Digital Marketing

UNIT 1

 Introduction to Digital Marketing & Website and Blog Development:

Introduction to Digital Marketing and its Significance; Traditional
Marketing Vs Digital Marketing; Digital Marketing Process; The
contemporary digital revolution, digital transformation framework.
Types of websites, Keywords, Understanding Domain and
Webhosting, Building Website/Blog using CMS WordPress, Using
WordPress Plug-ins; Blog Creation: Including Headlines, Links,
Posts: Using various plugins like Elimentor
Digital Marketing
Introduction
 Digital marketing is the process of promoting a brand, product and services on
the internet.

 Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use
of online channels and methods that enable businesses and organizations to
monitor the success of their marketing campaigns, often in real time, to better
understand what does and doesn’t work.

 Digital marketing is an umbrella term for the marketing of products or services

using digital technologies, mostly on the Internet, but also including mobile
phones, display advertising and any other digital terms.
Benefits of Digital Marketing
 Global reach
Further, you can tailor a campaign to specific audience demographics, such as
gender, location, age and interests. This means your campaign will be more
effective
 Your audience have a choice
While one person likes to read a blog post, another person likes to watch a YouTube video.
Traditional marketing doesn't give the audience a choice. Most people hate receiving sales
flyers in their mailbox or phone calls at inconvenient times on stuff that they have little
interest in. Online people get the choice to opt in or out of communications and often it is
relevant because they were the ones searching for it in the first place
 Interaction with your audience is possible –
 with the use of social media networks. In fact, interaction is encouraged.
Traditional marketing methods don't allow for audience interaction. You can
encourage your prospects, clients and followers to take action, visit your
website, read about your products and services, rate them, buy them and provide
feedback which is visible to your market
 Digital marketing is cost-efficient
 Though some invest on paid ads online; however, the cost is still
cheaper compared to traditional marketing.
 Data and results are easily recorded
 With Google Analytics and the insights tools offered by most
social media channels, you can check on your campaigns at any
time. Unlike traditional marketing methods, you can see in real
time what is or is not working for your business online and you
can adapt very quickly to improve your results
 Level playing field:
 Any business can compete with any competitor regardless of size
with a solid digital marketing strategy. Traditionally a smaller
retailer would struggle to match the finesse of the fixtures and
fittings of its larger competitors.
 Benefits of Digital Marketing
 Real time results:
 you don’t have to wait weeks for a boost to your business like you would have to waiting
for a fax or form to be returned. You can see the numbers of visitors to your site and its
subscribers increase, peak trading times, conversion rates and much more at the touch of
a button.
 Brand Development:
 A well maintained website with quality content targeting the needs and adding value to
your target audience can provide significant value and lead generation opportunities. The
same can be said for utilizing social media channels and personalized email marketing.
 Viral:
 Online, using social media share buttons on your website, email and social media
channels enables your message to be shared incredibly quickly. If you consider the
average Facebook user has 190 friends of which an average of 12% see their liked posts –
your one message has actually been seen by 15 new prospects.
Traditional marketing Digital marketing

Communication is unidirectional. Communication is bidirectional.

Meaning, a business communicates about its The customer can also ask questions or make suggestions
products or services with a group of people. about the business products and services.

Medium of communication is generally Medium of communication is mainly through

phone calls, letters and emails. social media, chat, websites and emails.

Campaigning takes more time for designing, There is always a fast way to develop an online campaign
preparing and launching and carry out changes along its development.
With digital tools, campaigning is easier

It is carried out for a specific audience throughout The content is available for general public.
from generating campaign ideas up to selling a It is then made to reach the specific audience by employing
product or a service search engine techniques.

It is a conventional way of marketing; It is best for reaching global audience.

Best for reaching local audience.

It is difficult to measure the effectiveness of a It is easier to measure the effectiveness of a campaign

campaign. through analytics.
DIGITAL MARKETING APPROACHES – PULL AND PUSH
DIGITAL MARKETING
 Pull digital marketing.
 It aims to encourage consumers to come to you by visiting your business or
making a call to action.
 Examples - websites and other internet based mediums.
 Pull marketing is often called inbound marketing.

 Push digital marketing.

