Web Design

# Website structure and front-end development Website structure and front-end development forms the foundation of how users interact with online content. ## 1. Website structure and front-end development Front-end code for websites is composed of three core elements: HTML for structure, CSS for layout and design, and JavaScript for interactivity. These elements work together to create a functional and engaging user experience. ### 1.1 The building blocks of front-end development * **HTML (HyperText Markup Language):** This is the fundamental language used to create the basic structure and content of a webpage. It defines elements like headings, paragraphs, images, and links. * **CSS (Cascading Style Sheets):** CSS is responsible for the visual presentation of a webpage. It dictates where elements are placed, how they look (colors, fonts, spacing), and the overall design. * **JavaScript:** This programming language adds interactivity to webpages. It enables dynamic elements such as animations, responsive forms, pop-ups, sliders, and video playback, enhancing user engagement. ### 1.2 Responsiveness Responsiveness is the ability of a website to automatically adapt its layout and content to fit the screen size of the user's device, ensuring optimal viewing and usability across desktops, tablets, and smartphones. This means a website looks and functions well on any device, regardless of its pixel dimensions. ### 1.3 Bootstrap framework Bootstrap is a widely used, free, and open-source front-end framework that simplifies and speeds up website development. It provides a collection of pre-built components and styles, significantly reducing the need to code everything from scratch. #### 1.3.1 Advantages of Bootstrap * **Responsive design:** Built-in features ensure websites adapt to different screen sizes. * **Cross-browser compatibility:** Helps maintain consistent appearance and functionality across various web browsers. * **Short development time:** Reusable components and a structured approach accelerate the building process. * **Flexibility:** Offers customization options to tailor designs. * **Free:** It is an open-source project available at no cost. #### 1.3.2 Disadvantages of Bootstrap * **Unnecessary code:** May include code that is not used for a specific project, potentially increasing file sizes. * **Similar look and feel:** As many websites use Bootstrap, there's a tendency for them to share a similar aesthetic. #### 1.3.3 How Bootstrap works Bootstrap primarily consists of: * **CSS:** Predefined styles for elements like colors, buttons, text, forms, and navigation menus. * **JavaScript:** Functions for interactive elements such as sliders, pop-ups, and navigation menus. * **Grid system:** A fixed system of columns and rows that aids in aligning content and automatically making it responsive. This eliminates the need for manual design and calculations for responsiveness. > **Tip:** Think of Bootstrap as the "Ikea of the internet"; it provides ready-made components that save significant development time compared to building everything from the ground up. ### 1.4 Internal website structure The internal structure of a website describes how its pages and content are interconnected. A well-organized structure is crucial for both users and search engines to navigate and understand the site. #### 1.4.1 Key components of internal structure * **Homepage:** The entry point of the website, offering an overview of key content and actions. * **Navigation (menu):** Guides users to find specific pages easily. * **Category and subpages:** Logically organize content into sections (e.g., products, services, blog posts). * **Landing pages:** Specifically designed for marketing campaigns to drive conversions. * **Footer:** Contains supplementary information like contact details, links, and social media icons. #### 1.4.2 Importance for digital marketing * **Improved user experience:** Easy navigation and logical flow lead to higher user satisfaction. * **Increased conversions:** A clear path to desired actions helps users complete goals. * **Better SEO:** Search engines can better understand and rank websites with clear structures. * **Defined customer journey:** Users can easily follow a path from discovery to conversion. #### 1.4.3 Internal linking Internal linking involves creating links between pages within the same website. This practice assists both users and search engines in discovering and understanding content. ##### 1.4.3.1 Good internal linking practices * Pages are logically connected. * Important pages receive ample internal links. * Links are relevant and clear to the user. * Visitors can quickly find additional information. > **Result:** Improved user experience, higher SEO scores, and increased conversion rates. ##### 1.4.3.2 Poor internal linking practices * Pages are disconnected. * Important pages receive few or no links. * Links are unclear or irrelevant. * Users and search engines get lost easily. > **Result:** Lower findability, poorer user experience, and reduced marketing campaign effectiveness. > **Tip:** Effective internal linking acts as a roadmap, guiding both users and search engines efficiently through your website. ### 1.5 Dark patterns Dark patterns are deceptive design techniques used on websites and apps to subtly steer users into actions that primarily benefit the company rather than the user. Common examples include: * Hard-to-find unsubscribe buttons. * Confusing language in subscription or cookie agreements. * Pre-checked opt-in boxes. * Hidden extra costs revealed only at the end of a process. ### 1.6 Call to action (CTA) A Call to Action is a crucial design element that prompts users to take a specific desired action. It is particularly important "above the fold" – the portion of a webpage visible without scrolling. ### 1.7 Web accessibility Web accessibility ensures that websites are designed to be usable by people with disabilities, including those with physical, motor, visual, or auditory impairments, as well as individuals with cognitive conditions. This ensures an inclusive online experience for all users. ### 1.8 Website purpose and branding #### 1.8.1 Website purpose The purpose of a website dictates what users are looking for and what the business aims to achieve. A clear purpose guides design and marketing efforts, leading to better focus and results. Common purposes include: * Showing expertise. * Creating awareness. * Generating sales. * Lead generation. #### 1.8.2 Branding and consistency Consistency across all digital channels and devices is vital for strong branding. This includes: * **Visual style:** Consistent use of colors, fonts, logos, and layout, often guided by a style guide. * **Writing style:** Uniformity in how text is structured. * **Tone of voice:** Maintaining a consistent brand personality (e.g., formal, informal, playful). * **Message:** Communicating the core brand message uniformly. This consistency applies to websites, social media, email, apps, and advertisements, across desktop, tablet, and smartphone interfaces. ### 1.9 Core Web Vitals Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics developed by Google that measure the qualitative user experience on a web page. Good Core Web Vitals scores contribute to better search engine rankings and improved user experience. They are the three pillars of page experience: * **Loading performance:** How quickly content appears on the screen. * **Responsiveness:** How quickly the page reacts to user input. * **Visual stability:** Whether elements shift unexpectedly on the screen while loading. #### 1.9.1 Key Core Web Vitals metrics * **Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):** Measures the time it takes for the largest content element on the page to load. A good LCP score should be within 2.5 seconds or less. * **Interaction to Next Paint (INP):** Observes the latency of all user interactions (clicks, taps, keyboard input) with a page throughout its lifespan, reporting the longest duration while ignoring outliers. A low INP indicates consistent and quick responsiveness to most user interactions. * **Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):** Measures how much visual content shifts unexpectedly on the page during loading. A stable page prevents users from accidentally clicking the wrong elements. #### 1.9.2 Fixing Core Web Vitals issues * Optimize images through compression or proper sizing. * Use a faster hosting service. * Reduce the size of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files. * Minimize the number of features added to a page. * Pay attention to other user experience metrics like content readability. * Implement caching to reduce server load. > **Tip:** While Core Web Vitals are important for ranking, a website with excellent content can still rank well even if it doesn't pass all Web Vital tests. ### 1.10 SEO Fundamentals and Techniques Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves several key areas: #### 1.10.1 The SEO process The SEO process can be broadly understood as: 1. **Crawling:** Search engine bots (crawlers) discover pages by following links. They read HTML and CSS code and click on all links to gather information. 2. **Indexing:** Google stores and understands the content of the discovered pages. 3. **Ranking:** Google determines the order in which pages are displayed in search results. #### 1.10.2 Key SEO elements * **Backlinks:** Links from other websites to yours are considered "votes" of trust and authority. More high-quality backlinks generally lead to better rankings. * **Keywords:** * **Short-tail keywords:** Short, general search terms (e.g., "laptops"). * **Long-tail keywords:** Longer, more specific search terms (e.g., "best budget gaming laptop under 1000 dollars"). * **Meta description:** A brief summary of a webpage that appears under the title in Google search results, influencing click-through rates. * **Title tag:** The title of a webpage that appears in Google search results and the browser tab, crucial for SEO. * **Pillar content principle:** A comprehensive main page (pillar page) on a specific topic that links to multiple subpages providing detailed information. #### 1.10.3 Technical SEO Technical SEO focuses on improving a website's ability to be crawled and indexed by search engines. * **Robots.txt & meta-robots:** These files and tags tell search engine bots which pages they can and cannot index. * **HTTPS certificates:** Secure websites (HTTPS) build trust and are a ranking factor. Unsecured HTTP sites are flagged as "not safe," deterring visitors. > **Example:** WhatsApp uses encryption, similar to how HTTPS encrypts data between a user and a website. To rank well in Google, having an HTTPS server is essential. * **URL structure & XML sitemap:** Clear URLs and an XML sitemap (a digital roadmap of the website) help Google understand the site's structure and index pages efficiently. * **Core Web Vitals:** As mentioned earlier, these measure loading speed, interactivity, and stability. * **Responsiveness:** Websites must function well on all devices. #### 1.10.4 Content optimization Content is king in SEO. Key considerations include: * **Make your site interesting and useful:** Provide value to users. * **Freshness matters:** Google considers how recently content was updated. * **Authorship information:** Google tries to identify the author of content. * **Clicks and engagement:** Optimize for click-through rates and user interaction. * **Link wisely:** * Use descriptive anchor text. * Link to relevant and authoritative external sources. * Use `nofollow` for spammy comments. * **Optimize images:** Use descriptive filenames and alt text attributes. * **Structured data:** Employ formats like JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa with Schema.org vocabulary to provide search engines with more context about your content (e.g., product details, reviews, recipes). #### 1.10.5 Authority Authority, often referred to as trustworthiness, is a significant ranking factor. * **Google's stance:** While Google officially denies a single "authority score," leaked documents suggest a "siteAuthority" attribute exists, reflecting overall trust. * **Domain Authority (DA) vs. Page Authority (PA):** DA refers to the authority of the entire website, while PA pertains to the authority of a specific page. * **Factors influencing authority:** * **Backlinks:** High-quality, relevant backlinks from reputable sites are crucial. * **Content Quality:** In-depth, accurate, and valuable content showcasing expertise. * **Domain age and history:** Older domains with a clean reputation often have more trust. * **Overall user experience (UX).** * **Link types:** * **Follow links:** Pass SEO value ("link juice") to the linked page. * **Nofollow links:** Do not pass direct SEO value but can drive traffic and visibility. * **Google Bombing/Bowling:** Historically, manipulating backlinks to artificially boost rankings was a tactic, but Google's algorithms, particularly updates like Penguin, have made this less effective and punishable. * **Navboost:** A Google ranking system that refines results based on user navigation, considering factors like location and device type to prioritize local results and analyze user interactions. ### 1.11 Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Features SERP features are additional elements beyond standard organic search results that provide more information or interactive experiences. * **Featured Snippets:** Direct answers to informal queries (definitions, comparisons, step-by-step instructions) displayed in a box at the top of results. To rank here, identify relevant queries, structure content clearly (paragraph, list, table), use subheadings, and provide concise answers. * **AI Overviews:** AI-generated summaries citing multiple sources, appearing at the very top for broad informational queries. Ranking here requires crawlable, comprehensive, up-to-date content demonstrating E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). * **Google Ads (Search Ads):** Paid advertisements, labeled "Sponsored," that appear above or below organic results. They can include various assets like sitelinks and callouts. They appear for commercial or transactional queries. To rank, win the Ad Rank auction through a combination of bid and quality score. * **Local Pack:** A map with three local business listings, showing contact details, reviews, and links. It appears for queries with local intent. To rank, focus on acquiring and responding to reviews, using LocalBusiness schema, and building local backlinks. * **People Also Ask (PAA) Boxes:** Expandable related questions with answers and source links, helping users explore topics further. To rank, research PAA questions, use them as headings, and provide clear, concise answers in the format of existing snippets. * **Rich Snippets:** Enhanced search results with extra information like star ratings, prices, or FAQs. They are achieved by using structured data (Schema.org) and correct markup. * **Discussions and Forums:** Results highlighting threads from platforms like Reddit or Quora, useful for advice and experience-based searches. * **Image Packs:** Grids or rows of images pulled into SERPs for visual-heavy searches. Rank by using original, relevant images with descriptive filenames and alt text, and ensuring fast loading times. * **Knowledge Panels:** Information boxes about entities (people, brands, places) for entity or navigation searches. Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile, maintain consistent identity information, and earn authoritative mentions. * **Video Carousels:** When Google determines video content is the best answer for a query. Rank by creating engaging thumbnails, uploading to YouTube, and using VideoObject schema markup if hosting on your own site. ### 1.12 Search Engine Advertising (SEA) basics Search Engine Advertising involves paid placements in search engine results. #### 1.12.1 Match types Match types determine how closely a user's search query must align with your chosen keywords for your ad to be displayed. * **Broad match:** The most flexible type; the search query doesn't need to literally contain the keyword but should be related in meaning. * **Phrase match:** The search query must contain the meaning or phrase of your keyword. * **Exact match:** The search query must be very close to your keyword. > **Trend Alert:** Broad Match is becoming the standard, often paired with Smart Bidding. Exact Match now considers intent and meaning, blurring the lines between match types. * **Negative keywords:** Terms for which you do not want your ad to appear, saving costs and reducing irrelevant clicks. #### 1.12.2 Ad Rank Ad Rank determines whether your ad is shown and its position in the search results. It is calculated by: * **CPC bid (Cost Per Click):** How much you're willing to pay per click. * **Quality Score:** A measure of your ad's relevance and performance. **Quality Score is determined by:** * **Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR):** The likelihood of users clicking your ad. * **Ad Relevance:** How well your ad matches the user's search query. * **Landing Page Experience:** Whether your landing page is relevant, clear, fast, and mobile-friendly. Additional factors like ad rank thresholds and auction context also play a role. Using ad assets (sitelinks, callouts) can further increase Ad Rank. #### 1.12.3 Google Ads Structure Google Ads are organized hierarchically: * **Campaign:** The highest level, defining budget, locations, and bid strategy. * **Ad Group:** Contains keywords and targets specific audiences. * **Ads:** The actual advertisements shown to users, including responsive search ads and assets. #### 1.12.4 Bid Strategies Bid strategies automate how you bid to achieve specific campaign goals. * **Manual CPC Bidding:** You set your own maximum CPC, offering more control but requiring manual management. Best for beginners or limited data. * **Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition):** Bids are set to achieve conversions at a target cost per acquisition. Requires sufficient conversion data. * **Target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend):** Aims to achieve a specific return on ad spend percentage. Best for campaigns focused on profitability with sufficient conversion data. * **Maximize Clicks:** Automatically bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget. Useful for initial keyword research but not recommended for mature campaigns. * **Maximize Conversions:** Aims to get the most conversions within your budget, without considering conversion value. Generally not recommended due to less control. * **Maximize Conversion Value:** Bids to maximize the total conversion value, often with an optional target ROAS. Ideal for smart shopping campaigns focused on revenue. * **Target Impression Share:** Bids to show your ad at a specific position (top of page, absolute top) a set percentage of the time, focusing on visibility. #### 1.12.5 Attribution Attribution modeling determines how credit for conversions is assigned to different marketing touchpoints. * **Attribution Models:** Google is transitioning to a data-driven attribution model, which customizes credit based on account history. Older models like first-click, linear, time decay, and position-based are being phased out. * **Attribution Window (or Lookback Window):** The period after a user interaction during which a conversion is recorded. Customizable in Google Ads (e.g., 30, 60, 90 days). * **30-day:** Suitable for short sales cycles. * **60-day:** Provides a broader view for longer sales cycles. * **90-day:** Ideal for extended sales cycles, capturing early touchpoints. * **Conversion Types:** * **Click-through conversions:** Conversions that occur after a user clicks an ad. * **View-through conversions:** Conversions that occur after a user sees an ad but doesn't click it. Important for display and video ads. * **Engaged view conversion:** A conversion counted when a user watches at least 10 seconds of a video ad. #### 1.12.6 Auction Insights The Auction Insights report allows you to compare your Google Ads performance against other advertisers in the same auctions. It provides metrics such as: * **Impression Share:** Your share of total eligible impressions. * **Overlap Rate:** How often competitors' ads appeared in the same auction as yours. * **Outranking Share:** How often your ad ranked higher than a competitor's. * **Position Above Rate:** How often your ad was in a higher position than a competitor's. * **Top of Page Rate / Absolute Top of Page Rate:** Frequency your ad appeared at the top or the very top of search results. > **Tip:** Use Auction Insights to identify competitors, adjust bids and budgets, and refine your overall campaign strategy. #### 1.12.7 SEA and AI integration Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into SEA: * **Keyword Research:** AI tools can help categorize keywords for ad groups and suggest optimized landing pages. * **Ad Creation:** AI can generate headlines, descriptions, and assets, improving ad performance. * **Smart Bidding:** Combines broad keywords with AI for real-time bidding optimization. * **Performance Max (PMax):** A Google Ads campaign type that heavily relies on AI for ad creation and optimization with minimal marketer input. * **Automatically Created Assets (ACA):** AI adjusts ads by combining marketer-provided content with AI-generated elements. ### 1.13 Social Media Advertising Social media advertising involves promoting content on digital platforms like Meta (Facebook, Instagram), X (formerly Twitter), and Pinterest. #### 1.13.1 Ad Spend Share This metric indicates the percentage of the total advertising budget within a platform or campaign that you are spending compared to your competitors. #### 1.13.2 Traditional vs. Social Media Advertising | Aspect | Traditional Advertising | Social Media Advertising | | :---------------------- | :------------------------------ | :----------------------------------------------------------- | | **Approach & Objectives** | One-to-many, brand awareness, frequency, placement | Two-way communication, brand affinity, relevance, authenticity, customization, targeting | | **Targeting** | Broad demographics, limited personalization | Highly targeted, A/B testing, retargeting, dynamic content | | **ROI & Metrics** | Difficult direct ROI, estimated reach/impressions | Direct metrics, real-time analytics, performance data | | **Duration & Lifespan** | Limited run duration, content disappears post-campaign | Evergreen, long-term traffic/engagement potential | | **Costs & Budgeting** | Larger budgets, fixed pricing | Flexible budgets, scalable efforts based on results | | **Evolution & Adaptability** | Costly/time-consuming changes | Quick adjustments based on feedback & trends | #### 1.13.3 Key metrics * **Reach:** The total number of unique users who saw your content. * **Impressions:** The total number of times your content was displayed. * **Frequency:** The average number of times a user saw your content. * **Engagement:** Likes, comments, shares, indicating user interest and interaction. * **Click-Through Rate (CTR):** The percentage of users who clicked on your content after seeing it. * **Follower count:** Reflects brand loyalty. * **Brand sentiment and mentions:** Public opinion and perception of the brand. * **Return on Investment (ROI):** The financial value derived from social media efforts. * **Audience growth rate:** How quickly you are gaining followers. #### 1.13.4 Meta Ads Manager Meta's advertising platform is structured into three levels: * **Campaign Level:** * **Buying Types:** * **Reservation Buying:** Plan and buy campaigns in advance for predictable delivery and fixed CPM, suitable for large audiences and brands. * **Auction Buying:** Ads compete in an auction, offering more choice, flexibility, and efficiency with less predictable results; available to all advertisers. * **Objectives:** Various goals like awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, app promotion, and sales. * **A/B Testing:** Compare different ad versions to identify the best performing. * **Budget Optimization (Advantage Campaign Budget):** Meta automatically distributes the budget across ad sets to maximize results. * **Ad Set Level:** * **Conversion Goal:** Defines the specific objective for the ad set. * **Dynamic Creative:** Automatically mixes and matches various creative components (images, videos, text) to personalize ads and improve performance. * **Budget & Schedule:** Set the daily or lifetime budget and campaign duration. * **Targeting Options:** Define demographics, interests, behaviors, connections, remarketing lists, and look-alike audiences. Location targeting can be precise using a radius around a pin. * **Placements (Advantage+ Placements):** Meta automatically decides where your ad appears across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network for optimal performance. Brand safety settings allow control over content context. * **Ad Level:** * **Ad Setup:** Choose creative source and format. * **Ad Creative:** Design the visuals and copy. Use diverse formats suited to each platform and consider video for better engagement. Ensure consistent branding and include clear Calls to Action (CTAs). * **Destination:** Where users are directed after clicking the ad (e.g., website, app). * **Tracking:** Set up tracking mechanisms. > **Tip:** Meta recommends automating placements (Advantage+) for better performance while using brand safety settings to protect your brand. ### 1.14 Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Google Analytics 4 is a free web analytics platform that tracks website visitors, traffic, and user behavior. #### 1.14.1 Data Model GA4 uses an **event-based data model**, meaning every user interaction (click, page view, purchase) is registered as a distinct "Event." This contrasts with older models that focused on sessions. * **Automatic Collection:** Basic events like "first visit" are collected automatically. * **Enhanced Measurement:** Allows tracking of additional events like link clicks, embedded video views, and outbound clicks. #### 1.14.2 Key Data Collection Concepts * **Event Parameters:** Specific details about an event (e.g., `pagename`, `video_watch_time`). * **User Properties:** Data used for segmentation (e.g., `geo_data`, `device_data`, `user_id`). * **Key Events:** Events specifically designated as conversions by the marketer. #### 1.14.3 Tracking and Cookies * **Cookies:** Small pieces of data stored on a user's device by websites to remember information (login details, preferences) and personalize the experience. * **Session Cookies:** Exist only while the browser is open. * **Persistent Cookies:** Stored permanently on the device. * **First-Party Cookies:** Set by the website the user is currently visiting; generally more privacy-friendly. * **Second-Party Cookies:** Set by another website but used exclusively for the website the user is on, often through partnerships. * **Third-Party Cookies:** Set by domains other than the one visited, often by advertisers, used for cross-site tracking and retargeting. These are increasingly being restricted due to privacy concerns and regulatory changes. > **Note:** GA4 is designed to work with privacy changes and uses modeling to fill data gaps when cookies are restricted. #### 1.14.4 GA4 Structure GA4 uses a single **Property** that can house multiple **Data Streams** (Web, iOS, Android). This consolidates data from different devices, allowing for a more complete view of user journeys. This differs from Universal Analytics (UA), which typically used separate properties for each platform. #### 1.14.5 Measurement: Acquisition vs. Traffic * **User Acquisition:** Focuses on new users and attributes sessions to the very first marketing channel that brought them to the site. Answers: "Which channels are growing my audience?" * **Traffic Acquisition:** Focuses on individual sessions (visits) and evaluates each visit independently, regardless of the user's history. Answers: "Which channels are bringing people back and driving interaction?" #### 1.14.6 Engagement Metrics Engagement metrics measure how actively users interact with your website or app. * **DAU/MAU (Daily Active Users ÷ Monthly Active Users):** Indicates if the product is a "daily habit." * **WAU/MAU (Weekly Active Users ÷ Monthly Active Users):** Shows if the product is part of a "weekly routine." * **DAU/WAU (Daily Active Users ÷ Weekly Active Users):** Measures the intensity of usage within a week. --- # Search Engine Optimization (SEO) fundamentals Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website's visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) to attract more organic (non-paid) traffic. ### 2.1 The search engine process: crawling, indexing, and ranking Search engines like Google operate through a continuous cycle of crawling, indexing, and ranking web pages. #### 2.1.1 Crawling Crawling is the process by which search engine bots, often referred to as "crawlers" or "spiders," discover new and updated web pages. These bots read the HTML and CSS code of a page and follow every link they find to gather information and navigate the web. #### 2.1.2 Indexing Once a page is crawled, search engines store and understand its content through a process called indexing. This involves cataloging the information on the page so that it can be retrieved and presented when users perform relevant searches. #### 2.1.3 Ranking Ranking is the search engine's determination of which pages are most relevant and authoritative for a given search query, and thus should appear highest in the search results. This is a complex algorithmic process that considers numerous factors. ### 2.2 Key SEO components SEO fundamentals can be broken