What Is Digital Marketing?

The term digital marketing refers to the use of digital channels to market products and
services to consumers. This type of marketing involves the use of websites, mobile
devices, social media, search engines, and other similar channels. Digital marketing became
popular with the advent of the internet in the 1990s.

Digital marketing involves some of the same principles as traditional marketing and is often
considered an additional way for companies to approach consumers and understand their
behavior. Companies often combine traditional and digital marketing techniques in their
strategies. But digital marketing comes with its own set of challenges, including implicit
bias.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Digital marketing involves marketing to consumers through digital channels,

including websites, mobile devices, and social media platforms.
• This form of marketing is different from internet marketing, which is exclusively
done on websites.
• Digital marketing relates to attracting customers via email, content marketing, search
platforms, social media, and more.
• One of the biggest challenges digital marketers face is how to set themselves apart in
a world that is oversaturated with digital marketing ads.
• Digital marketing comes with various challenges, including implicit bias

How Digital Marketing Works

Marketing refers to activities that a company uses to promote its products and services and
to improve its market share. To be successful, it requires a combination of advertising savvy,
sales, and the ability to deliver goods to end-users. Professionals, known as marketers, take
on these tasks either internally at companies or externally at marketing firms.

Corporations traditionally focused on marketing through print, television, and radio.

Although these options still exist, the internet led to a shift in the way companies reach
consumers. That's where digital marketing came into play. This form of marketing involves
the use of websites, social media, search engines, and apps—anything that incorporates
marketing with customer feedback or a two-way interaction between the company and its
customers.

New technologies and trends forced companies to change their marketing strategies. Email
became a popular marketing tool in the early days of digital marketing. Then, the focus
shifted to search engines like Netscape, which allowed businesses to tag and keyword items
to get themselves noticed. The development of sites like Facebook made it possible for
companies to track data and cater to consumer trends.

Smartphones and other digital devices now make it easier for companies to market
themselves and their products and services to consumers. Studies show that people prefer
using their phones to go online. In fact, according to a Pew Research Center study, over 75%
of American adults typically make shopping purchases using their phones.1
Digital marketing can be interactive and is often used to target specific segments of the
customer base.

Sources and Receivers

Advertisers are commonly referred to as sources, while recipients of the targeted ads are
the receivers. Sources frequently target highly specific, well-defined receivers, as
McDonald's did with shift workers and travelers.

The company used digital ads because it knew these people used digital devices and made
up a large segment of its late-night business. McDonald's encouraged them to download the
Restaurant Finder app, targeting them with ads placed at automated teller machines (ATMs),
gas stations, and websites that its customers frequented.

Types of Digital Marketing Channels

As noted above, marketing was traditionally done through print (newspapers and magazines)
and broadcast ads (TV and radio). These channels still exist and are used today. Digital
marketing channels have evolved and continue to do so. The following are eight of the most
common digital avenues that companies can take to boost their marketing efforts. Keep in
mind that some companies may use multiple channels in their efforts.

Website Marketing

A website is the centerpiece of all digital marketing activities. It is a very powerful channel
on its own, but it’s also the medium needed to execute a variety of online marketing
campaigns. A website should represent a brand, product, and service in a clear and
memorable way. It should be fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.

Content marketing

As mentioned, the quality of your content is a key component of an optimized page. As a

result, SEO is a major factor in content marketing, a strategy based on the distribution of
relevant and valuable content to a target audience.

As in any marketing strategy, the goal of content marketing is to attract leads that ultimately
convert into customers. But it does so differently than traditional advertising. Instead of
enticing prospects with potential value from a product or service, it offers value for free in the
form of written material, such as:

• Blog posts
• E-books
• Newsletters
• Video or audio transcripts
• Whitepapers
• Infographics

Content marketing matters, and there are plenty of stats to prove it:
 • 84% of consumers expect companies to produce entertaining and helpful content
experiences
• 62% of companies that have at least 5,000 employees produce content daily
• 92% of marketers believe that their company values content as an important asset

As effective as content marketing is, it can be tricky. Content marketing writers need to be
able to rank highly in search engine results while also engaging people who will read the
material, share it, and interact further with the brand. When the content is relevant, it can
establish strong relationships throughout the pipeline.

To create effective content that’s highly relevant and engaging, it’s important to identify your
audience. Who are you ultimately trying to reach with your content marketing efforts? Once
you have a better grasp of your audience, you can determine the type of content you'll create.
You can use many formats of content in your content marketing, including videos, blog posts,
printable worksheets, and more.

Regardless of which content you create, it’s a good idea to follow content marketing best
practices. This means making content that’s grammatically correct, free of errors, easy to
understand, relevant, and interesting. Your content should also funnel readers to the next
stage in the pipeline, whether that’s a free consultation with a sales representative or a signup
page.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing means driving traffic and brand awareness by engaging people in
discussion online. You can use social media marketing to highlight your brand, products,
services, culture, and more. With billions of people spending their time engaging on social
media platforms, focusing on social media marketing can be worthwhile.

The most popular digital platforms for social media marketing are Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram, with LinkedIn and YouTube not far behind. Ultimately, which social media
platforms you use for your business depends on your goals and audience. For example, if you
want to find new leads for your FinTech startup, targeting your audience on LinkedIn is a
good idea since industry professionals are active on the platform. On the other hand, running
social media ads on Instagram may be better for your brand if you run a B2C focused on
younger consumers.