 It pushes the marketing information directly to your customers.
 Examples- SMS, email and RSS that target the customer with a customized
message.
 Push marketing can also be called outbound marketing.
Digital Marketing Process – Step By Step Process Flow

 5 Step Digital Marketing Process

Step 1: Research
Step 2: Create
Step 3: Promote
Step 4: Analyze
Step 5: Optimize
Step 1: Research
 At this stage, you will collect all the information that will be required for decision
making in the next stages.
 Information collected during the research will become your raw material to strategize
& create your digital marketing campaign.
 This stage can also be called as Digital Marketing Research.
 At this stage, you will research 4 sets of information:

1. About Business

2. About Your Target Customers

3. About The Product That You Want To Market

4. About Online Competition

 Each set is unique & equally important. You will require multiple sources to collect
the information.
Step 2: Create

 Once you collect information at the research stage, you can now start creating:
 1 – Setting Objectives / Goals:
 These are the ultimate goals that you want to achieve through your Digital
Marketing Campaign. Every business is unique, therefore their goals will also be
unique. Campaigns without clear goals will end up spending money without the
assurance of achieving goals. What goals you should set, can be answered
after looking at information collected at the Digital Marketing Research stage.
 2 – Strategy:
 After you set the goals, it’s time to create a strategy to achieve those goals.
Your Digital Marketing Strategy will include Positioning Strategy, Branding
Strategy, Content Strategy, Digital Marketing Channels Strategy. What strategy
should be adapted/created, will be answered from the information collected at
the Digital Marketing Research stage.
 3 – Plan:
 At this stage, you will lay down a documented plan that will include all
your detailed Digital Marketing activities with timelines.

 4 – Creating Primary Digital Identities:

 The 3 primary Digital Identities of business are
 Website, Blog & App.
 These are like your online office, shops, or showrooms. These are the
places where you want your target customer to reach & ultimately buy
your products & services.
 Before you move on to the next stage, i.e. promote, your primary digital
identities must be fully ready.
 For businesses that want to sell their products through major E-
Commerce portals, creating digital identities can be optional. But, it’s
better to at least have a website for establishing some credibility of your
business.
Step 3: Promote
 After your primary digital identities are fully ready, you will start promoting them.
 That means you want relevant people to start coming to your primary digital
identities. This is also called as generating relevant traffic.
 The more you get relevant traffic to your website, the more the conversion you
can expect. Your options to promote your website/blog / app will be:

1. Search Engines

2. Display Network

3. Ecommerce Portals

4. Social Media

5. Email

6. Messaging

7. Affiliate
 Step 4: Analyze
 Once you create your primary digital identities & start promoting them through various
digital marketing channels, it’s time to start monitoring your performance.

 Analyzing is like looking at the outcome of your digital marketing work.

 You will receive analytics for your primary digital identities, as well as the channels
through which you have done the promotions.

 The important & ultimate analytics for any business is the analytics of your
website/blog/ app. Google Analytics is widely popular to generate analytics of your
primary digital identities. The 4 major sections of Google Analytics are:

1. Audiences

2. Acquisition

3. Behavior

4. Conversion
Step 5: Optimize

 At this stage, based on analysis & observations, you start

making changes (fine-tuning).
 The changes could be in your primary digital identities or digital
marketing channels.
 Changes are also referred to as content & design of your
identities & promotional communication.
DIFFERENT PLATFORMS FOR DIGITAL ADVERTISING
 1. Display Advertising
Based on your audience profile and your products, select ad space in specific websites
from where you can get good traffic.
Display ads can be anything from the banner ads to videos. In the online world, it is
considered as one of the most effective ways of digital branding.
Instead of developing text-based communication, create interesting videos or images
that will speak on behalf of your brand. Also, take time to follow your targets and wisely
choose the websites, which in turn are followed by your audience group.
 Search Engine Advertising
 While your visitors enter certain search keywords, specific to your brand and business;
you can take this opportunity and promote your ad through the search engines.
 To do so, you have to coin down certain keywords, with which you shall sync your
advertising message. With this, your business or company might not have a good rank in
the search engine pages, yet you will expose your audience to your brand.
 Often, search engine ads can give you better leads since people eye-witness a solution
that they are just looking for.
 It also saves their research time. You can also consult with any SEO Company for getting
good position in Search Advertising
 Mobile Advertising
 Mobile-centric ads are the current trend.
 From the in-app messages to the videos, mobile advertising is the most effective way to
promote your brand.
 With the entire world going mobile, developing short and crisp communication targeting
the mobile users is the best practice. As people carry their mobiles your brand
communication stays in their mind, for a longer time.
 While developing mobile ads, ensure that it fits the screen sizes of all hand-held devices.
In this way, your message will be clear and you shall successfully position your brand
name in the minds of your targets.
Social Media Advertising
 Social media sites mostly Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and other
similar platforms provide lucrative opportunities to promote your brand.
 The best thing about social ads is that you know your targets well and can
propose your brand message. Also, based on certain audience profile, you can
personify your advertising and suit to the specific needs, interests and desires
of your large target audience.
 If strategically done, social ads can also bring leads which are sure to land
into sales.
Video Advertising
 Contrary to texts which lack visual appeal, video ads serve as effective
stimulant that influences your audience to try you out.
 Video ads can be placed in any platforms mobile, website, social media
sites. Just like television ads, online video ads quickly hit your targets
and with frequent exposure can enable them to purchase your product
or avail your service.
Cross-Channel Advertising
 Another new-age form of digital advertising, cross-channel advertisement is an intelligent
way to follow your online visitors and track their interests and desires.
 With the help of cross-channel ad software, you shall become aware about the digital
journey of your target audience.
 Accordingly, you can choose specific online platforms and promote your brand only in
those spaces and reach individual audience.
 It is the best way to develop personal communication and have better connect with your
target group.
 WEBSITES
 WEBSITES: It is by far the most common form of digital marketing.
 It is a base of all your digital marketing efforts. A website is the most powerful form of
digital marketing.
 It is also the means which is needed to execute a variety of online marketing campaigns.
 It represents anything beginning from a premium brand, useful commodity or anything
which is sellable.
 Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra have become the digital marketing giants by way of website
and mobile marketing.
 They have programs that are efficient on laptops, PCs and also mobile-friendly
applications.
PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC) ADVERTISING

