SEO and SEM

Here are a few good places to start learning SEO (Search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) fundamentals:
Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/seo-fundamentals

SEMrush: https://www.semrush.com/academy/courses/seo-principles-beginners-guide/

Google Search Central: https://developers.google.com/search

Google has its Intro to Analytics course https://support.google.com/analytics/topic/14089939

Google Search Console helps you monitor your site’s presence in Google search results. You’ll also get emails about your site’s performance, as well as important notifications.

Claude AI built out 99% of this article. I asked Claude the following: “I am looking to become a search engine marketing specialist. Can you build me a study guide with a glossary of terms I need to become familiar with?” Claude responded with the following. I’ll add links with definitions for each SEO/SEM term, with most definitions provided by Claude. Just click for an overview of each term.

The three main areas you will hear about in the SEO world are on-page optimization, technical optimization (on-site optimization), and off-page (off-site) optimization.

Introduction to SEM:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Organic Search Results
• Paid Search Results

SEO Glossary:

• On-Page Optimization
• Off-Page Optimization
• Keyword Research
• Title Tags
• Meta Descriptions
• Header Tags (H1, H2, etc.)
• Alt Text
• Internal Linking
• External Linking
• Backlinks
• Link Building
• Anchor Text
• Content Marketing
• User Experience (UX)
• Mobile Optimization
• Site Speed
• Crawlability
• Indexability
• Canonical Tags
• Robots.txt
• XML Sitemaps
• Schema Markup
• Local SEO
• Duplicate Content
• Thin Content

PPC Glossary:

• Ad Rank
• Quality Score
• Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
• Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)
• Click-Through Rate (CTR)
• Conversion Rate
• Ad Extensions
• Ad Groups
• Campaigns
• Match Types (Broad, Phrase, Exact)
• Negative Keywords
• Remarketing/Retargeting
• Landing Pages
• A/B Testing
• Geotargeting
• Keyword Bidding Strategies
• Ad Scheduling
• Ad Copy

Analytics and Reporting:

• Google Analytics
• Conversion Tracking
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Bounce Rate
• Time on Site
• Pages per Session
• Traffic Sources
• Audience Demographics
• Goal Tracking
• Funnel Visualization
• Attribution Modeling
• ROI Calculation

Other Important Terms:

• Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
• Universal Search Results
• Featured Snippets
• Knowledge Graph
• Rich Snippets
• Voice Search
• Mobile-First Indexing
• Algorithm Updates
• Search Query Intent
• Competitive Analysis
• Online Reputation Management (ORM)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Platforms
• Schema.org