Because social media marketing involves active audience participation, it has become
a popular way of getting attention. It's the most popular content medium for B2C digital
marketers at 96%, and it's gaining ground in the B2B sphere as well. According to the
Content Marketing Institute, 61% of B2B content marketers increased their use of social
media this year.

Social media marketing offers built-in engagement metrics, which are extremely useful in
helping you to understand how well you're reaching your audience. You get to decide which
types of interactions mean the most to you, whether that means the number of shares,
comments, or total clicks to your website.

Direct purchase may not even be a goal of your social media marketing strategy. Many
brands use social media marketing to start dialogues with audiences rather than encourage
them to spend money right away. This is especially common in brands that target older
audiences or offer products and services not appropriate for impulse buys. It all depends on
your company's social media marketing goals.

To create an effective social media marketing strategy, it’s crucial to follow best practices.
Here are a few of the most important social media marketing best practices:

• Craft high-quality and engaging content

• Reply to comments and questions in a professional manner
• Create a social media posting schedule
• Post at the right time
• Hire social media managers to support your marketing efforts
• Know your audience and which social media channels they’re most active on

To learn more about how Mailchimp can help with your social media strategy, check out the
comparison of our free social media management tools versus others.

Pay-per-click marketing

Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a form of digital marketing in which you pay a fee every time
someone clicks on your digital ads. So, instead of paying a set amount to constantly run
targeted ads on online channels, you only pay for the ads individuals interact with. How and
when people see your ad is a bit more complicated.

One of the most common types of PPC is search engine advertising, and because Google is
the most popular search engine, many businesses use Google Ads for this purpose. When a
spot is available on a search engine results page, also known as a SERP, the engine fills the
spot with what is essentially an instant auction. An algorithm prioritizes each available ad
based on a number of factors, including:

• Ad quality
• Keyword relevance
• Landing page quality
• Bid amount

PPC ads are then placed at the top of search engine result pages based on the factors above
whenever a person searches for a specific query.

Each PPC campaign has 1 or more target actions that viewers are meant to complete after
clicking an ad. These actions are known as conversions, and they can be transactional or non-
transactional. Making a purchase is a conversion, but so is a newsletter signup or a call made
to your home office.

Whatever you choose as your target conversions, you can track them via your chosen digital
marketing channels to see how your campaign is doing.

Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a digital marketing tactic that lets someone make money by promoting
another person's business. You could be either the promoter or the business who works with
the promoter, but the process is the same in either case.

It works using a revenue sharing model. If you're the affiliate, you get a commission every
time someone purchases the item that you promote. If you're the merchant, you pay the
affiliate for every sale they help you make.

Some affiliate marketers choose to review the products of just 1 company, perhaps on a blog
or other third-party site. Others have relationships with multiple merchants.

Whether you want to be an affiliate or find one, the first step is to make a connection with the
other party. You can use digital channels designed to connect affiliates with retailers, or you
can start or join a single-retailer program.

If you're a retailer and you choose to work directly with affiliates, there are many things you
can do to make your program appealing to potential promoters. You'll need to provide those
affiliates with the tools that they need to succeed. That includes incentives for great results as
well as marketing tools and pre-made materials.

Influencer marketing

Like affiliate marketing, influencer marketing relies on working with an influencer–an

individual with a large following, such as a celebrity, industry expert, or content creator–in
exchange for exposure. In many cases, these influencers will endorse your products or
services to their followers on several social media channels.

Influencer marketing works well for B2B and B2C companies who want to reach new
audiences. However, it’s important to partner with reputable influencers since they’re
essentially representing your brand. The wrong influencer can tarnish the trust consumers
have with your business.

Email marketing

The concept of email marketing is simple—you send a promotional message and hope that
your prospect clicks on it. However, the execution is much more complex. First of all, you
have to make sure that your emails are wanted. This means having an opt-in list that does the
following:

• Individualizes the content, both in the body and in the subject line
• States clearly what kind of emails the subscriber will get
• An email signature that offers a clear unsubscribe option
• Integrates both transactional and promotional emails

You want your prospects to see your campaign as a valued service, not just as a promotional
tool.

Email marketing is a proven, effective technique all on its own: 89% of surveyed
professionals named it as their most effective lead generator.
It can be even better if you incorporate other digital marketing techniques such as marketing
automation, which lets you segment and schedule your emails so that they meet your
customer's needs more effectively.

If you’re considering email marketing, here are a few tips that can help you craft great email
marketing campaigns:

• Segment your audience to send relevant campaigns to the right people

• Ensure emails look good on mobile devices
• Create a campaign schedule
• Run A/B tests

Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy that allows you to engage with your target
audience on their mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. This can be via SMS and
MMS messages, social media notifications, mobile app alerts, and more.

It’s crucial to ensure that all content is optimized for mobile devices. According to the Pew
Research Center, 85% of Americans own a smartphone, so your marketing efforts can go a
long way when you create content for computer and mobile screens.

The benefits of digital marketing

Digital marketing has become prominent largely because it reaches such a wide audience of
people. However, it also offers a number of other advantages that can boost your marketing
efforts. These are a few of the benefits of digital marketing.

