shared with third parties, including hotel, taxi, and food delivery services, had been exposed.

In 2018, a security researcher, Avinash Jain, reported that a free travel insurance scheme offered
by IRCTC, which caused users on their app to be redirected to a third party insurer, had left the
information of approximately 200,000 passengers exposed for a period of two years. IRCTC
discontinued the insurance scheme and fixed the vulnerability that had left this data exposed.

5.4 Amazon

In 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) began offering IT infrastructure services to businesses as
web services—now commonly known as cloud computing. One of the key benefits of cloud
computing is the opportunity to replace upfront capital infrastructure expenses with low variable
costs that scale with your business. With the cloud, businesses no longer need to plan for and
procure servers and other IT infrastructure weeks or months in advance. Instead, they can
instantly spin up hundreds or thousands of servers in minutes and deliver results faster. Today,
AWS provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that
powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world.

Logistics

Amazon uses many different transportation services to deliver packages. Amazon-branded

services include:

• Amazon Air, a cargo airline for bulk transport, with last-mile delivery handled either by
Amazon Flex, Amazon Logistics, or the United States Postal Service.
• Amazon Flex, a smartphone app that enables individuals to act as independent contractors,
delivering packages to customers from personal vehicles without uniforms. Deliveries
include one or two hours Prime Now, same or next day Amazon Fresh groceries, and
standard Amazon.com orders, in addition to orders from local stores that contract with
Amazon.
• Amazon Logistics, in which Amazon contracts with small businesses (which it calls
"Delivery Service Partners") to perform deliveries to customers. Each business has a fleet
of approximately 20–40 Amazon-branded vans, and employees of the contractors wear
 Amazon uniforms. As of December 2020, it operates in the United States, Canada, Italy,
Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
• Amazon Prime Air is an experimental drone delivery service.

Amazon directly employs people to work at its warehouses, bulk distribution centers, staffed
"Amazon Hub Locker+" locations, and delivery stations where drivers pick up packages. As of
December 2020, it is not hiring delivery drivers as employees.

mazon marketing strategy relies on the following four pillars:

1. Offering the widest range of products. The largest internet retailer in the world by revenue
offers hundreds of millions of products. The wide range of product it offers has earned the online
retailer the moniker The Everything Store.

2. Using customer-friendly interface. The tech giant has an advanced interface that integrates
personalized recommendations and recent browsing history, among others. Ever-improving user
interface is the result of the company’s focus to become Earth’s most customer-centric company.

3. Scaling easily from small to large. The e-commerce and cloud computing company has
experience and competence in scaling from small to large. This factor plays in instrumental role
exploring new business segments. Scaling from small to large has allowed the online retail
behemoth do disrupt increasing ranges of industries such as retail, transportation, entertainment
and now industrial distribution.

4. Exploiting affiliate products and resources. Up to date, the tech giant has taken a full
advantage of affiliate programs, products and resources to contribute to the bottom line of the
business.

Amazon marketing strategy integrates a number of targeted online marketing channels, such as
Associates program, sponsored search, social and online advertising, television advertising, and
other initiatives.
 FIG : AMAZON SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

5.5 FLIPKART

Flipkart Private Limited is an Indian e-commerce company established in 2007. It started with a
primary focus on online book sales and soon, expanded to lifestyle products, electronics, home
essentials and groceries. Today, Flipkart is the biggest online Indian marketplace competing with
the world leader Amazon.

Since 2010, the company has made a number of acquisitions including Letsbuy, Myntra, Jabong,
eBay India, etc. In addition to its main office in Bengaluru, Flipkart has branch offices at Delhi
and Mumbai. Apart from India, the firm is registered in Singapore. In 2018, the US-based retail
chain Walmart acquired majority stake in Flipkart.
Recently, Flipkart has opened its R&D centre at Israel. This is in line with its latest acquisition of
Israeli start-up Upstream Commerce. The centre is run by talented engineers from across the
world.

Flipkart’s overall marketing strategy

Flipkart’s leading marketing strategy focuses on every single touchpoint their customers are
present at. It uses the majority of its budget on various digital channels involving both paid and
organic marketing. Moreover, since India has recently experienced digital transformation, the
efforts of Flipkart are paying off.

Flipkart also invests intensely in celebrity endorsement and influencer marketing. India is crazy
over Bollywood and Flipkart uses this to raise awareness about their brand and to market their
services.

FIG: Flipkart Marketing Growth

Target audience

Flipkart targets anybody who surfs the internet and who does not have time for shopping. Though
it’s target audience is scattered over various market segments as consumers from all demographic
backgrounds can find products that appeal to their interest, 75% of its audience is between the age
group of 16 – 55.
It lays focus on people seeking variety and who prefer to experience a hassle-free shopping
approach from home. It tries to expand its services to every location in the country where
deliveries are possible. It comes up with smart marketing strategies to seize the attention of its
audience who hold the purchasing power, to influence that online shopping is better than
traditional shopping.

Search Engine Optimization

Flipkart being the largest online retailer in India has worked immensely on optimizing its
platform to rank on the search engine. Every time someone searches for a product, Flipkart
appears among the top 2 results, and it is all possible because Flipkart has put a lot of effort into
SEO.

5.6 Case study WYNK

WINK STYLE MARKETING PRIVATE LIMITED is a Private Company, who was incorporated
6 Year(s) 11 Month(s) 5 Day(s) ago on dated 15-Jun-2015 . WINK STYLE MARKETING
PRIVATE LIMITED is classified as Non-govt company and is registered at Registrar of
Companies located in ROC-DELHI. As regarding the financial status on the time of registration
of WINK STYLE MARKETING PRIVATE LIMITED Company its authorized share capital is
Rs. 1000000 and its paid up capital is Rs. 100000.

As Per Registration of Company, It involves under in Business Activity Class / Subclass Code
51909, Main Activity of the said Company WINK STYLE MARKETING PRIVATE LIMITED
is : , Other wholesale n.e.c., It Comes Under Division WHOLESALE TRADE AND
COMMISSION TRADE, EXCEPT OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND MOTORCYCLES and this
come under scetion WHOLESALE AND RETAIL TRADE; REPAIR OF MOTOR VEHICLES,
MOTORCYCLES AND PERSONAL AND HOUSEHOLD GOODS.

Data at the Core of Operations

Wynk was born on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. As the company rapidly
grew, however, so did its subscriber base. On a single day, the Wynk Music app generates about 4
TB of data, which includes insights on how long a user has tuned in and what genre of music they
listen to most. A few years after launching, Wynk began investing in its employees and
technology to transform into a data-driven operation and offer more personalized features to
users.

The data team started down the analytics road by building a data lake. For unstructured data,
Wynk used Apache Hadoop with Ansible software to perform distributed data processing.
However, the company’s data infrastructure quickly became overly complex and compute costs
soared. Wynk consulted with the AWS team to find a more manageable solution that could scale
in a cost-controlled manner and switched to Amazon EMR as its big data platform. “Amazon
EMR is developer-friendly and flexible, which makes it easier to run big data and analytics
applications,” says Ridhima Kapoor, head of Data Platform at Wynk Music. The Wynk data team
also implemented Amazon Redshift as a data warehouse and Amazon Simple Storage
Service (Amazon S3) as a data lake.