down into several interconnected areas: #### 2.2.1 Keyword research Keyword research is the foundational step in SEO, involving the identification of terms and phrases that users type into search engines. * **Short-tail keywords:** These are short, general search terms (e.g., "laptops"). They typically have high search volume but also high competition and broad intent. * **Long-tail keywords:** These are longer, more specific search phrases (e.g., "best gaming laptop under 1500 dollars"). They usually have lower search volume but are more targeted, indicating a clearer user intent and often leading to higher conversion rates. #### 2.2.2 Technical SEO Technical SEO focuses on optimizing a website's backend and infrastructure to improve its crawlability and indexability by search engines. * **Robots.txt and meta-robots:** These directives inform search engine crawlers which pages or sections of a website they are allowed or disallowed to access and index. * **HTTPS certificates:** Securing a website with HTTPS is a ranking factor and builds user trust. It encrypts data exchanged between the user and the website, preventing hackers from intercepting sensitive information. Websites without HTTPS are often flagged as "not secure" by browsers, deterring visitors. * **URL and XML sitemaps:** An XML sitemap acts as a digital roadmap for search engines, listing all important pages on a website to help them understand its structure and ensure comprehensive indexing. * **Core Web Vitals:** These are a set of metrics that measure the qualitative user experience on a web page. They assess loading performance, responsiveness, and visual stability. * **Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):** Measures how long it takes for the largest content element on a page to load. A good LCP score should be within 2.5 seconds. * **Interaction to Next Paint (INP):** Measures the latency of all user interactions (clicks, taps, keyboard input) and reports the longest duration, ignoring outliers. A low INP indicates consistent responsiveness. * **Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):** Measures the amount of unexpected layout shifts on a page. A stable page prevents users from accidentally clicking on incorrect elements. * **Fixing Core Web Vitals issues** involves optimizing images, using faster hosting, reducing file sizes (CSS, HTML, JS), and minimizing page features. * **Responsiveness:** Websites must adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes (desktops, tablets, smartphones). This ensures a good user experience across all devices. * **HTTP vs. HTTPS:** HTTP connections are unencrypted and insecure, while HTTPS uses SSL certificates for encrypted, secure data transfer, which is a critical ranking factor. #### 2.2.3 Content optimization Content is king in SEO. Optimizing it involves making it valuable, engaging, and easily understandable for both users and search engines. * **Interest and usefulness:** Websites should provide engaging and helpful content to users. * **Freshness:** Regularly updated content is favored by search engines. Google considers dates in HTML, Schema markup, and URLs. * **Authorship:** Google attempts to determine the author of content, linking authorship information to credibility. * **Clicks and engagement:** Strategies that encourage clicks and user engagement are important. This includes providing an appropriate amount of content, minimizing distracting advertisements, and using links wisely. * **Link text:** Use descriptive and concise text for links. * **Anchor text:** For internal links, descriptive anchor text helps search engines understand the topic of the linked page. * **Nofollow links:** These are used to combat comment spam and indicate to search engines that a link should not be followed for SEO purposes. * **Image optimization:** Use descriptive filenames and the `alt` attribute for images to improve accessibility and SEO. * **Structured data (Schema.org):** Implementing structured data using formats like JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa helps search engines understand the context of your content (e.g., product details, reviews, recipes), enabling richer SERP features like rich snippets. #### 2.2.4 Building authority Authority, often referred to as trustworthiness or credibility, is a crucial ranking factor. * **Backlinks:** Links from other reputable websites to your site are considered "votes" of confidence. High-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative sources significantly boost a website's authority. * **Domain Authority (DA) vs. Page Authority (PA):** * **Domain Authority (DA):** A score that predicts how well an entire website will rank. * **Page Authority (PA):** A score that predicts how well a specific page will rank. * **Factors influencing authority:** * **Backlinks:** The quality and relevance of inbound links are paramount. * **Content quality:** In-depth, accurate, and valuable content demonstrating expertise. * **Domain age and history:** Older domains with a clean reputation often carry more trust. * **Overall user experience (UX):** A positive user experience contributes to perceived authority. * **Google Bombing/Bowling:** Historically, attempts were made to manipulate rankings by flooding a site with backlinks (Google Bombing). Google has since implemented measures to combat such practices, making it harder to artificially inflate rankings through backlink manipulation. * **Navboost:** A Google ranking system that refines search results based on user navigational interactions, considering factors like location and device type. It analyzes different types of clicks to reinforce the importance of relevant content. ### 2.3 Impact of AI on SEO Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly influencing SEO strategies. * **Google's stance:** Google emphasizes focusing on user experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), regardless of how content is created. AI-generated content is not inherently against guidelines, but disclosure may be necessary if a reader would reasonably expect human authorship. * **AI Overviews:** While AI Overviews can drive clicks to linked pages, some studies suggest they might also reduce the click-through rate (CTR) for traditional organic listings for certain queries. * **Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) / Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO):** * **Ranking strategies:** This involves configuring `robots.txt` for AI crawlers, optimizing page speed, answering questions directly, understanding query intent, leveraging AI's difficulty with contextualizing sources, and making Schema markup more important. * **LLM answers:** Large Language Models (LLMs) generate answers by recognizing language patterns. The "latent space" in AI represents a compressed, hidden data representation where similar inputs are positioned closely, allowing models to learn patterns. Information repeated in various ways is more likely to be regurgitated by LLMs. * **Web search integration:** LLMs can search the web to improve the veracity of their answers, with higher-ranking and more relevant information being more likely to appear in responses. * **API integration:** Chatbots can use APIs to access specific databases, meaning websites can rank by having their products included in these databases. * **Deep search:** This involves crawling many available sites on a specific topic, combining latent space knowledge with web/API search results. ### 2.4 Search Engine Results Page (SERP) features SERP features are elements beyond standard organic links that provide additional information or interactivity. * **Popular SERP features include:** Featured Snippets, AI Overviews, Google Ads, Local Pack, People Also Ask (PAA) boxes, Rich Snippets, Discussions and Forums, Image Packs, Knowledge Panels, and Video Carousels. * **Featured Snippets:** Direct answers to informal queries, often displayed in a box with text, lists, or tables. To rank, structure content to match snippet types (paragraph, list, table) and use clear headings and concise answers. * **AI Overviews:** AI-generated summaries citing multiple sources, appearing at the top of SERPs for broad informational queries. Ranking requires crawlable, comprehensive, up-to-date content demonstrating E-E-A-T. * **Google Ads (Search Ads):** Paid, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) text ads, often labeled "Sponsored." They appear above or below organic results and are triggered by keyword targeting. * **Local Pack:** A map with local business listings, including contact details and reviews, for local intent queries. Ranking involves managing reviews, using LocalBusiness schema, and building local backlinks. * **People Also Ask (PAA) Boxes:** Expandable related questions with answers and source links, helping users explore topics further. To rank, research PAA questions, use them as headings, and provide clear, concise answers. * **Rich Snippets:** Enhanced search results with extra information like star ratings, prices, or FAQs, enabled by structured data. * **Discussions and Forums:** Search results highlighting threads from forums, useful for advice and experience-based searches. * **Image Packs:** Grids or rows of images shown in SERPs for visual-heavy searches. * **Knowledge Panels:** Information boxes about people, brands, places, or things, typically for well-known entities. * **Video Carousels:** When Google believes video content is the best answer, often for local intent queries. ### 2.5 Search Engine Advertising (SEA) basics Search Engine Advertising (SEA), or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, involves running paid ads on search engines. * **Match Types:** These define how strictly a user's search query must match your chosen keyword for your ad to appear. * **Broad Match:** Most flexible, allowing ads to appear for searches related to your keyword, even if the exact term isn't present. Google now encourages using Broad Match with Smart Bidding. * **Phrase Match:** Requires the search query to contain the meaning or phrase of your keyword. * **Exact Match:** The search query must closely match your keyword. Note that "Exact Match" now considers intent and meaning beyond just the exact words. * **Negative Keywords:** Words for which you *do not* want your ad to appear, helping to save costs and avoid irrelevant clicks. * **Ad Rank:** Determines whether your ad is shown and its position. It's calculated using: * **CPC Bid x Quality Score:** A higher Quality Score can compensate for a lower bid. * **Quality Score Components:** * **Expected CTR:** The likelihood of users clicking your ad. * **Ad Relevance:** How well your ad matches the user's search query. * **Landing Page Experience:** The relevance, clarity, speed, and mobile-friendliness of your landing page. * **Additional Factors:** Ad Rank Thresholds, Auction Context (user signals, search topic), and the impact of Ad Assets (sitelinks, callouts, etc.). * **Google Ads Structure:** * **Campaign:** The highest level, containing budget, locations, and bid strategy. * **Ad Group:** Contains keywords, target audience, and placements. * **Ads:** The actual advertisements users see, including headlines, descriptions, and landing pages. * **Bid Strategies:** Ways to determine how much you're willing to pay for an interaction with your ad. * **Manual CPC:** You set your maximum cost-per-click. Offers control but requires management. * **Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition):** Bids are set to achieve conversions at a target cost. * **Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend):** Bids are set to achieve an average return on ad spend at a target percentage. * **Maximize Clicks:** Automatically sets bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget. * **Maximize Conversions:** Aims to get the most conversions within your budget, without considering conversion value. * **Maximize Conversion Value:** Optimizes bids to maximize the total value of conversions. * **Target Impression Share:** Aims to show your ad on the top of the page, absolute top of the page, or anywhere on the results page. * **Keywords vs. Search Queries:** * **Keywords:** Terms *you* select as an advertiser. * **Search Queries:** The *exact* words or phrases a user types into the search bar. * **Attribution Modeling:** Assigns credit for conversions to different touchpoints in the customer journey. * **Data-driven attribution** is the current recommended model. * **Attribution Window (or Conversion/Lookback Window):** The period after a user interaction during which a conversion is recorded (e.g., 30, 60, 90 days). * **Conversion Types:** * **View-through conversions:** Occur after a user sees an ad but doesn't click. * **Engaged view conversions:** Count when a user watches at least 10 seconds of a video ad. * **Click-through conversions:** Occur after a user clicks an ad. * **Auction Insights Report:** A tool to compare your performance with other advertisers in the same auctions, helping to inform bidding and budgeting strategies. Key statistics include Impression Share, Overlap Rate, and Outranking Share. * **SEA & AI:** AI assists with keyword research (e.g., using Google Keyword Planner, LLMs for categorization), landing page creation, ad generation, and bid optimization. Performance Max (PMax) campaigns leverage AI heavily for automation. ### 2.6 Social Media Advertising Social media advertising offers targeted reach and engagement through various platforms. * **Ad Spend Share:** The percentage of the total ad budget within a platform or campaign that you are spending compared to competitors. * **Traditional vs. Social Media Advertising:** Social media advertising allows for two-way communication, brand affinity, authenticity, customization, and highly targeted campaigns with real-time analytics, unlike the one-to-many, brand-awareness focused approach of traditional advertising. * **Important Metrics:** * **Reach:** Total number of unique users who saw the content. * **Impressions:** Total number of times content was displayed. * **Frequency:** How often a user saw the content. * **Engagement:** Likes, comments, shares, indicating user interest and interaction. * **Click-Through Rate (CTR):** Percentage of users who clicked after seeing the ad. * **Customer loyalty and retention:** Follower count. * **Brand sentiment and mentions:** Public opinion about the brand. * **Return on Investment (ROI):** Financial value derived from social media efforts. * **Audience growth rate:** Speed of gaining followers. * **Meta Ads Manager:** * **Campaign Level:** Buying types (Reservation buying for predictable reach with fixed CPMs, Auction buying for flexibility with variable pricing), objectives (Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App Promotion, Sales), A/B testing, and budget optimization. * **Ad Set Level:** Conversion goals, dynamic