SEO and Search Marketing
This domain covers organic search (SEO) and paid search (SEM/PPC). For SEO, know the three pillars: on-page (titles, headings, content relevance, internal links), technical (crawlability, indexation, site speed, mobile-friendliness, structured data), and off-page (backlinks, authority, brand signals). Understand search intent-informational, navigational, transactional, commercial-and match content to intent.
For paid search, know keyword match types (broad, phrase, exact), negative keywords, Quality Score (relevance, expected CTR, landing page experience), Ad Rank (bid × quality × extensions), and bidding strategies. Understand that Quality Score affects both position and cost-per-click.
Traps: confusing rankings with traffic (ranking #1 for a zero-volume term yields nothing). Assuming more keywords always means more reach-broad match without negatives wastes budget. Confusing organic and paid metrics. Another trap: treating meta keywords as a ranking factor (they are not). Also watch for answers that ignore search intent-high-volume keywords irrelevant to the business are poor targets.
Worked rule of thumb: In a PPC scenario with high spend and low conversion, first check search-term reports and add negative keywords before raising bids. For SEO, prioritize pages that match high-intent queries and fix technical blockers (indexation, speed) before chasing more backlinks.