A broad geographic reach

When you post an ad online, people can see it no matter where they are (provided you
haven’t limited your ad geographically). This makes it easy to grow your business's market
reach and connect with a larger audience across different digital channels.

Cost efficiency

Digital marketing not only reaches a broader audience than traditional marketing but also
carries a lower cost. Overhead costs for newspaper ads, television spots, and other traditional
marketing opportunities can be high. They also give you less control over whether your target
audiences will see those messages in the first place.

With digital marketing, you can create just 1 content piece that draws visitors to your blog as
long as it's active. You can create an email marketing campaign that delivers messages to
targeted customer lists on a schedule, and it's easy to change that schedule or the content if
you need to do so.

When you add it all up, digital marketing gives you much more flexibility and customer
contact for your ad spend.

Steps to create a digital marketing plan

Follow the digital marketing plan steps below to set your team up for success:

Step 1: Define your marketing goals and budget

Having a clear goal before creating a marketing plan will save you lots of time and mistakes.
A goal helps you create a digital marketing plan outline and break it into tasks and activities.
The best way to define your goals is by using the SMART goals framework. SMART means
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Undefined goals have
ambiguous targets such as 'increase sales' or 'get more customers.' SMART goals are more
specific, e.g., 'gain 1000 new leads in 90 days.'
The budget is another aspect of a digital marketing plan that needs clarity early on. Knowing
your budget limit ensures you maximize every dollar and don't overspend on non-performing
marketing campaigns. You can allocate a budget to each phase of your campaign, e.g., a
budget for SEO, Facebook ads, content, and influencer marketing.
While your total budget may be a hard limit, the amount allocated to each marketing channel
should be dynamic to enable testing and iterations based on performance. For example, if you
notice your Facebook ad campaigns produce higher ROI than influencer marketing, you may
choose to reallocate your influencer marketing budget to spend more on Facebook ads.

Step 2: Build buyer personas to define your ideal audience

Once you're clear about your goals and budget, creating buyer personas to segment your
target market is the next major step.A buyer persona is a fictional character a company
creates through research that outlines different characteristics of potential customers. An
accurate buyer persona will help you create highly-targeted marketing campaigns. Depending
on the defining attributes of your buyer persona, you may group them by demographics,
interests, goals, or other relevant characteristics.

Step 3: Analyze your competitors and market position

Conducting industry and competitor analysis before developing your digital marketing plan is
beneficial. It helps you identify your biggest competitors, their market share and position, and
the strategies they use in their digital marketing campaigns. Carry out a SWOT analysis of
your product and your competitors' offering to discover what your company's strengths and
weaknesses are. Analyzing your market position within your industry helps inform what
product benefits or features to highlight in your marketing language and what your content
should focus on.
Step 4: Choose which digital marketing channels to focus on
The digital marketing channels you choose should depend on your marketing goals and your
target market's online behavior. You may decide to focus on building owned and earned
marketing channels, lean towards paid ads for wider reach, or try a hybrid of both.Many
companies operate an omnichannel digital marketing strategy, taking potential customers on a
buyer's journey through several platforms. For example, using short-form videos on TikTok
to get customers' attention and then leading them to your Instagram page, where you have
testimonials and reviews from previous buyers, showing social proof. With a clear and
consistent call-to-action in your Instagram bio and post captions, you direct potential buyers
to your website, where they finally decide to purchase your product.
Choosing the right digital marketing channels allows you to meet your customers where they
are and engage with them on their terms before selling them your product.

Step 5: Set defined metrics to review and improve performance

A digital marketing plan is only as good as the results it produces. Establish relevant metrics
to monitor performance and track the progress of your digital marketing campaigns once you
begin. Data-driven marketing campaigns are the most practical way to get the best results
from digital marketing efforts.Tie in metrics to tasks assigned to your team. During the
project, gather essential data such as revenue, new leads, new subscribers, click-through
rates, and other vital data relevant to your business. Remember, data insights are only fruitful
when you test and use them to improve your initial digital marketing plan.

Step 6: Get stakeholder buy-in

Armed with information about your goals, customers, market, competition, marketing
channels, and metrics, you're almost ready to translate your marketing strategies and ideas
into a well-laid-out plan. The quickest way to do this is to use digital marketing plan
templates to sketch all your marketing plan and project requirements. Share this draft with
key stakeholders and decision-makers to gain buy-in before making the plan more
concrete. Share the rationale behind your digital marketing planning process decisions. Get
feedback from your team and stakeholders, and then improve your initial digital marketing
plan draft.

Step 7: Break marketing projects into actionable tasks

Now you're ready to develop your digital marketing plan with due dates and tasks assigned to
specific team members or external collaborators. Remember that drawing up a marketing
plan is not a one-and-done deal. Observe your marketing environment and make changes to
the plan as needed.
Now you have a digital marketing plan, you're ready to get to work implementing it. Allow
some wiggle room for trying new ideas and switching from tactics that aren’t working. Using
marketing project management tools like Wrike provides a bird-eye view of your marketing
campaigns and projects.

Content management (CM) is the process for collection, delivery, retrieval, governance and
overall management of information in any format. The term is typically used in reference to
administration of the digital content lifecycle, from creation to permanent storage or deletion.
The content involved may be images, video, audio and multimedia as well as text.