creative (combining multiple creative components), budget & schedule, targeting options (demographics, interests, behaviors, connections, remarketing, look-alike audiences), location settings, and placements (Advantage+ Placements for automated distribution). Brand safety features are also available to control ad context. * **Ad Level:** Choosing ad formats (video, stories, carousel, collection ads), optimizing content for specific platforms, ensuring consistent branding, and incorporating clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs). * **Ad Placements:** Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network) offer various placements, with Advantage+ Placements recommending automated distribution for optimal performance. * **Audience Definition:** Estimated Audience Size provides an estimate of how many users meet the targeting criteria, helping to gauge if the audience is too large, too small, or unrealistic. * **Ad Formats:** Choosing the right format (e.g., video, carousel, collection ads) and optimizing content for each platform is crucial. ### 2.7 Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a free web analytics platform that measures website and app visitors, traffic, and behavior. * **Data Model:** Unlike older session-based models, GA4 uses an event-based model where all user actions (clicks, pageviews, purchases) are registered as individual events. * **Data Collection:** * **Automatically collected events:** Basic interactions like "first visit." * **Enhanced measurements:** Track additional events like link clicks, video plays, and outbound clicks. * **Key Data Collection Concepts:** * **Event parameters:** Specific details about an event (e.g., `pagename`, `video_watch_time`). * **User properties:** Segmentation data like geo data, device data, or user ID. * **Key events:** Events designated as conversions by the marketer. * **Tracking:** * **Cookies:** Small pieces of data stored on a user's device to remember information and personalize experiences. * **Session cookies:** Active only while the browser is open. * **Persistent cookies:** Stored permanently on the device. * **First-party cookies:** Set by the website being visited. * **Second-party cookies:** Set by another website but used exclusively by the visited site, often through partnerships. * **Third-party cookies:** Set by domains other than the visited website, used for cross-site tracking, retargeting, and ad serving. These are increasingly being restricted due to privacy concerns. * **GA4 Structure:** Uses one property with multiple data streams (Web, iOS, Android) to combine data from different devices and provide a unified view of user behavior, unlike Universal Analytics which used separate properties per platform. * **Measurement:** * **User Acquisition:** Focuses on new users and attributes them to the original marketing channel that brought them to the site. Answers: "Which marketing channels are growing my audience?" * **Traffic Acquisition:** Focuses on sessions (visits) and evaluates each visit independently. Answers: "Which channels are bringing people back and driving interaction today?" * **Engagement Metrics:** * **DAU/MAU (Daily Stickiness):** Percentage of monthly users who visit daily, indicating if the product is a daily habit. * **WAU/MAU (Weekly Stickiness):** Percentage of monthly users who visit weekly, indicating if the product is part of a weekly routine. * **DAU/WAU (Weekly Intensity):** Measures the intensity of usage within a week. --- # Paid Search Advertising (SEA) and campaign management This section provides a comprehensive overview of paid search advertising (SEA) and campaign management, detailing how to structure, optimize, and measure success in search engine marketing. ## 3. Paid search advertising (SEA) and campaign management Paid Search Advertising (SEA) is a form of digital marketing where businesses pay to have their ads displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs). This typically involves a pay-per-click (PPC) model, where advertisers only pay when a user clicks on their advertisement. The primary goal of SEA is to drive targeted traffic to a website, leading to desired user actions such as purchases, lead generation, or sign-ups. ### 3.1 SEA basics #### 3.1.1 Keywords and match types Keywords are the terms or phrases that users type into search engines. Advertisers select keywords that are relevant to their products or services to ensure their ads are shown to an interested audience. Google Ads utilizes match types to control the specificity of keyword targeting. * **Broad match**: This is the most flexible match type, where ads can show for searches that are related to the keyword, not necessarily containing the exact term. Google actively encourages its use in conjunction with Smart Bidding. * **Example**: If your keyword is `buy portable PC`, a broad match could trigger for searches like `buy laptop`. * **Phrase match**: In phrase match, the search query must include the meaning of the keyword, and the words in the query must be in the same order or contain the phrase with minor variations. * **Example**: For the keyword `"buy laptop"`, a search query like `best gaming laptop to buy in 2025` would match. * **Exact match**: This match type requires the search query to be very close in meaning to the keyword. * **Example**: For the keyword `[buy laptop]`, the search query `buy laptop` would match. It's important to note that the distinction between exact and phrase match has blurred; both now consider intent and meaning. The hierarchy where an "exact" match always takes precedence over a "broad" match is no longer guaranteed, with relevance and predicted performance in the auction being more critical. * > **Tip:** Broad match combined with Smart Bidding is Google's recommended approach for scaling campaigns. #### 3.1.2 Negative keywords Negative keywords are crucial for cost-efficiency and relevance. They are terms for which you *do not* want your ad to appear. This prevents your ads from being shown to irrelevant searches. * **Example**: If you sell new laptops, `second hand` would be a critical negative keyword to avoid showing your ads for used devices. #### 3.1.3 Ad rank Ad Rank determines whether an ad is shown and its position on the search engine results page. It's not simply the highest bidder who wins. The fundamental formula for Ad Rank is: $$ \text{Ad rank} = \text{CPC bid} \times \text{Quality Score} $$ This formula highlights that a higher Ad Rank can be achieved with a lower CPC bid if the Quality Score is significantly better. #### 3.1.4 Quality Score The Quality Score is a Google Ads metric that estimates the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. It is determined by three main components: 1. **Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR)**: The likelihood that your ad will be clicked when shown. 2. **Ad Relevance**: How closely your ad matches the user's search query. 3. **Landing Page Experience**: The relevance, clarity, speed, and mobile-friendliness of your landing page. Other factors, such as ad rank thresholds (minimum quality required to show) and auction context (user signals, search topic, location, device, time), also influence Ad Rank. #### 3.1.5 Ad extensions and assets Assets (formerly known as extensions) are additional pieces of information that can be added to your search ads, such as sitelinks, callouts, images, and phone numbers. These can significantly increase your Ad Rank and ad visibility, providing users with more relevant information and options. #### 3.1.6 Google Ads structure A Google Ads account is structured hierarchically: * **Campaign**: The highest level, where you define your overall budget, locations, bid strategy, and ad scheduling. * **Ad Group**: Within a campaign, ad groups contain related keywords and ads. This allows for more targeted ad copy and landing page experiences for specific sets of keywords. * **Ads**: The actual advertisements that users see. These can be text ads, responsive search ads, or other formats. * **Keywords**: The terms you bid on within an ad group. When a user searches, the Google Ads system identifies all eligible ads with matching keywords. Ads with a sufficiently high Ad Rank, considering the bid, quality score, thresholds, auction context, and impact of assets, are then shown. #### 3.1.7 Keywords vs. search queries It's crucial to differentiate between keywords and search queries: * **Keywords**: These are the terms *you select* as an advertiser in your Google Ads account. * **Search Queries**: These are the *exact phrases* that a person types into the search bar. Analyzing search query reports is vital to discover new keyword ideas and identify irrelevant searches for which to add negative keywords. ### 3.2 Bid strategies Bid strategies are methods for setting how much you are willing to pay for an interaction with your ad. These can be manual or automated. #### 3.2.1 Manual CPC bidding * **Definition**: Allows you to set your own maximum cost-per-click (CPC) for your ads. * **When to use**: Best for beginners or when limited data is available. Offers more control but requires ongoing management and adjustments. #### 3.2.2 Automated bid strategies These strategies use machine learning to optimize bids for specific goals. * **Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)**: * **Definition**: Sets bids to achieve as many conversions as possible at a target cost per acquisition (CPA). * **When to use**: When you have a clear understanding of your CPA and have at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days. * **Formula**: $$ \text{CPA} = \frac{\text{Total campaign cost}}{\text{Total conversions}} $$ * **Target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)**: * **Definition**: Sets bids to achieve an average return on ad spend (ROAS) at a target percentage. * **When to use**: When you have sufficient conversion data and meet minimum requirements (e.g., 15-20 conversions). * **Formula**: $$ \text{ROAS} = \frac{\text{Revenue from ads}}{\text{Total ad cost}} \times 100 $$ * **Maximize Clicks**: * **Definition**: An automated strategy that sets bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget. * **When to use**: At the beginning of your Google Ads journey for keyword research and to understand CPCs. * > **Tip:** This strategy is not recommended for mature campaigns as it may not lead to valuable clicks. * **Maximize Conversions**: * **Definition**: Sets bids to get the most conversions within your budget, without considering conversion value. * **When to use**: Generally not recommended due to giving Google too much control over budget allocation. * **Maximize Conversion Value**: * **Definition**: Sets bids to maximize the total conversion value, with an optional target ROAS. * **When to use**: In Smart Shopping campaigns where the focus is on the value of conversions rather than the number. This is the default strategy for Smart Shopping campaigns. * **Target Impression Share**: * **Definition**: Sets bids to show your ad on the absolute top of the page, top of the page, or anywhere on the results page based on your target impression share. * **When to use**: When visibility is the primary goal and you aim to increase impressions. * **Example**: If you set a target of 60% impression share on the absolute top of the page, Google will aim to show your ads in that position 6 out of 10 times. ### 3.3 Attribution Attribution modeling helps understand which marketing touchpoints contribute to a conversion. #### 3.3.1 Attribution models Google Ads is transitioning to a data-driven attribution model, which typically results in an increase in reported conversions compared to older models like first-click, linear, time decay, and position-based. Data-driven attribution custom-builds conversion credit based on account history. #### 3.3.2 Attribution window (or conversion/lookback window) This is the period of time after a user interaction during which a conversion is recorded. It is customizable in Google Ads, commonly set to 30, 60, or 90 days. * **30-day Lookback window**: A common default, useful for businesses with shorter sales cycles. * **60-day Lookback window**: Suitable for businesses with longer sales cycles, providing a broader view of the customer journey. * **90-day Lookback window**: Ideal for industries with extended sales cycles (e.g., high-value products, B2B services) to capture the full scope of lengthy customer interactions. #### 3.3.3 Conversion types Google Ads tracks various conversion types: * **View-through conversions**: Conversions that occur after a user sees an ad but does not click it. This measures the impact of display and video ads. * **Example**: A user sees a banner ad, doesn't click, but later visits the website and makes a purchase. * **Engaged-view conversion**: A conversion counted when a viewer watches at least 10 seconds of a video ad, even without clicking. This is useful for understanding deeper video engagement. * **Example**: A user watches 15 seconds of a video ad and later converts. * **Click-through conversion**: Conversions that occur after a user clicks on an ad. This is a direct measurement of ad effectiveness and ROI. * **Example**: A user clicks a search ad and completes a purchase. ### 3.4 Auction insights The Auction Insights report in Google Ads allows you to compare your performance with other advertisers in the same auctions. It is available for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns. * **Purpose**: To help advertisers make strategic decisions about bidding and budgeting by identifying competitors, adjusting bids, and refining campaign strategy. * **Key Statistics**: * **Impression Share**: Percentage of impressions your ads received versus the total they were eligible for. * **Overlap Rate**: Frequency of another advertiser's ad appearing in the same auction as yours. * **Outranking Share**: Frequency your ad ranked higher than a competitor's or showed when theirs did not. * **Position Above Rate (Search Only)**: Frequency your ad was shown in a higher position than a competitor's. * **Top of Page Rate (Search Only)**: Frequency your ad was shown at the top of the page. * **Absolute Top of Page Rate (Search Only)**: Frequency your ad was the very first ad above organic results. ### 3.5 SEA and AI Artificial Intelligence (AI) is significantly impacting SEA. * **Keyword Research**: AI tools like Google Keyword Planner and LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT) can help identify relevant keywords, categorize them into ad groups, and generate optimized landing pages and ad copy. * **Ad Optimization**: AI helps optimize bids in real-time through Smart Bidding and can improve ad performance by up to 12% when ad strength is enhanced, by combining broad keywords with AI for dynamic adjustments. * **Performance Max (PMax)**: These campaigns heavily rely on AI for ad creation and optimization, requiring