Online Diploma in SEO Course

Introduction to Search Engine Optimization

Why do you need to know about Search Engine Optimization?; A brief history of Search Engines; How people search the web; How do Search Engines actually work?; How is the information collected for Search Engines to use?; Algorithm Based Ranking Systems – Crawling, Indexing and Ranking; Web Crawlers, Spiders and Robots, ; Search Engine Query Interfaces; Understanding GoogleBot; Analysing Ranking Factors; Advanced Searching techniques; Determining Searcher Intent – Types of Searches; How people scan search results pages; How people click on search results; Organic Listings vs; Sponsored Listings; The Google Toolbar PageRank Tool; Vertical Search Engines; Country Specific Search Engines; Search Directories; Setting out your SEO Goals and Objectives; Outlining and Developing your SEO Plan; The importance of having a good SEO Plan prior to website development; Researching your potential audience; Finding your niche on the web; SEO for raw Traffic; SEO for E-Commerce sites; SEO for Branding; SEO for Direct marketing; SEO for Reputation Management; SEO for Ideological Influence;

Planning your SEO campaign

The importance of planning; The importance of site architecture; Defining your websites architecture; Technology decisions that can affect your SEO; Structural decisions that can affect your SEO; Auditing an existing site to identify and SEO problems; Server Hosting Issues – Server Timeouts, Slow Response Times, Blocked IP Addresses, Shared IP Addresses, Server geography; Who are your competitors?; Measuring your success – Server Statistics Software; Website SWOT Analysis

Keyword Research and Generation

The importance of keywords; Traditional approaches to keyword research; Understanding how keywords are used; Choosing quality keywords; Analysing your competition; Keyword research tools; Determining your potential Return on Investment;

On-Site SEO

Page Content; Choosing the correct file names for your pages; Formatting your site; Working with images; Working with forms; The importance of On-Page SEO; On-Page SEO elements; On-Page Ranking Factors; Content; Keyword Frequency; Title Tags and Meta Tags; Links; Headline Tag; On-Site SEO Optimisation Tools;

Off-Site SEO

The importance of off-line SEO; Difference between external and internal links; Inbound links; Link building methods and campaigns; Link Building Tools;

Developing an SEO Friendly Website

Making your site accessible to Search Engines; Optimizing your site information architecture; The Importance of site maps; Creating a HTML sitemap; Creating an XML sitemap; Sitemap creation tools; Root Domains and Sub Domains; Optimizing Domain Names and URL’s; Structuring your URL’s correctly; Optimizing your website for multiple web browsers; The World Wide web – creating different language versions of your site; Keyword Targeting; Keyword Density; The Importance of HTML Tags in Keyword Targeting; Meta Tags and HTML Tags; Using Images and Flash files; Using the “Alt” Tag – the importance of Alternative Text; Content Optimization; Avoiding Content Duplication; Controlling Content with Cookies and Session ID’s; Specifying Content for Search Engines; Using Content Management Systems (CMSs); Targeting your site for different countries; Targeting your site for Mobile Devices; Other considerations for your website;

Optimizing your site for Major Search Engines

Optimization for Google; Google PageRank; Google Webmaster Tools; Google Technical Suggestions; Google Content Suggestions; Optimizing for Bing; Optimizing your images for Google Images;

Local Business Listings

Adding a Local Business Listing to Google; Adding a Local Business Listing to Bing; Submitting your site to other Local Business Directories;

Sponsored Advertising

What is Sponsored Advertising? Questions you should ask before setting up a Sponsored Advertising Campaign; Types of Sponsored Advertising; Pay-Per-Click Advertising, Pay-Per-Impression Advertising; Pay-Per-Action Advertising; The Google Factor; Google Ads; Setting up an Ads Account– Types of Ads Accounts; Monitoring your campaigns; Managing your Ads Account – Billing, Reporting; Writing Good Ads Advertisements; Understanding the Importance of Good Landing Pages; Google AdSense; Setting up an AdSense Account; How to integrate AdSense into your website;

Measuring your results – Web Metrics

The Importance of Analysing your Web Traffic; Measuring Search Traffic; Knowing what Metrics are important for you; Using AWStats to track web traffic; Google Analytics; Integrating Google Analytics code in your website; The Google Analytics Keywords Report; Measuring the Bounce Rate and understanding its importance; Setting Goals in Google Analytics; Using Goals to measure ROI; Using Filters in Google Analytics– specifying your web metrics; Setting up and Customizing Reports in Google Analytics; Setting up and maintaining User Accounts in Google Analytics; Mobile Reporting in Google Analytics; Tips to help you utilize Google Analytics;

Factors that might adversely affect your SEO

Technical design issues; Abnormal keyword delivery; Unavailable, Inconsistent or Inaccurate NAP Information; Ignoring; SEO Factors; Meta jacking; What to do if you get banned by a search engine;

Working with SEO Plug-Ins

Introduction to SEO Plug-Ins; Installing the Google Toolbar; Installing the Alexa Toolbar; Using the SEO for Firefox Plug-In; Optimizing Titles with the WordPress Title Tag Plug-In; Optimizing Descriptions with the WordPress Description Tag Plug-In; Creating Sitemaps with the WordPress Sitemap Generator; Using the Permalink Redirect Plug-In; Building sitemaps using XML-Sitemaps;com; Creating sitemaps using Site Map Creator software;

Doing Business on the Internet

Doing Business on the Internet; The Benefits of Digital Marketing; Online Marketing Planning; Key Concepts in Internet Technology; Business Models on the Internet; Online Market Research;