Content management process

Content management practices and processes can vary by purpose and organization. This can
lead to differences in steps or terminology.

The stages of the content management lifecycle are the following:

1. Organization. The first stage where categories are created, taxonomies designed
and classification schemes developed.
 2. Creation. Content is classified into architectural categories.
3. Storage. Content format and storage decisions are made based on ease of access,
delivery, security and other factors dependent on the organization's needs.
4. Workflow. Rules are designed to keep content moving through various roles
while maintaining consistency with the organization's policies.
5. Editing/versioning. This step involves managing multiple content versions and
presentation changes.
6. Publishing. The stage where content is delivered to users, which can be defined
as website visitors or internal publishing via the Intranet for employees.
7. Removal/archives. The final stage where content is deleted or moved to
an archive when it is infrequently accessed or obsolete.

Content governance
Content governance provides content creators with structure and guidelines. Digital content
management governance can help determine priorities, provide detailed standards, assign
ownership for content and provide access control. This helps to create a consistent user
experience, minimize content bloat and create internal controls.

Common governance tools that organizations use include content workflows, taxonomies and
style guides, along with records management tools which include audit trails for compliance.

Types of digital content management

For just about every category of digital content, there is a corresponding tool or process for
managing it.

Social media content management. Social media content management tools help to create
an organized social media marketing strategy with defined goals and to analyze engagement.
Some social media content management systems include Sprout Social, Google Analytics and
BuzzSumo.
Web content management. Web content management is used to create, manage and display
webpages. A web content management system (WCMS) is a program that provides
organizations with a way to manage digital information on a website without prior knowledge
of web programming and can include components for a specific industry, such as a content
management application (CMA) that automates the production of HTML.
Mobile content management. Mobile content management (MCM) provides secure access
to corporate data on smartphones, tablets and other devices. The main components of MCM
are file storage and file sharing.
Enterprise content management. An enterprise content management (ECM) system has
components that help enterprises manage data effectively. ECM components are geared to
goals such as streamlining access, eliminating bottlenecks and minimizing overhead, along
with version control, routing, archiving, content governance and security

What is a SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool whose acronyms stand for:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

It’s a great way for companies to take a step back, analyze their current situation, and identify
areas for improvement and growth.

A SWOT analysis can be applied in a variety of settings, but when it comes to digital
marketing, it can be used to understand the current digital environment better, and identify
areas where the business may have an advantage or disadvantage.

This analysis can help businesses figure out which digital marketing channels are most
effective, and which need improvement.

It can also be used to identify potential opportunities and threats that could affect the success
of the current digital marketing strategy.

How to Do a SWOT Analysis for Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Step 1: Identify Your Strengths

The first step in conducting a SWOT analysis is to identify the strengths of your digital
marketing strategy.

This includes looking at things like your website, content, social media presence, SEO
efforts, and any other digital marketing activities you’re currently engaged in.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What advantages do I have over my competitors?

• What digital marketing activities are working well for me?
• What resources do I have that my competitors don’t?
• What unique skills or expertise do I have that gives me an advantage?

Step 2: Identify Your Weaknesses

The next step is to identify the weaknesses of your digital marketing strategy.

This includes looking at things like website design, content quality, social media engagement,
and any other digital marketing activities you’re currently engaged in.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What areas of my digital marketing strategy are lacking?

• What resources do I need to improve my digital marketing efforts?
• What skills or expertise do I need to develop?
• What areas of my digital marketing are not performing as well as they should be?

Step 3: Identify the Opportunities

The third step in a SWOT analysis is to identify the opportunities available to you.

This includes looking at things like new digital marketing channels, emerging technologies,
and any other opportunities that could help you improve your digital marketing efforts.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What new digital marketing channels could I use to reach my target audience?
• What new technologies could I use to improve my digital marketing efforts?
• What partnerships or collaborations could I pursue to further my digital marketing
goals?
• What trends or developments could I capitalize on to further my digital marketing
efforts?

Step 4: Identify the Threats

The last step in conducting a SWOT analysis is to identify the threats to your digital
marketing efforts.

This includes looking at things like competitors, changing digital landscapes, and any other
threats that could impact your digital marketing strategy.

Ask yourself questions like:

• How are my competitors using digital marketing to their advantage?

• What changes in the digital landscape could affect my digital marketing efforts?
• What new technologies could disrupt my digital marketing strategy?
• What new regulations or policies could limit my digital marketing efforts?

SWOT Analysis: Your Key to Digital Marketing Success

A SWOT analysis is a great way to gain a better understanding of your digital marketing
strategy and identify areas for improvement and growth.

By taking the time to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can
develop a more effective digital marketing strategy and maximize the success of your digital
marketing efforts.
.

What is audience analysis?