minimal marketer input. AI automatically creates assets by combining given inputs with AI-generated content based on user intent. * **Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) / Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO)**: These approaches focus on configuring robots.txt for AI crawlers, optimizing page speed, answering questions thoroughly, and understanding query intent. Schema markup is also becoming more critical. * **LLM Answer Generation**: Large Language Models (LLMs) generate answers by recognizing language patterns. Information repeated in various forms has a higher statistical likelihood of being regurgitated by the LLM. Online search integration helps improve LLM veracity, with higher-ranking, more relevant information being favored. APIs can also be used to instruct chatbots to fetch information from specific databases. ### 3.6 SERP features Search Engine Results Page (SERP) features are elements beyond standard organic listings that provide additional information or interactivity. * **Featured Snippets**: Direct answers in a box at the top of results for informal queries. * **AI Overviews**: AI-generated summaries citing multiple sources, appearing at the very top for broad informational queries. * **Google Ads Search Ads (SEA)**: Paid PPC text ads labeled "Sponsored," appearing above or below organic results. They match user queries and can include assets. * **Local Pack**: Map with local business listings for local intent queries. * **People Also Ask (PAA) Boxes**: Expandable related questions with short answers and source links for users exploring sub-questions. * **Rich Snippets**: Extended results with extra information like star ratings, prices, or FAQs, making listings more visually appealing. * **Discussions and Forums**: Results highlighting threads from forums like Reddit or Quora for advice and experience-based searches. * **Image Packs**: Grids or rows of images for visual-heavy searches. * **Knowledge Panels**: Information boxes about people, brands, places, or things for entity or navigation searches. * **Video Carousels**: Videos relevant to the search query, often hosted on YouTube. To rank for these features, advertisers need to structure content to match the feature's requirements, use relevant keywords, provide clear and concise answers, implement structured data, and optimize for user experience. --- # Social Media Advertising and Meta Ads Manager This topic delves into the intricacies of social media advertising, with a particular emphasis on the Meta Ads Manager platform, covering campaign structure, targeting, placements, and creative development. ### 4.1 The landscape of social media advertising Social media advertising differs significantly from traditional methods. While traditional advertising relies on a "one-to-many" approach focusing on mass reach and brand awareness, social media advertising facilitates "two-way communication" enabling relevance, authenticity, customization, and precise targeting. #### 4.1.1 Traditional vs. Social Media Advertising | Aspect | Traditional Advertising | Social Media Advertising | |--------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | **Definition** | Mass media (TV, Radio, Print, Billboards) | Digital platforms (Meta, X, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc.) | | **Approach & Objectives** | One-to-many: brand awareness, frequency, placement | Two-way communication: brand affinity, relevance, authenticity, customization, targeting | | | Broad demographics, limited personalization | Highly targeted, A/B testing, retargeting, dynamic content | | **ROI & Metrics** | Difficult direct ROI, estimated reach/impressions | Direct metrics, real-time analytics & performance data | | **Duration & Lifespan** | Limited run duration, content disappears post-campaign | Evergreen, long-term traffic and engagement potential | | **Costs & Budgeting** | Larger budgets, fixed pricing models | Flexible budgets, scalable efforts based on results | | **Evolution & Adaptability** | Costly/time-consuming changes | Quick adjustments based on feedback & trends | #### 4.1.2 Key Metrics in Social Media Advertising * **Reach:** The total number of unique users who saw the content. * **Impressions:** The total number of times the content was displayed, regardless of clicks. * **Frequency:** The number of times someone saw your content. * **Engagement:** * **Likes/Favorites:** Gauge initial reaction. * **Comments:** Indicate deeper interest or provocation of thought. * **Shares/Retweets:** Reflect content's shareability and potential virality. * **Click-Through Rate (CTR):** The percentage of people who clicked on the content after seeing it. * **Customer Loyalty and Retention:** * **Followers Count:** A reflection of brand loyalty. * **Brand Sentiment and Mentions:** * **Positive/Negative Mentions:** Reflects public opinion and perception. Sentiment analysis can be automated or manual. * **Return on Investment (ROI):** Calculated as `(Net Profit from Social Media Advertising - Cost of Social Media Advertising) / Cost of Social Media Advertising`. * **Audience Growth Rate:** Indicates how rapidly you're gaining followers or subscribers. ### 4.2 Meta Ads Manager Meta Ads Manager is the primary tool for creating, managing, and analyzing advertising campaigns on Meta's platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network). The platform is structured hierarchically at three main levels: Campaign, Ad Set, and Ad. #### 4.2.1 Campaign Level This is the highest level of the campaign structure and defines the overarching goal of your advertising efforts. * **Buying Types:** * **Reservation Buying:** This method involves planning and buying campaigns in advance with predictable ad delivery. It's akin to buying TV ads, suitable for advertisers targeting large audiences (over 200,000), entire countries, aiming for predictable reach and controlled ad frequency, and planning campaigns well in advance. The CPM is set in advance. This option is not available to all advertisers. * **Auction Buying:** In this model, advertisements compete in an auction with other advertisers. While results are less predictable, it offers more choice, efficiency, and flexibility. It's ideal for reaching more targeted audiences (smaller, more specific groups), optimizing for specific objectives, and offers daily reach predictions without frequency controls after approval. Prices can change in the auction, and this is available to all advertisers. > **Tip:** Reservation buying is for broad, planned reach, while auction buying is for flexible, performance-driven campaigns. * **Objectives:** Meta offers a range of objectives to align with your marketing goals: * Awareness * Traffic * Engagement * Leads * App promotion * Sales * **A/B Testing:** This feature allows you to test different versions of your ads to determine which performs best. * **Budget Optimization (Advantage campaign budget):** Formerly known as Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO), this feature allows Meta to automatically distribute your budget across your ad sets to maximize overall campaign performance. #### 4.2.2 Ad Set Level The Ad Set level defines the specific audience, placements, budget, and schedule for your advertisements within a campaign. * **Conversion Goal:** This is the primary goal of your ad set, directly linked to the campaign objective. * **Dynamic Creative:** This feature allows Meta to automatically mix and match multiple media assets (images, videos) and ad components (text, audio, CTAs) to create personalized creative variations for each viewer, aiming to improve ad performance. When the "Optimize creative for each person" toggle is enabled, further optimizations may occur, including image enhancements, cropping, background expansion, applying templates, creating Stories carousels from single images or product catalogs, adjusting video playback speed, swapping text between fields, creating videos from images, and displaying carousel cards as video. Destinations can also be optimized between your website and your Facebook or Instagram shop. * **Budget & Schedule:** Define your daily or lifetime budget and the duration for your ad set. * **Targeting Options:** * **Demographics:** Age, gender, language, education, etc. * **Interests:** Based on user activity and liked pages. * **Behaviors:** Purchase behavior, device usage, etc. * **Connections:** Targeting people connected to your Facebook Page, app, or event. * **Remarketing:** Targeting users who have previously interacted with your business. * **Look-alike Audiences:** Meta identifies new audiences that share characteristics with your existing customers or website visitors. * **Location Settings (Location Targeting):** * **Distance around Pin:** You can place a pin on a map and define a radius (e.g., 10 km). Ads will only be shown to people living within that radius. This allows for highly localized and precise targeting, saving budget and increasing relevance. * **Placements:** This determines where your ads will appear across Meta's platforms. * **Advantage+ Placements:** This is Meta's recommended automated placement strategy. Meta automatically decides where your ad appears across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network to achieve the best performance. You do not manually select feeds, Stories, Reels, etc. * **"Hide options" (Brand Safety & Suitability):** Even with automated placements, you retain control over context. You can prevent ads from appearing next to inappropriate content by configuring inventory filters, block lists, and content or topic exclusions. This ensures your brand's safety and suitability. * **Meta Ad Placements:** These include Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger. * **Audience Definition (Estimated Audience Size):** Meta provides an estimated number of accounts that meet your targeting and placement criteria. This estimate is based on factors like targeting criteria, placement locations, recent reach across Meta technologies, user content interaction, self-reported demographics, and where people see ads. This is a tool to assess if your audience is too large (less relevant), too small (low delivery), or unrealistic. #### 4.2.3 Ad Level This is the most granular level, focusing on the actual creative content that users will see. * **Identify Ad Setup:** * **Creative Source & Format:** Choose from various formats like single image, video, carousel, collection, or instant experience. * **Ad Creative:** This includes the visual elements (images, videos), text (headlines, primary text, descriptions), and calls to action (CTAs). * **Multi-advertise ad:** An ad unit that promotes multiple products or businesses simultaneously, allowing users to discover and compare offerings. This increases visibility and engagement from users interested in similar products or businesses. * **Choose ad formats:** Select the appropriate ad format for each platform. Instagram offers video, Stories, carousel, and promoted posts. Facebook offers photo, video, carousel, collection, and Story ads. It's recommended to optimize content for each platform and avoid duplicating the exact same ad across all. * **Video for better Engagement:** Videos are highly preferred, with social video generating significantly more shares than text or image content. Short videos (under 15 seconds) are particularly effective for platforms like Instagram Stories, leading to better engagement but potentially lower CTR. * **Consistent Branding:** Maintain visual consistency across all ads using logos, specific color palettes, and fonts that align with your social media aesthetic. This strengthens recognition and trust. * **Incorporate CTA:** Guide your audience on the next action with clear calls to action. These can be embedded in the ad design or captions, using text, GIFs, or other design elements to make them visually appealing. * **Other tips for ad level:** Get creative with carousel formats to showcase multiple products, highlight features of a single product, tell a story, or explain a process. Collection ads allow showcasing products in a grid layout for easier browsing. Instant Experience offers discounts and can be designed as an image, video, or carousel. * **Destination:** Where the user is directed after clicking the ad (e.g., website, landing page, app). * **Languages:** Specify the languages your ad should be displayed in. * **Tracking:** Implement tracking mechanisms (like Meta Pixel) to measure ad performance and user behavior. ### 4.3 Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Google Analytics 4 is a free web analytics platform used to measure website visitors, traffic, and user behavior. #### 4.3.1 Data Model Evolution * **Session-based model (Universal Analytics):** Data was organized around sessions, where a user's interactions within a defined timeframe were grouped. * **Event-based model (GA4):** All user actions, from clicks to pageviews to purchases, are registered as individual events linked directly to the user. There are no separate categories like "sessions" or "pageviews." #### 4.3.2 Data Collection Concepts * **Events:** These are user actions recorded by Analytics. They can be automatically collected (e.g., first visit), or enhanced measurements can track additional events like link clicks, embedded video views, and outbound clicks. * **Event Parameters:** Provide specific details about an event (e.g., `pagename`, `video watch time`). * **User Properties:** Used for segmentation (e.g., geo data, device data, user ID). * **Key Events:** Events designated by the marketer as conversions. #### 4.3.3 Tracking and Cookies * **Cookies:** Small pieces of data stored on a user's device by websites to remember information (login details, preferences) and personalize experiences. * **Session Cookies:** Temporary and deleted when the browser is closed. * **Persistent Cookies:** Stored permanently for months or years. * **First-Party Cookies:** Set by the website the user is currently visiting, generally considered more privacy-friendly. * **Second-Party Cookies:** Set by another website but used exclusively for the visiting website, often through partnership agreements. * **Third-Party Cookies:** Set by a domain other than the one being visited, often used for cross-site tracking, retargeting, and ad serving. These are increasingly seen as invasive and are being phased out by browsers due to privacy concerns and regulations like GDPR and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). * **Restricting User-Level Tracking:** Due to privacy concerns and technological changes (e.g., third-party cookie bans), GA4 employs modeling to estimate user behavior where direct tracking might be limited. #### 4.3.4 GA4 Structure and Measurement * **Properties and Data Streams:** GA4 uses a single property for all platforms (Web, iOS, Android) with separate Data Streams for each. This allows for