Title: Explain the concept and best practices of search engine optimization (SEO).
Course: Digital and Social Media Marketing (12162) > Section: Understanding Tools and Tactics for Digital and Social Media Marketing

Explanation should include

- defining the term search engine optimization (SEO)
- summarizing the fundamentals of how search engines work
- analyzing the importance of web page titles and descriptions in SEO
- describing how to remain current with search algorithms
- advantages of organic search (e.g., credibility of listing, generally lower cost, positive branding effect of high ranking [people associate high ranking with high quality])
- disadvantages of organic search (e.g., investment in time spent optimizing listing for search engine and waiting for site to be indexed, necessity of ongoing search engine optimization, increased cost if professional search engine optimization performed)
- the fundamental elements of obtaining favorable search engine ranking, including internal factors, external factors, and algorithms
- the roles of metadata, titles, descriptions, keywords, and headers
- the role of blogs in SEO
- linking strategies.

Process/Skill Questions:

- How is SEO different from SEM?
- What is organic traffic?
- What tools can be used to ensure that a website is recognized by a search engine?
- Why is it beneficial to small businesses to use SEO?
- When is it most advantageous to use an organic search?
- What are the ethical considerations of organic searches?
- What role does organic search play in digital marketing?
- What is linking? How are linking strategies critical to digital marketing effectiveness?
- How can organic searches increase traffic on one’s website?
- What are keyword search strategies?
- How does the negative keyword tool work?
- How can one increase the visibility of a blog using SEO?
- How can one obtain a favorable search ranking using SEO analytics?
- What is metadata, and why is it important?