Audience analysis is the research of demographics, language, location, preferences, interests,

and other metrics within a group. It is then analyzed to provide useful and actionable
consumer insights for a brand in the form of buyer personas. These are semi-fictionalized
profiles that are built from your target audience analysis.
There was a time when this kind of analysis was a painstaking and time-consuming process
that all but required you to hire an agency to help you complete it if you wanted to be sure the
information you were getting would be useful and properly sourced.
But the world has changed, and today’s consumers are sharing key details across digital
channels through brand interactions, ratings and reviews, and even their own content to help
you understand more about their needs.
The pace of campaigns has also ramped up, making it difficult to keep up with conventional
methods. Thankfully, the age of digital and social media analytics has also made gathering
the information you need more efficient.
The analytics tools we now have access to have sped up research and data collection
significantly. What would have taken months of work before can be completed in a few
clicks- whether it's data on your own audiences or if you’re keeping track of your
competitors’ performance.
This isn’t to say agencies have been made obsolete. On the contrary, a combined approach
can be the best method to collect as much valuable information about your audiences as
possible.
On the other hand, agencies are always looking to keep up with client demands and deliver
the best actionable data possible. With multiple clients running an increasing number of
campaigns simultaneously, digital audience analysis seems the only way to go.
Here are some of the insights that an audience analysis can provide:
1. Demographics: Who are your target customers? What is their age, location, income
level, education, occupation, and other key demographic information?
2. Psychographics: What are the attitudes, values, beliefs, interests, hobbies, and
lifestyle choices of your target audience? What motivates and drives them?
3. Behaviors: What are the purchasing habits, buying preferences, and decision-making
processes of your target customers? How frequently do they make purchases related
to your products or services?
4. Channels: Where does your target audience spend their time online and offline?
Which social media platforms, websites, blogs, or publications do they frequent? Do
they prefer email, or are they more likely to engage through other channels?
5. Competitive analysis: How does your target audience engage with your competitors?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors' marketing strategies
when it comes to reaching and engaging with the target audience?
 6. Pain points: What are the challenges, problems, or unmet needs that your target
audience faces? How does your product or service address those pain points or fulfill
their needs?
7. Customer satisfaction: How satisfied are your existing customers with your brand?
What are their feedback, reviews, and testimonials? What aspects of your brand do
they appreciate the most, and what areas need improvement?
8. Messaging: What language, tone, and style resonate with your target audience? How
can you effectively share your brand message to engage and connect with them?
9. Brand perception: How do your target customers perceive your brand? What are
their associations, perceptions, and emotions when they encounter your brand? Is your
brand aligned with their values and preferences?
10. Customer journey: What are the different stages of the customer journey, from
awareness to conversion and retention? What touchpoints and interactions are crucial
for guiding them through each stage?

Why is audience analysis important?

Why should you be using audience analysis as the cornerstone of your marketing strategies?
You’re likely already familiar with the stages that make up the marketing funnel, although its
form and structure are continually in debate (The funnel died to make way for the
flywheel, which also died, bringing us back to the funnel).
The key is to understand that a buyer’s journey goes through some sort of stages, and
agreeing what those look like are different for each audience and company. Broadly, they
tend to fall into similar buckets to the following:
1. Awareness: Create brand awareness and attract attention.
2. Interest: Generate curiosity and capture potential customers' attention.
3. Consideration: Provide information and address concerns to facilitate evaluation.
4. Conversion: Turn interested prospects into paying customers.
5. Retention: Focus on customer satisfaction and encourage repeat business.
6. Advocacy: Leverage satisfied customers to promote your brand.
Each of these steps requires different kinds of content and timing, but what they share is a
reliance on you understanding who your audiences are, where should you be reaching them –
with what content, at what time, and how much will you have to spend to convert them?
To answer those questions, marketers rely on as much data as possible, and today’s
consumers are typically happy to share or organically show your brand key data to fuel
insights into your audience analysis. Investment into this type of research can offer deeper
insights and calibrate each step of your buyer’s journey.

What is Web Design?

Web design refers to the design of websites that are displayed on the internet. It usually refers
to the user experience aspects of website development rather than software development.
Web design used to be focused on designing websites for desktop browsers; however, since
the mid-2010s, design for mobile and tablet browsers has become ever-increasingly
important.

A web designer works on the appearance, layout, and, in some cases, content of a website.
Appearance, for instance, relates to the colors, font, and images used. Layout refers
to how information is structured and categorized. A good web design is easy to use,
aesthetically pleasing, and suits the user group and brand of the website. Many webpages are
designed with a focus on simplicity, so that no extraneous information and functionality that
might distract or confuse users appears. As the keystone of a web designer’s output is a site
that wins and fosters the trust of the target audience, removing as many potential points of
user frustration as possible is a critical consideration.

Two of the most common methods for designing websites that work well both on desktop and
mobile are responsive and adaptive design. In responsive design, content moves
dynamically depending on screen size; in adaptive design, the website content is fixed in
layout sizes that match common screen sizes. Preserving a layout that is as consistent as
possible between devices is crucial to maintaining user trust and engagement. As responsive
design can present difficulties in this regard, designers must be careful in relinquishing
control of how their work will appear. If they are responsible for the content as well, while
they may need to broaden their skillset, they will enjoy having the advantage of full control
of the finished product.

What is website optimization?

Website optimization is the process of using controlled experimentation to improve a
website’s ability to drive business goals. To improve the performance of their website,
website owners implement A/B testing to experiment with variations on pages of their
website to determine which changes will ultimately result in more conversions (eg. demo
requests, increases in organic search results, more purchases, reduced customer service time,
etc.).