combined data collection, enabling tracking of users across devices (e.g., mobile to desktop purchases). This differs from Universal Analytics, which typically used separate properties for each platform, making a unified user view challenging. * **Acquisition Measurement:** * **User Acquisition:** Focuses on new users and answers "Which marketing channels are growing my audience?" It attributes sessions to the original source of the user's first visit. * **Traffic Acquisition:** Focuses on sessions and answers "Which channels are bringing people back and driving interaction today?" It evaluates each visit independently, attributing sessions to the channel that brought the user in for that specific visit. * **Engagement Measurement:** Key ratios like DAU/MAU (Daily Active Users / Monthly Active Users) and WAU/MAU (Weekly Active Users / Monthly Active Users) indicate how active and engaged users are. DAU/MAU measures daily habit formation, while WAU/MAU assesses weekly routine engagement. DAU/WAU measures the intensity of usage within a week. ### 4.4 Search Engine Advertising (SEA) Basics Search Engine Advertising (SEA) involves paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). #### 4.4.1 Match Types Match types determine how closely a user's search query must match your chosen keyword for your ad to be shown. * **Broad Match:** The most flexible type. The keyword does not need to be literally in the search query. Ads can appear for searches related in meaning or intent. * Example: `buy portable PC` could trigger ads for `buy laptop`. * **Phrase Match:** The search query must contain the meaning or the exact phrase of your keyword. * Example: `Best gaming laptop to buy in 2025` might match `buy laptop`. * **Exact Match:** The search query must closely match your keyword in meaning. * Example: `Buy laptop` would match `Buy Laptop`. > **Tip:** Google now encourages Broad Match combined with Smart Bidding, as "Exact Match is the new Broad Match," focusing on intent and meaning rather than just exact wording. The hierarchy between match types is blurring, with relevance and predicted performance at auction time being more critical. * **Negative Keywords:** These are terms for which you *do not* want your ad to appear, helping to save costs and avoid irrelevant clicks. For example, if you sell new laptops but not second-hand ones, you'd use "second hand" as a negative keyword. #### 4.4.2 Ad Rank Ad Rank determines whether your ad is shown and its position on the SERP. It is not solely based on the highest bid. * **Formula:** `Ad Rank = CPC bid × Quality Score` * **Quality Score:** Determined by three components: * **Expected CTR (Click-Through Rate):** The likelihood of users clicking your ad. * **Ad Relevance:** How well your ad matches the user's search query. * **Landing Page Experience:** Whether your landing page is relevant, clear, fast, and mobile-friendly. * **Additional Factors:** Google also considers ad rank thresholds, auction context (user signals, search topic, location, device, time), and the expected impact of ad assets (extensions like sitelinks, callouts, images). #### 4.4.3 Google Ads Structure Google Ads campaigns are structured hierarchically: * **Campaign (Highest Level):** * **Budget:** Daily spending limit. * **Locations:** Targeting specific countries, regions, or cities. * **Bid Strategy:** How Google optimizes your bids (e.g., CPC, conversions). * **Ad Group (Under Campaign):** * **Keywords:** Terms you target to be found. * **Target Audience:** Who you want to reach. * **Placements:** Where your ad appears (relevant for Display campaigns). * **Ads (What the User Sees):** * **Responsive Search Ads:** Ads that can adjust their content to better match user searches. * **Extensions (now called Assets):** Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, images, etc., that enhance your ad. #### 4.4.4 Keywords vs. Search Queries * **Keywords:** Terms selected by advertisers in their Google Ads account. * **Search Queries:** The exact words or phrases typed by users into the search bar. > **Tip:** Regularly review your Search Queries report to identify new keyword opportunities and add negative keywords to optimize your campaigns. #### 4.4.5 Bid Strategies Bid strategies automate how you bid for ad placements. * **Manual CPC Bidding:** You set your own maximum cost-per-click. Best for beginners or when data is limited, offering more control but requiring more management. * **Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition):** Bids are set to acquire as many conversions as possible at a target cost-per-action. Requires a firm grasp on CPA and sufficient conversion data. * **Target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend):** Bids are set to achieve an average return on ad spend at a target percentage. Suitable when you have sufficient conversion data and focus on revenue. * **Maximize Clicks:** An automated strategy that sets bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget. Recommended for initial keyword research and understanding CPCs, but may not lead to valuable clicks in mature campaigns. * **Maximize Conversions:** Sets bids to get the most conversions within your budget, without considering conversion value. Generally not recommended due to less control over budget allocation. * **Maximize Conversion Value:** Maximizes the total conversion value, optionally with a target ROAS, primarily for Smart Shopping campaigns where revenue is prioritized over conversion volume. * **Target Impression Share:** Bids are set to display your ad on the absolute top, top, or anywhere on the results page based on your target impression share percentage. Ideal when visibility is the primary goal. #### 4.4.6 Attribution Attribution modeling helps understand how different touchpoints contribute to conversions. * **Attribution Window (Lookback Window):** The period after a customer interaction during which a conversion is recorded. Customizable in Google Ads (e.g., 30, 60, 90 days). A 30-day window is common for shorter sales cycles, while 60 or 90 days are useful for longer ones. * **Conversion Types:** * **View-Through Conversions:** Occur after a user sees an ad but doesn't click it. Measures the impact of display and video ads. * **Engaged-View Conversion:** Counted when a viewer watches at least 10 seconds of a video ad without necessarily clicking. Useful for video campaigns to understand deeper engagement. * **Click-Through Conversion:** Occur after a user clicks on an ad. A direct measure of ad effectiveness and ROI. * **Data-Driven Attribution:** Google's default and recommended model, which uses your account's historical data to assign credit to different touchpoints. #### 4.4.7 Auction Insights The Auction Insights report allows you to compare your campaign's performance with other advertisers in the same auctions. Key statistics include: * **Impression Share:** Percentage of impressions your ads received out of those they were eligible for. * **Overlap Rate:** Frequency another advertiser's ad appeared in the same auction as yours. * **Outranking Share:** Frequency your ad ranked higher or showed when a competitor's did not. * **Position Above Rate (Search Only):** Frequency your ad was in a higher position than another in the same auction. * **Top of Page Rate (Search Only):** Frequency your ad was shown at the top of the page. * **Absolute Top of the Page Rate (Search Only):** Frequency your ad was the very first one above organic results. #### 4.4.8 SEA & AI Integration Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into SEA: * **Keyword Research:** Google Keyword Planner and LLMs can help categorize keywords for ad groups and landing pages. * **Ad Creation:** AI can optimize bids and generate ad copy (headlines, descriptions, extensions) for improved ad strength. * **Smart Bidding:** Combines broad keywords with AI for real-time bidding based on signals, reducing manual effort. * **Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns:** Automate much of the ad creation process using AI with minimal marketer input. PMax relies heavily on AI for optimization, including Automatically Created Assets (ACAs) that combine given inputs with AI-generated content. * **LLM for Answering Questions:** Large Language Models (LLMs) process information by recognizing language patterns. By optimizing for AI crawlers, page speed, and answering questions comprehensively, you can improve your visibility in AI-generated answers. Schema markup becomes more critical. ### 4.5 Social Media Advertising Specifics While Meta Ads Manager is a significant platform, social media advertising encompasses broader strategies. #### 4.5.1 Ad Spend Share This metric shows the percentage of the total advertising budget within a market platform or campaign that you are spending relative to your competitors. It indicates your share of total ad expenditures. #### 4.5.2 Creating Engaging Ads * **Understand Your Goal:** Define clear objectives such as increasing followers, driving website clicks, or generating sales. * **Platform Nuances:** Different platforms have distinct audiences and best practices. Design ads according to your objective and the platform's demographics. * **Metrics:** Beyond reach and impressions, track engagement (likes, comments, shares), CTR, and follower growth. Brand sentiment and mentions provide insights into public perception. * **ROI and Budgeting:** Social media advertising offers direct metrics and real-time analytics, allowing for flexible budgeting and scalable efforts based on results. * **Evolution and Adaptability:** Social media ads can be quickly adjusted based on feedback and emerging trends. ### 4.6 Meta Ads Manager - Deeper Dive #### 4.6.1 Ad Level Creative Considerations * **Choose Ad Formats:** Select formats appropriate for each platform (Instagram, Facebook). * **Video for Engagement:** Videos generally lead to better engagement and higher share rates. Short videos are effective for Stories. * **Consistent Branding:** Maintain visual consistency across all ads to reinforce brand recognition and trust. * **Incorporate CTAs:** Clearly guide users on the desired next action. * **Creative Use of Formats:** * **Carousel Ads:** Showcase multiple products, highlight features, tell a story, or explain a process. * **Collection Ads:** Display products in a grid layout for easy browsing. * **Instant Experience:** Immersive, full-screen ads that can be designed as images, videos, or carousels. ### 4.7 Google Analytics 4 (GA4) - Tracking & Data Structure #### 4.7.1 GA4 Structure GA4 utilizes a single property with multiple data streams (Web, iOS, Android) to consolidate data from various devices, allowing for a unified view of user behavior. This contrasts with Universal Analytics, which often required separate properties for different platforms. #### 4.7.2 Acquisition Measurement * **User Acquisition:** Focuses on *new users* and attributes them to the original source of their first visit. * **Traffic Acquisition:** Focuses on *sessions* and attributes each session to the channel that drove it, regardless of previous visits. #### 4.7.3 Engagement Measurement * **Key Ratios:** * **DAU/MAU (Daily Active Users / Monthly Active Users):** Measures daily habit formation. A high percentage indicates the product is part of a user's daily routine. * **WAU/MAU (Weekly Active Users / Monthly Active Users):** Assesses weekly routine engagement, often a "North Star" metric for businesses where daily logins aren't necessary. * **DAU/WAU (Daily Active Users / Weekly Active Users):** Indicates usage intensity within a week. ### 4.8 Meta Ads Manager - Detailed Breakdown #### 4.8.1 Campaign Level - Objectives and Buying Types * **Objectives:** Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App Promotion, Sales. * **Buying Types:** * **Reservation Buying:** Pre-planned, predictable reach, fixed CPM, for large audiences. * **Auction Buying:** Flexible, dynamic pricing, performance-driven, for targeted audiences. #### 4.8.2 Ad Set Level - Targeting and Placements * **Targeting:** Demographics, Interests, Behaviors, Connections, Remarketing, Look-alike Audiences. * **Location Targeting:** Precise targeting using a "pin" and radius. * **Placements:** * **Advantage+ Placements:** Meta automatically optimizes where ads appear across its network. * **Brand Safety & Suitability:** Options to filter or block inappropriate content placements. #### 4.8.3 Ad Level - Creative and Formats * **Ad Creative:** Visuals, text, and CTAs. * **Ad Formats:** Single image, video, carousel, collection, instant experience. * **Dynamic Creative:** Meta automatically mixes and matches creative components to personalize ads. #### 4.8.4 Ad Spend Share A metric indicating your share of total ad expenditures within a platform compared to competitors. #### 4.8.5 Key Metrics for Social Media Advertising * Reach, Impressions, Frequency, Engagement (Likes, Comments, Shares), CTR, Follower Count, Brand Sentiment, ROI, Audience Growth Rate. #### 4.8.6 Meta Ads Manager - Additional Details * **Estimated Audience Size:** A real-time estimate of your target audience based on targeting criteria, placements, reach, and user behavior. * **Ad Level:** Focuses on the visual and textual content of the ad, including various formats like carousels and collection ads. * **Consistent Branding:** Crucial for recognition and trust across all ad creatives. * **Call to Action (CTA):** Guides user behavior. --- # Web Analytics with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a free web analytics platform used to measure visitor traffic and behavior on websites and applications. ### 5.1 Data collection model in GA4 GA4 utilizes an event-based data model, a significant departure from previous session-based models like Universal Analytics. #### 5.1.1 Event-based data model In GA4, all user interactions, such as clicks, page views, purchases, and more, are registered as individual "events." This contrasts with the older model where data was categorized into sessions, page views, and other distinct metrics. #### 5.1.2 How analytics collects and processes data * **Events:** GA4 collects data primarily through events. These can be: * **Automatically collected:** Basic interactions like a user's first visit are tracked by default. * **Enhanced measurement events:** These provide additional data collection capabilities beyond basic interactions, including link clicks, embedded video views, and outbound clicks. * **Event parameters:** These provide specific details about an event, such as the page name where an event occurred or the watch time for a video. * **User properties:** These are attributes used for segmenting users, such as their geographical data, device information, or a unique user ID. * **Key events:** Marketers can designate specific events as "conversions" to track important actions. #### 5.1.3 Tracking mechanisms: Cookies Cookies are small pieces of data that