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DMI Expert: Search Marketing

DMI Expert · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Search Marketing

What this domain tests

Search marketing covers organic search and paid search as one demand system. Expect keyword and intent research, crawl/index/render fundamentals, on-page and content quality (E-E-A-T), Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS), structured data, local SEO, Google Ads auction mechanics, match types, negative keywords, RSA assets, Performance Max, conversion tracking, and budget control.

Core rules

  • Map keywords to intent and page type. Informational queries need guides; commercial queries need comparisons; transactional queries need product or landing pages. One page should not target five conflicting intents.
  • Technical SEO gates everything: if a page is blocked by robots.txt, marked noindex, canonicalised elsewhere, or rendered without critical content, rankings cannot follow.
  • Paid search is an auction. Ad Rank = Max CPC bid × Quality Score + expected impact of assets/formats. Actual CPC is set by the Ad Rank of the ad below divided by your Quality Score, plus $0.01 (simplified).
  • Use match types deliberately. Broad match needs strong negatives and conversion signals; phrase and exact control closer variants. Review search terms weekly.
  • Measure incremental outcomes. Brand and non-brand, last-click and assisted conversions, and lead quality should be separated.

Worked example

You bid $2.00 with Quality Score 8, so Ad Rank is 16. The competitor below has Ad Rank 12 and Quality Score 6. Your actual CPC = 12/8 + $0.01 = $1.51. If you raise your bid to $2.50, your Ad Rank rises to 20, but actual CPC stays $1.51 while the ad below is unchanged: you pay for position, not for the bid itself. A bid increase only changes CPC when it changes the rank gap. The reasoning: optimise Quality Score and relevance before assuming higher bids buy cheaper clicks.

Traps

Believing meta keywords matter, keyword density as a ranking lever, confusing Quality Score with Ad Rank, broad match without negatives, judging SEO by rankings instead of qualified traffic, ignoring canonicals/noindex, and attributing all conversions to the last click.