How to optimize your website step-by-step

Website optimization follows the same principles used in conversion rate optimization and is
based on the scientific method.
Determine the objective of your website optimization. Different business types will have
different objectives you will want to optimize for. For example, if you ran an eCommerce
website, you’d want to figure out how to increase purchases and average order values (AOV).
To do this, a website owner will conduct quantitative and qualitative research on key pages of
the website that affect the ultimate goal of the site. For instance, the homepage is often a
valuable area to conduct A/B tests, since much of the website’s traffic arrives on this page
first. It is important that visitors immediately understand what the company offers, and that
they can find their way to the second step (a click).
Come up with your best guesses on how to impact your objective. After identifying the top-
level goal to improve, you should identify under-performing points on a web page and begins
to formulate a hypothesis for how these elements could be tested to improve conversion rates.
Create a list of variables that your experiment will test. Changes can be created in variations
and run as experiments in an A/B split testing tool.

Run the experiment. Make sure when you’re running the experiment that you gather enough
data to make your conclusions statistically significant. You don’t want to base your business
decisions on inconclusive data sets.

Measure the results, draw conclusions and then iterate. The results of an experiment will
show whether or not the changes to the website element produced an improvement. A
winning variation can become the new baseline, and tested iteratively as more ideas for
improvement are generated. A losing test is still a valuable learning opportunity, and can
provide direction on what to try next in the optimization process.
Website optimization can offer many measurable business benefits if done correctly. First,
the process of website optimization determines the best version of web page elements that
help visitors to accomplish a certain goal. Optimization improves the efficiency of the
website at converting visitor traffic into email subscribers, readers, or paying customers. In
turn, improved efficiency leads to greater ROI on customer acquisition and traffic-generating
campaigns such as web searches, Google AdWords, social media, and email marketing.

The goals of website optimization

The goals of a website will vary depending upon the type of business, the business’ target
customers, and the desired action of that audience: a purchase, filling out a form, or reading
an article. The desired action of a website visitor can also be conversions, or the number of
audience members who complete a certain action.
For instance:
• An online publication practices website optimization with the conversion goal of
increasing the number of articles visitors read.
• An online store optimizes its website to encourage completion of checkouts and
repeat purchases.
• An online software company optimizes its website to improve the rate at which
visitors sign up for (or convert to) a free trial of the product.
• An insurance company optimizes its website to capture more potential leads for
insurance coverage sales.
• A fundraising campaign optimizes their donation form to encourage more donations.
8 elements of websites to optimize
Depending on the company’s goal, website optimization could include testing:
• A headline, or key messages related to the company’s value proposition.
• The use of visual media, like photography or a video.
• The length of a form, varying the number of required fields or the order of
completion.
• The prominent display of customer case studies that describes their success using your
product or service.
• The visual style, text, and placement of a call to action (CTA) button or link.
• The organization of the website’s navigation.
• The placement of social sharing functionality.
 • The appearance and organization of the webpage for a visitor on a mobile device.
Landing pages for marketing campaigns are also often an area of a website that can be
optimized, because of the high-quality traffic that is being sent there by ads, email, or social
media. Website owners can also conduct website optimization on multi-page processes on
their websites, like a free trial signup, a checkout funnel, or any multi-page form.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s a set of processes aimed at improving your
website’s visibility in search engines (such as Google). All with the goal of getting more
organic traffic.

Essentially, SEO is about fulfilling users’ search needs by creating relevant, high-quality
content and providing the best possible user experience.

SEO activities can take place both on-site and off-site. That’s why you may often see SEO
divided into “on-page” and ”off-page” categories.

In practice, SEO typically involves:

• Keyword research
• Content creation and optimization
• Technical optimization
• Link building

Why Is SEO Important?

Every day, Google users conduct billions of searches for information and products. It’s no
surprise that search engines are usually one of the biggest traffic sources to websites.

To harness this traffic source’s potential, you need to appear in the top search results for your
target keywords.

The correlation is very simple—the higher you rank, the more people will visit your page.
The No. 1 organic result is 10x more likely to receive a click than a page ranking in position
No. 10.

And the top three organic results get more than 50% of all the clicks.
This is where SEO enters the picture.

Search engine optimization plays a key role in improving your ranking positions. Better
rankings mean more traffic. And more traffic means new customers and more brand
awareness.

In other words, neglecting SEO would mean neglecting one of the most important traffic
channels—leaving that space completely to your competitors.

How Do Search Engines Work?

The ultimate goal of any search engine is to make searchers happy with the results they find.

To achieve this, search engines need to find the best pages and serve them as the top search
results.

Side note: Google is not the only search engine. But it is by far the most popular one. That’s
why we refer to Google any time we talk about search engines. Besides, SEO fundamentals
are fairly similar across most search engines.
Google uses the following stages to find and rank content:
1. Crawling: Google uses “bots,” or computer programs, to crawl the web and look for
new or updated pages. In order for Google to find a page, the page should have at
least one link pointing to it.
2. Indexing: Next, Google analyzes each page and tries to make sense of what the page
is about. Then, it stores this information in the Google Index—a huge database of
webpages.
3. Serving results: When a user enters a query, Google determines which pages are the
best, in terms of both quality and relevance, and ranks them in the SERP.

Your job as a website owner is to help search engines crawl and index all the pages on your
site that you want them to. (And none of them that you don’t.)