websites send to a user's web browser and store on their device. They are essential for remembering user information, personalizing experiences, and gathering data on website behavior. ##### 5.1.3.1 Types of cookies * **Session cookies:** These cookies are active only while the browser is open and are deleted when the browser is closed. * **Persistent cookies:** These cookies are stored permanently on a user's computer and can last for months or years. ##### 5.1.3.2 Cookie categories by origin * **First-party cookies:** Set by the website the user is currently visiting. They are crucial for user preferences, logins, and site-specific functionalities. Generally considered more privacy-friendly. * **Second-party cookies:** Set by a website other than the one the user is visiting but used exclusively for the benefit of the visited website. Often used in partnership agreements and are a middle ground in terms of privacy. * **Third-party cookies:** Set by a domain different from the one the user is visiting, often by advertisers or analytics companies. Used for cross-site tracking, retargeting, and ad serving. Due to privacy concerns, these are increasingly being restricted or blocked by browsers. #### 5.1.4 Structure of GA4 GA4 uses a property to encompass all data, with multiple data streams (web, iOS, Android) connected to it. This allows for the combination of data from different devices, enabling a more comprehensive view of a user's journey. This contrasts with Universal Analytics, which required separate properties for each platform, making it difficult to track a single user across devices. ### 5.2 Acquisition versus engagement metrics GA4 provides insights into how users discover a website and how actively they engage with it. #### 5.2.1 Acquisition metrics * **User acquisition:** This report focuses on new users and their initial discovery channels. It answers the question: "Which marketing channels are growing my audience?" The report attributes all sessions to the original source of the user's first interaction. * **Traffic acquisition:** This report examines sessions (visits) and evaluates each visit independently. It answers the question: "Which channels are bringing people back and driving interaction today?" Each session is attributed to the channel that brought the user in for that specific visit. #### 5.2.2 Engagement metrics Engagement metrics measure how active and involved users are with a website or app. * **DAU / MAU (Daily stickiness):** $$ \text{DAU / MAU} = \frac{\text{Daily Active Users}}{\text{Monthly Active Users}} $$ This ratio indicates the percentage of monthly users who visit daily, helping to identify if a product is used as a daily habit. * **WAU / MAU (Weekly stickiness):** $$ \text{WAU / MAU} = \frac{\text{Weekly Active Users}}{\text{Monthly Active Users}} $$ This ratio shows the percentage of monthly users who visit at least once a week, useful for products that are part of a regular, but not necessarily daily, routine. * **DAU / WAU (Weekly intensity):** $$ \text{DAU / WAU} = \frac{\text{Daily Active Users}}{\text{Weekly Active Users}} $$ This metric reveals how intense usage is within a single week and can indicate "event-driven" traffic if there are significant spikes. > **Tip:** Understanding the difference between user acquisition and traffic acquisition is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of different marketing channels. User acquisition tells you where your new audience comes from, while traffic acquisition tells you which channels drive repeat visits and engagement. > **Example:** A business might see a high user acquisition from social media campaigns, indicating those campaigns are effective at attracting new visitors. However, if the traffic acquisition report shows that most return visits come from email marketing, it suggests that email is more effective at re-engaging existing users. --- ## Common mistakes to avoid - Review all topics thoroughly before exams - Pay attention to formulas and key definitions - Practice with examples provided in each section - Don't memorize without understanding the underlying concepts

| Term | Definition | |------|------------| | HTML (HyperText Markup Language) | A standard markup language used to create the basic structure and content of webpages. | | CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) | A style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in HTML or XML. It defines how elements are laid out and how they look on a webpage. | | JavaScript | A programming language that defines the interactive elements of a webpage, enhancing user engagement through features like animations, responsive forms, and pop-ups. | | Responsiveness | The ability of a website to automatically adapt its layout and content to fit the screen size of the user's device, ensuring optimal viewing on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. | | Bootstrap | A popular free and open-source front-end framework that provides pre-made components and styles for web design, enabling faster development of responsive and cross-browser compatible websites. | | Grid-systeem | A layout system consisting of columns and rows that helps align content neatly and automatically creates responsive designs within frameworks like Bootstrap. | | Div | In HTML, a `div` element is used to start a block of content, allowing developers to define its size and how it is structured within the page. | | Internal linking | The practice of linking web pages within the same website to each other, which aids both users and search engines in navigating and understanding the site's structure and content. | | Dark patterns | Deceptive design techniques used on websites and apps to subtly influence users into performing actions that primarily benefit the company, rather than the user. | | Call to action (CTA) | A prompt or instruction designed to elicit an immediate response from the audience, guiding them to take a specific desired action, ideally placed "above the fold" for visibility. | | Web accessibility | The practice of designing websites and digital content so that people with disabilities, including those with physical or motor impairments, low vision, or on the autistic spectrum, can use them effectively. | | Core Web Vitals | A set of metrics developed by Google that measure the qualitative user experience on a web page, encompassing loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. | | LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | A Core Web Vital metric that measures the loading performance of the largest content element (e.g., image or text block) on a web page, aiming for a load time of 2.5 seconds or less. | | INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | A Core Web Vital metric that observes the latency of all user interactions (clicks, taps, keyboard input) with a page and reports the longest duration, indicating the page's responsiveness. | | CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | A Core Web Vital metric that measures the visual stability of a page by quantifying how much content unexpectedly shifts or moves around during loading. | | SEO (Search Engine Optimization) | The practice of optimizing a website to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) through processes like crawling, indexing, and ranking. | | Crawling | The process by which search engine bots discover and read web pages by following links to gather information about their content. | | Indexing | The process where search engines store and organize the information gathered during crawling, making it understandable for search queries. | | Ranking | The process by which search engines determine the order in which to display web pages in search results based on their relevance and authority for a given query. | | Backlink | A link from one website to another page, often considered a "vote of confidence" and contributing to the authority of the linked page. | | Meta description | A brief summary of a web page's content that appears below the title in Google search results, intended to entice users to click. | | Title tag | The title of a web page that appears in search engine results and browser tabs, playing a crucial role in SEO. | | Pillar content principle | A content strategy where a comprehensive "pillar page" covers a broad topic and links to multiple more detailed "sub-pages" that delve into specific aspects of the subject. | | Site Authority | An overall measure of trust and credibility that a website holds in the eyes of search engines, influenced by factors like content quality, backlinks, and user experience. | | Domain authority | A score that predicts how well an entire website is likely to rank on search engine results pages, based on its overall online presence and authority. | | Page authority | A score that predicts how well a specific web page is likely to rank on search engine results pages, based on its individual content and link profile. | | Follow links | Links that pass SEO value or "link juice" from one page to another, indicating endorsement and contributing to the target page's authority. | | No-follow links | Links that do not pass direct SEO value but can still drive traffic and increase visibility. | | Navboost | A Google ranking system that refines search results based on users' navigational interactions, considering factors like location, device type, and the quality of user engagement. | | AI Overviews | AI-generated summaries that appear at the very top of search results, citing multiple sources to provide quick answers to broad informational queries. | | Featured Snippets | Short answers to informal queries like definitions or step-by-step instructions that appear at the top of search results, often in a box with text, a list, or a table. | | SERP features (Search Engine Results Page features) | Extra elements displayed on a Google search results page alongside standard organic results, such as images, videos, local packs, or AI overviews, providing enhanced information or interactivity. | | Google Ads | A platform for advertising on Google's search engine and network, allowing businesses to display ads to users based on their search queries and online behavior. | | SEA (Search Engine Advertising) | A form of online advertising that involves placing ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) to drive targeted traffic to a website. | | Match types | Settings in Google Ads that determine how closely a user's search query must match a chosen keyword for an ad to be displayed. | | Broad match | A match type in Google Ads that allows ads to show for searches related to a keyword, including synonyms, misspellings, and related searches, offering the most flexibility. | | Phrase match | A match type in Google Ads that shows ads when a search query includes the keyword's meaning or phrase, in either the exact order or with words in between. | | Exact match | A match type in Google Ads that shows ads only when a search query is very similar or identical to the targeted keyword. | | Negative keywords | Words or phrases added to Google Ads campaigns to prevent ads from showing for irrelevant searches, saving costs and improving targeting. | | Ad rank | A score used by Google Ads to determine whether an ad is shown and at what position in the search results, calculated based on bid amount and quality score. | | Quality score | A Google Ads metric that estimates the quality and relevance of ads, keywords, and landing pages, influencing Ad Rank. It comprises expected Click-Through Rate (CTR), ad relevance, and landing page experience. | | Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) | A feature in Meta Ads Manager that automatically distributes a campaign budget across ad sets to achieve the best overall results. | | Dynamic creative | A feature that automatically generates personalized ad variations by mixing and matching provided media and ad components to improve ad performance. | | Advantage+ Placements | A Meta feature that allows the platform to automatically decide where ads appear across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network to achieve optimal performance. | | Google Analytics 4 (GA4) | A free web analytics service from Google that measures website and app traffic, user behavior, and conversions, using an event-based data model. | | Event | In GA4, any user interaction or activity on a website or app that is tracked, such as a page view, click, purchase, or video play. | | Event parameters | Specific details or attributes associated with an event, providing more context about the action (e.g., `page_name`, `video_watch_time`). | | User properties | Attributes or characteristics of a user that can be collected in GA4 for segmentation purposes, such as demographic data, device information, or a user ID. | | Cookie | A small piece of data that websites store on a user's browser to remember information, personalize experiences, and track user behavior. | | Session cookies | Temporary cookies that exist only while the browser is open and are deleted once the browser is closed. | | Persistent cookies | Cookies that are stored on a user's device permanently or for an extended period, persisting even after the browser is closed. | | First-party cookies | Cookies set by the website the user is currently visiting, primarily used for site-specific functionalities like logins and preferences. | | Third-party cookies | Cookies set by a domain other than the one the user is visiting, often used by advertisers and analytics companies for cross-site tracking and retargeting. | | User acquisition | A report in GA4 that focuses on new users and attributes their arrival to the original marketing channel that brought them to the site. | | Traffic acquisition | A report in GA4 that evaluates each individual session or visit independently, attributing it to the channel that drove that specific interaction. | | DAU/MAU (Daily Active Users / Monthly Active Users) | A ratio used in GA4 to measure "daily stickiness," indicating the percentage of monthly users who visit the platform every single day. | | WAU/MAU (Weekly Active Users / Monthly Active Users) | A ratio used in GA4 to measure "weekly stickiness," indicating the percentage of monthly users who visit the platform at least once a week. | | Attribution modeling | A set of rules or a process used to assign credit for conversions to different touchpoints in the customer journey. | | Attribution window (or Conversion window, Lookback window) | The period of time after a customer interaction during which a conversion is recorded and attributed to a specific touchpoint. | | View-through conversion | A conversion that occurs after a user sees an ad but does not click it, indicating the ad's influence on later behavior. | | Engaged view conversion | A conversion counted when a viewer watches at least 10 seconds of a video ad without necessarily clicking it. | | Click-through