The Google Factor

The Google Factor; Google Analytics; Google Ads;  Google AdSense;

Social Network Marketing

What is Social Media? A brief history of Social Media; How Social Media Works; Why should a business use Social Media; The power of Social Media in the Marketing and Advertising Arena; Introduction to Social Media Marketing Techniques; Understanding your audience; Social Network Platforms and Applications; Media Distribution; Establishing new categories of relationships with your customers; Accumulating Social Capital; The future of Social Networking;

How Social Media is transforming the way we do Business

Social Media & SEO; Social Sales; Transforming the Sales Cycle; Building relationships with your customers; Using customer testimonials on your site; Building a rapport with your customers; Online customer support; Social Network Marketing; Hypertargeting; Creating specific advertising campaigns; Reaching Passive Buyers; Loyalty and Engagement; Social Networking Communities; Brand Advertising; Social Distribution; Social Ads; Viral Marketing; Challenges and Limitations; Social Innovation; Concept generation; Crowdsourcing; Collaboration and Feedback; Commercial Implementation; Continual Iteration; Social Recruiting; The use of Social Networks for recruiting; Sourcing Candidates; Active Candidates; Passive Candidates; Candidate References; Getting Referrals from Extended Networks; Targeting Specialized Networks; Employer Reputation; Keeping In Touch;

Facebook

What is Facebook; Who uses Facebook; How can Facebook benefit a business; Understanding the Facebook environment; Signing up for a Facebook account; Defining your profile; Editing your profile; Searching for and adding friends; Using the Facebook Wall feature; Using pictures on your Facebook profile; Using the News Feed feature; Controlling what people see – using the Hide feature; Facebook Messaging; Facebook Groups; Facebook Links; Facebook Applications; Browsing for Applications; Including Business Applications; Finding Help – the Facebook Community; The Architecture of a Facebook Page; Understanding Facebook Advertising; Developing a Facebook Marketing Plan; Facebook Groups, Hosting Facebook Events;

Twitter

Introduction to Twitter; Understanding a Tweet; Decoding the elements of a Tweet; Signing up for a Twitter account; Creating and modifying your profile; Adding a profile icon; Finding people and uploading contacts; Following someone on Twitter; Adding followers to your account; Using Twitter Badges; Creating a Tweet; Working within the constraints of a Tweet; Re-tweeting; Sharing Links – Using TinyURL;com; Using Twitter with Mobile Devices; Using Twitter Goodies; Adding Twitter to Blogs; Connecting Twitter to Facebook, Direct Messages; Planning your Twitter Marketing Strategy; Building a Twitter Tribe;

YouTube

Introduction to YouTube; Understanding YouTube; Browsing on YouTube; YouTube as a social media site; YouTube as a business tool; YouTube as an educational tool; Creating a YouTube account; Linking to your Gmail account; Creating a video for YouTube; Using Open Source Video Editing Software; Adding voiceovers, soundtracks and special effects to your videos; Formatting Videos for Uploading; Uploading Videos to YouTube; Downloading videos from YouTube; Linking and Embedding videos in your own website; Posting comments on other people’s videos; Comparing YouTube and Facebook; Sharing Videos with Facebook; Sharing Videos with Twitter;

The Theory of E-Commerce

What is e-commerce? Definitions; Advantages of e-commerce; Limitations of e-commerce;

Ecommerce Practical: HTML and CSS

What is HTML? Why HTML is important; What is CSS? How does CSS work? The three types of Cascading Style Sheets – In-Line CSS, Internal CSS and External CSS; Examples of formatting using CSS; Linking a web page to an external CSS page; Formatting the page with CSS; Font and Text formatting; Working with Links;

Online Public Relations

Internet influence on News, Internet Journalists, Economics of Online News Production, Internet Critics and other influences, the PR Practitioner as an Online Publisher, Ethical Internet PR, Truthfulness and Duty of Care, Online Ethics, Debate, Guidelines and Best Practice; Monitoring and Evaluation of Social Media Discourse, Trends and Value; Policy Influences, corporate speak; Implications of Social Media for Corporate Social Responsibility; Local versus Global Communication, Landscaping Platforms, Channels and context, Online PR Organisational Analysis and Segmentation, Developing Online PR Strategies, Online PR Tactics and SEO considerations, Online PR Planning, Managing Online PR Risk and Opportunities; Blogs, Microblogs, Chatrooms, Delicious, Email, Flickr, Twitter, Instant messaging, Message Boards, Mobile Internet , New Media Releases, Online Conferencing, Online Surveys, Pay per click, Podcasts, RSS, Search Engines, SEO, Social Networking Service Sites, Video Sharing, Virtual worlds, VoIP, Wiki and Widgets; Commercial Implications of the Internet, Social Interaction with the Internet, Web 2;0 and its Implications, Internet Convergence, the Network Effect, Internet Information Exchange, Internet Audience Size and Exposure, Internet Culture and Communication, Transparency and the Internet;

Setting Up and Marketing your own Consultancy

The Business Plan; Legalities; Setting up Your Own Consultancy; Marketing Strategy; Knowing your competitors; Promotional Methods; Marketing your own Consultancy; 

Presentation Skills

Preparation and Research; Speech Content; Subject Matter and Objectives; Speech Delivery and Variety; Body Language; Eye Contact, etc.; Presentation Aids; Management of Locations and Audiences; Presentation Structure;