You can ensure the crawlability and indexability of your pages through a number of actions
and best practices that are commonly referred to as technical SEO.
(Read our guide to technical SEO to learn more.)

Now that you understand how Google finds and categorizes pages, it’s time to take a closer
look at how the top results are selected and the role of SEO in this process.

How Does SEO Work?

Google uses relatively complex processes, known as “algorithms,” to rank pages. These
algorithms take into account a huge number of ranking factors to decide where a specific
page should rank.
However, knowing the basic factors can help you better understand how SEO works and
what it takes to optimize your pages to rank in Google.

Ensuring Relevance

Your No. 1 job in SEO is to ensure that you're offering relevant content.

Why? Because Google’s No. 1 job is to show users relevant results.

Relevance is much more than just showing pages about dogs, not cats, when someone
searches for “dogs.” It is also about satisfying the user’s search intent—the reason why they
used a particular search query.

There are four types of search intent:

• Navigational (e.g., “spotify login”)

• Informational (e.g., “what is spotify”)
• Commercial (e.g., “spotify review”)
• Transactional (e.g., “spotify premium”)

Here’s an example:

If you search for “best dog food,” you don’t want to see articles about different types of dog
diets or recipes for homemade dog food. Both would be topically relevant, but they do not
fulfill your search intent.

Google knows, based on the behavior of millions of other users, that if you search for “best
dog food,” you almost certainly want to buy dog food.
That’s why Google ranks either product pages or reviews of the best dog food products (i.e.,
the search intent is either transactional or commercial).

So, how do you make sure your page fulfills the intent behind a search query?

Luckily, Google does all the hard work. All you need to do is look at the search results and
analyze what you see.

Things you need to consider to create relevant content:

•Topical relevance: One of the ways Google determines a page’s topic is by looking at
the keywords that appear on the page. Optimize your pages for keywords, but avoid
overdoing it.
• Type of content: Make sure your page provides the right type of content for the query
by looking at what types of results rank for the keyword (e.g., landing pages,
product pages, informational posts, reviews, etc.).
• Content freshness: Some types of topics, such as news updates or product reviews,
require fresh, frequently updated information. If the search query is time-sensitive,
you need to ensure your content will also stay up to date.
• Location: Google may serve different results based on a searcher’s location. If this is
the case, you need to adjust your strategy accordingly (e.g., if you run a local
business, follow local SEO best practices).
Where to Start?

Keywords are the backbone of any SEO strategy. They help you identify the topics your
audience is searching for so you can target those topics with relevant content.

Start by conducting keyword research. (You’ll need a keyword tool to do that.)

You’ll be able to identify both your target keywords and the type of content you need to
fulfill the search intent. Get started with this detailed, step-by-step keyword research guide.
Creating Quality Content

Finding the right keywords is just the first step.

You also need to create content that will rank for those keywords. Content creation and
optimization are two irreplaceable parts of SEO.

When asked about the most important factor to rank in the top search results, John Mueller of
Google answered with a single word:

To rank well in Google, you need to create content that is literally among the top 10 pieces on
a given topic. There are 10 organic results on the first page of each SERP, and that’s where
you want to be.

Here are a few key things that separate high-quality content from mediocre content:

•Comprehensiveness: Cover the topic thoroughly and answer all the questions a
visitor might have. It’s not about word count. Ensure that each page gives searchers
a complete resource.
• Uniqueness: Your content should not be a compilation of the top results. It should
always provide some added value—whether it is a unique angle, useful data, helpful
examples, or original visuals.
• E-A-T signals: Google pays a lot of attention to Expertise, Authoritativeness, and
Trustworthiness (E-A-T). You should provide accurate and reliable information, be
an expert on what you write about, and demonstrate it both on-site and off-site.
• Readability: Your text should be easy to read. This includes structuring your content
logically, writing short sentences, avoiding passive voice, having a consistent tone
of voice, etc.
Where to Start?

Once you’ve conducted keyword research, it’s time to start creating content.
It’s difficult to measure the quality of content exactly, but a tool like SEO Writing
Assistant can help. The tool evaluates your content in four categories—Readability, SEO,
Originality, and Tone of Voice—and suggests improvements.

Providing Great Usability

Google prefers user-friendly websites.

Technical SEO plays an important role here again. Besides ensuring the crawlability and
indexability of your website, SEO also makes sure your website meets usability standards.

This includes factors like:

• Site security: Your website should meet standard security criteria, like having an SSL
certificate (using HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP).
• Page speed: Google ranks faster pages higher in the search results because they
provide a better user experience.
• Mobile friendliness: Google evaluates your content based on its performance on a
mobile device—this is called “mobile-first indexing.” Mobile SEO ensures that
mobile users are able to consume your content easily.
• Ease of use: You should have an easy-to-follow website structure that allows visitors
to find everything quickly. And navigate through your site without any problems or
obstructions.

Google Ads: Definition

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 Ads accounts are managed online, so you can create and change your ad
campaign at any time, including your ad text, settings, and budget.
• There's no minimum spending commitment, and you set and control your own budget.
You choose where your ad appears, set a budget that's comfortable for you, and easily
measure the impact of your ad.

Grow your business with Google Ads

Online advertising lets you target your ads to the type of customers you want, and filter out
those you don't. When you advertise online with Google Ads, you can use different targeting
methods to reach potential customers right when they're searching for your products or
services.