conversion | A conversion that occurs after a user clicks on an ad, directly measuring the ad's effectiveness in driving action. | | Auction Insights Report | A tool in Google Ads that compares an advertiser's performance with that of other advertisers in the same auctions, providing data on impression share, overlap rate, and outranking share. | | Reservation buying | A method of purchasing ad space in advance with predictable delivery and fixed pricing, often used for broad branding campaigns with large audiences. | | Auction buying | A method of purchasing ad space through a competitive auction, offering more flexibility and efficiency but with less predictable results, suitable for performance-driven campaigns. | | Meta Ads Manager | A platform provided by Meta for creating, managing, and analyzing advertising campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. | | Ad set | A level within a Meta ad campaign where targeting options, budget, schedule, placements, and conversion goals are defined. | | Advantage campaign budget | The new name for campaign budget optimization in Meta Ads Manager, where the budget is automatically distributed across ad sets. | | Dynamic creative | A feature that automatically generates personalized ad variations by mixing and matching provided media and ad components to improve ad performance. | | Look-alike audiences | A feature in Meta Ads Manager that creates new audiences by finding people who share similar characteristics, interests, and behaviors with an existing audience (e.g., existing customers). | | Advantage+ Placements | A Meta feature that allows the platform to automatically decide where ads appear across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network to achieve optimal performance. | | Brand safety and suitability | Settings within Meta Ads Manager that allow advertisers to control where their ads are shown, preventing them from appearing next to inappropriate or sensitive content. | | LLM (Large Language Model) | A type of artificial intelligence model that processes and generates human-like text by recognizing patterns in language, without true human-like understanding. | | Latent space | In AI, a compressed, hidden representation of data where important features are captured in a structured way, allowing models to learn patterns and relationships more effectively. | | GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) | An emerging strategy focused on optimizing content and websites for generative AI search engines and AI overviews. | | AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization) | A broader term for optimizing digital assets and strategies for various AI-driven platforms and tools, including search and content generation. | | Schema.org vocabulary | A standardized vocabulary used to mark up structured data on web pages, helping search engines understand the content more effectively and display rich results. | | JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) | A method of encoding Linked Data using JSON, commonly used for implementing structured data on web pages. | | Microdata | A set of HTML tags used to embed machine-readable metadata within HTML documents, allowing search engines to understand specific elements of content. | | RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes) | An extension of HTML5 that allows attribute-level metadata to be embedded in documents, supporting the description of linked data. | | SEM (Search Engine Marketing) | A broad term that encompasses both SEO and SEA, referring to all marketing efforts used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages. | | NLP (Natural Language Processing) | A branch of AI that deals with the interaction between computers and human language, enabling computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language. | | AI Overviews | AI-generated summaries that appear at the very top of search results, citing multiple sources to provide quick answers to broad informational queries. | | Local Pack | A section in Google search results that displays a map with three local business listings, including contact details, reviews, and website links, for local intent queries. | | People Also Ask (PAA) Boxes | Expandable sections in Google search results that show related questions users might have about a topic, offering quick answers and source links. | | Rich Snippets | Extended search result listings that display additional information beyond the standard title and description, such as star ratings, prices, FAQs, or event details, often enabled by structured data. | | Image Packs | A display of images within the search engine results page (SERP), often appearing for visual-heavy searches like products, inspiration, or identification. | | Knowledge Panels | An information box that appears in Google search results, providing key details about a person, brand, place, or thing, often for well-known entities. | | Video Carousels | A section in SERPs that displays a row or carousel of videos, typically appearing when Google determines video content might best answer a user's query. | | PPC (Pay-Per-Click) | An advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. | | CPC (Cost-Per-Click) | The actual price an advertiser pays for each click on their ad in a PPC advertising model. | | CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) | The target cost an advertiser sets for acquiring a conversion, guiding bidding strategies to achieve profitability. | | ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) | A metric that measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising, calculated as (Revenue from Ads / Cost of Ads) x 100. | | Impression Share | The percentage of impressions an advertiser's ads received compared to the total number of impressions they were eligible to receive. | | Overlap Rate | The frequency with which another advertiser's ad appeared in the same auction as your ad. | | Outranking Share | The frequency with which your ad ranked higher in the auction than another advertiser's ad, or showed when theirs did not. | | Position Above Rate | In search campaigns, the frequency with which your ad was shown in a higher position than another advertiser's ad in the same auction. | | Top of Page Rate | In search campaigns, the frequency with which your ad was shown at the top of the page in search results. | | Absolute Top of the Page Rate | In search campaigns, the frequency with which your ad was the very first ad displayed above the organic search results. | | Smart Bidding | An automated bidding strategy in Google Ads that uses machine learning to optimize bids in real-time for specific goals, combining broad keywords with AI signals. | | Pmax (Performance Max) | A Google Ads campaign type that uses AI to automate ad creation, targeting, and bidding across all of Google's channels to maximize campaign performance with minimal marketer input. | | ACA (Automatically Created Assets) | Assets generated by AI in Performance Max campaigns that supplement advertiser-provided content to improve ad relevance and performance. | | Attribution window | The period of time after a customer interaction during which a conversion is recorded and attributed to a specific touchpoint. | | Data-driven attribution | An attribution model that assigns credit for conversions based on historical account data and how different touchpoints contributed to conversions, rather than fixed rules. | | Session-based model | A traditional analytics model where all user activity within a defined time frame (a session) is grouped together, making it difficult to track users across multiple sessions or devices. | | Event-based model | The data model used in GA4, where every user interaction is registered as an individual event, allowing for more granular tracking and user-centric analysis. | | Enhanced measurements | Features in GA4 that automatically track additional user interactions beyond basic pageviews and scrolls, such as link clicks, embedded video views, and outbound clicks. | | User properties | Attributes or characteristics of a user that can be collected in GA4 for segmentation purposes, such as demographic data, device information, or a user ID. | | Key events | Events that a marketer specifically chooses to track as conversions in GA4, representing important user actions that contribute to business goals. | | Session cookies | Temporary cookies that exist only while the browser is open and are deleted once the browser is closed. | | Persistent cookies | Cookies that are stored on a user's device permanently or for an extended period, persisting even after the browser is closed. | | First-party cookies | Cookies set by the website the user is currently visiting, primarily used for site-specific functionalities like logins and preferences. | | Second-party cookies | Cookies set by a website other than the one the user is visiting, but exclusively used for the benefit of the user's current website, often through partnerships. | | Third-party cookies | Cookies set by a domain other than the one the user is visiting, typically by advertisers or analytics companies for cross-site tracking and retargeting. | | GA4 Property | A container in Google Analytics 4 that collects and processes data from one or more data streams (web, iOS app, Android app) to provide a unified view of user behavior. | | Data Streams | Sources of data within a GA4 property, such as a website, an iOS app, or an Android app, from which analytics collects events. | | UA (Universal Analytics) | The previous generation of Google Analytics, which typically used separate properties for each platform (website, app), making it harder to track users across devices. | | User acquisition | A report in GA4 that focuses on new users and attributes their arrival to the original marketing channel that brought them to the site. | | Traffic acquisition | A report in GA4 that evaluates each individual session or visit independently, attributing it to the channel that drove that specific interaction. | | DAU/MAU (Daily Active Users / Monthly Active Users) | A ratio used in GA4 to measure "daily stickiness," indicating the percentage of monthly users who visit the platform every single day. | | WAU/MAU (Weekly Active Users / Monthly Active Users) | A ratio used in GA4 to measure "weekly stickiness," indicating the percentage of monthly users who visit the platform at least once a week. | | DAU/WAU (Daily Active Users / Weekly Active Users) | A ratio used in GA4 to measure "weekly intensity," indicating how intense usage is within a single week. | | Attribution | The process of assigning credit for a conversion to different marketing touchpoints along the customer's journey. | | Channel | The source through which a user arrives at a website or app, such as organic search, paid social, direct traffic, or email. | | Reach | The total number of unique users who saw a piece of content or an advertisement. | | Impressions | The total number of times content or an advertisement was displayed, regardless of whether it was clicked. | | Frequency | The average number of times a unique user saw a piece of content or an advertisement. | | Engagement | User interactions with content or advertisements, including likes, comments, shares, and clicks. | | CTR (Click-Through Rate) | The percentage of people who clicked on a link or advertisement after seeing it, calculated as (Clicks / Impressions) * 100. | | ROI (Return on Investment) | A financial metric that measures the profitability of an investment, calculated as (Net Profit - Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment. | | Brand sentiment | The overall attitude or feeling that people have towards a brand, often measured through social media mentions and sentiment analysis. | | Sentiment analysis | The process of using natural language processing (NLP) techniques to determine the emotional tone or sentiment expressed in text data (e.g., positive, negative, neutral). | | Meta Ads Manager | A platform provided by Meta for creating, managing, and analyzing advertising campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. | | Campaign level | The highest level in Meta Ads Manager, where overall campaign objectives, budget optimization, and A/B testing are configured. | | Ad set level | An intermediate level in Meta Ads Manager, where targeting options, placements, budget, schedule, and conversion goals are defined for a specific audience segment. | | Ad level | The lowest level in Meta Ads Manager, where the actual ad creative (images, videos, text, CTA) and destination are configured. | | Reservation buying | A method of purchasing ad space in advance with predictable delivery and fixed pricing, often used for broad branding campaigns with large audiences. | | Auction buying | A method of purchasing ad space through a competitive auction, offering more flexibility and efficiency but with less predictable results, suitable for performance-driven campaigns. | | Dynamic creative | A feature that automatically generates personalized ad variations by mixing and matching provided media and ad components to improve ad performance. | | Advantage+ Placements | A Meta feature that allows the platform to automatically decide where ads appear across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network to achieve optimal performance. | | Brand safety and suitability | Settings within Meta Ads Manager that allow advertisers to control where their ads are shown, preventing them from appearing next to inappropriate or sensitive content. | | Estimated Audience Size | An estimate provided by Meta Ads Manager of how many accounts meet the targeting and ad placement criteria selected by an advertiser, used as a tool for audience assessment. | | Multi advertiser ad | An ad unit available on Facebook and Instagram that allows multiple businesses to promote their products or services simultaneously, enabling users to discover and compare offerings. | | Collection ad | An ad format that displays products in a grid layout, allowing users to browse multiple products from a single brand or seller within the ad itself. | | Instant Experience | A full-screen mobile landing page that opens instantly when a user taps on an ad in Meta's ecosystem, offering a rich, immersive experience. | | Look-alike audiences | A feature in Meta Ads Manager that creates new audiences by finding people who share similar characteristics, interests, and behaviors with an existing audience (e.g., existing customers). | | Advantage+ Placements | A Meta feature that allows the platform to automatically decide where ads appear across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network to achieve optimal performance. | | Brand safety and suitability | Settings within Meta Ads Manager that allow advertisers to control where their ads are shown, preventing them from appearing next to inappropriate or sensitive content. |