Reach your marketing goals

Take advantage of different ad formats and features to customize your ads to your different
business goals, like adding a clickable "Call" button to your ads to get more phone calls, or
using video ads to showcase your brand. Here are some common marketing goals that could
work for you:

• Take action on your website

• Visit your store
• Call your business
• Install your app

Target your ads with keywords

When you advertise alongside search results on the Google Search Network, you select
keywords to help target your ads to people searching for related terms. You can also choose
to show your ads at certain times of day, and specify a location and language.

Get specific about your target audience

When you advertise on websites and mobile apps that show Google ads (called the Google
Display Network) and YouTube, you can get even more specific by choosing the age of the
people you want to reach, the types of sites they visit, and their areas of interest.

Only pay for results

You decide how much you want to spend, and pay only when someone interacts with your
ad, like clicking your text ad or watching your video ad. You base your bids on whatever is
best for your business.

Measure your ad’s performance

Quickly track your ad's effectiveness and easily make changes to improve results.

Advertise across platforms

Connect with customers no matter where they are—on their computers, tablets, mobile
phones, even in apps.

See how other businesses used Google Ads to find new customers.

Sign up for a Google Ads account today and follow along with this guide.
You can control your Google Ads budget

With cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, you're charged only when someone is interested enough
to click your ad. You tell Google Ads the most you're willing to pay for a click on your ad
(called the maximum cost-per-click bid), but you could be charged less.

You have control over your Google Ads budget. You decide the average amount you want to
spend each day.

On the days when your ad is more popular, Google Ads will allow up to 2 times more of your
average daily budget so you won't miss out on those valuable clicks. Your budget will be
lower on other days, so you won't be charged more than your average daily budget multiplied
by the average number of days in a month.

Find out more about how to set your Google Ads budget.

Sign up for a Google Ads account today and follow along with this guide
Where your ads will appear on Google

Before you take advantage of all that online marketing can do for your business, make sure
you understand the difference between paid advertising and organic search results.

Let's say someone conducts a Google search for products or services related to your business
while you're advertising with Google Ads, Google's online advertising platform.

• Section 1 can contain ads. Ads can appear on the top or bottom of the Google search
results page next to or under an "Ads" label. Ads are ranked primarily based on how
relevant and useful they are to what the person searched for, your bid, and a few other
factors.
• Section 2 is made up of "organic" search results. These are unpaid links to
websites with content related directly to what the person searched for. The more
relevant the site is to the search term, the higher the link will appear in the list. Your
related website could appear here, but your ad won't.

Create a Google Ads account: How to sign up

Account setup
Next: Set up your first campaign

Sign up with Google Ads to start reaching new customers with online ads tailored to your
business goals and budget. This guide walks you through creating your Google Ads account
and setting up your first ad campaign.

Note: Newly created accounts will no longer support URLs in the account name.

SIGN UP FOR GOOGLE ADS

Instructions
To get started with Google Ads, it just takes 3 simple steps: add your business information,
select your campaign goals and budget, and enter your payment details.

You’ll also have the opportunity to setup conversion measurement as the final step: so you
can measure important actions people take on your ads and website.

Add business information

About your business

To start the signup process, you’ll be prompted to add your business information (name and
URL) for faster campaign setup. By providing Google with your details upfront, this allows
for pre-filling of information later on in the process and allows Google to best tailor the
signup process to your needs.

Link Accounts

At this stage, you’ll also have the opportunity to link your existing accounts – including a
YouTube channel, and Google Business Profile account – which will help with faster
campaign setup. By linking your accounts in the sign up flow, Google saves you time by
automatically suggesting keywords and headlines for campaigns for you to review.

At this stage, you also have the option to create an account without a campaign.

Tip
Do you need more people to access your new Google Ads account? You can invite them after
you create your account and sign in to Google Ads. Learn more About access levels in your
Google Ads account

Add billing information

Set up your billing information by following these steps:

1. Click the “Billing country” drop-down menu and select the country or territory where
your billing address is located. Your billing country determines the billing options that
are available for your location and currency.
2. Make sure the correct time zone is selected. If not, click the drop-down menu to
change it. Your reports, statistics, and billing are all affected by the time zone you
select, so choose carefully.
3. If you have a promotional code (also known as coupons or vouchers), enter the code
in “Introductory offer” and click Apply.
4. You'll be prompted to either select an existing payment profile or create a new one.
Your “Account type” defaults to “Organization” but you can change to “Individual” if
appropriate, for tax purposes in your country.
5. Enter information for the payment method you want to use for this account, such as a
credit or debit card, PayPal, or bank account.
 Note: If you're using a credit or debit card, you might see a temporary authorization
on your card account, which is typically removed within a week. The exact amount
will be shown in your Ads account during sign-up.

6. Click Submit to create your campaign and complete your account setup.

Fix a problem with creating or signing in to a Google Account

• If you have trouble creating an account, read about common issues and solutions.
• If you're getting an error that you have an invalid email address, read about invalid
email addresses.
• If you have a problem finding the verification email or verifying your account, check
out these common verification issues and solutions. Or, find out what to do if
you entered the wrong email address during sign-up.
• If you get an error that the email already exists, learn how to reclaim your Google
Account.