 It enables businesses to reach internet users on a number of digital

platforms through paid ads.
 PPC campaigns can collect avid users based on various factors
including demographic characteristics like age, gender, preferences
or even their particular interests or location.
 The most popular PPC platforms to look out are Google Ads and
Facebook
 CONTENT MARKETING:

 Another useful way to reach to customers is the way through contents.

 Contents written in any website/ portal or even physical means, are a way of
attracting people to buy the products or avail the services.
 The words combined with images becomes a very powerful way to persuade people to
anyhow buy the products and this way companies go higher and higher with sales in
the digital world.
 Various Content formats includes – images, infographics, videos, articles & even
emojis
 Let’s take the example of Zomato,
 a food ordering and delivery application which is quite famous nowadays. With every
passing day, various foods and restaurants are put on offer and even for a samosa,
which is a very staple food, a creative FUNDAMENTALS OF DIGITAL MARKETING -
THEORY, PRACTICE, ASSIGNMENTS & MORE 5 punch line has been added which
became a booster point for increase in the sales of samosa. Such is the power of
content which when written strongly is sure to capture minds of people.
EMAIL MARKETING
 Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing channels.
 Many people confuse email marketing with spam email messages one receives per
day, but that’s not what email marketing is all about.
 Email marketing is the medium to get in touch with identified potential customers
or the people interested in the brand.
 Many digital marketers use all other digital marketing channels to add leads to their
email lists and then, through email marketing, they create customer acquisition
funnels to turn those leads into customers.

Let’s take an example of Readers Digest Magazine, a unit of India Today company
which effectively sells books and magazines, are a quite a popular unit when it comes
to customer base. Readers Digest use an effective means of Email Marketing to reach
existing customers and invites them to participate one or the other competition
including Lucky Draw’s etc. attracting more and more customers to subscribe for the
same and through the same way, Number of clicks & conversion would also increase.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
 Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing, and the internet has brought
new life to this old standby.
 With affiliate marketing, one may promote other people’s products, and for every sale,
one gets a commission every time a sale is successful or on introducing a lead.
 Many well-known companies like Amazon have affiliate programs that pay out millions of
dollars per month to websites that sell their products.

 Such type of programs are nowadays found in almost all the portals. One such example is the
referral bonus which is offered by companies. Shaadi.com is a World’s largest matrimonial
services. They have dedicated affiliate portal on their website
 Their process is simple
 1 – Promote shaadi.com through banner/text link on digital & social platforms.
 2 – Whenever member pays for premium membership – affiliate earn upto 100% of the
membership fees. This is one great example of affiliate marketing, which has become quite
common today.
Brief Historical Facts of Digital Marketing

 As the present generation is becoming tech-savvy, it becomes a ‘must’ thing for

everyone to be aware of the core aspects of Digital Marketing. The consumption
of Digital content is on daily basis which is overlapping the traditional marketing
system. The former system constitutes a spectrum of channels that aid in
branding and promoting goods and services. There are certain perks associated
with the online platforms that drives the customer base to a particular channel.
 Some of them, briefly, are:  Affordability  Economies of scale  Less time
consuming  Updated information  Convenience, etc.

 Digital marketing is commonly referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet

marketing' or 'web marketing.’ All these terms are used in one or the other
countries for e.g. in the USA ‘online marketing’ is prevalent, in Italy is referred
as web marketing but in the UK and worldwide, digital marketing has become
the most used term, especially after the year
The Birth
 It’s vaguely estimated that the first time digital form of marketing was used
by the SoftAd Group (presently ChannelNet) in 1980s whereby customers sent
the reply cards found in magazines and received floppy disks consisting
multimedia content for promotion of their cars. However, the first use of the
word ‘Digital Marketing’ was observed in 1990s. The development of Web 1.0
platform bloomed the digital age which allowed users to find the information
they wanted but limited to share this information over and through the web.
This limitation was responsible for the doubt in success as marketers were
dicey about the reach of internet w.r.t. their information. Also, websites
were available but no technological advantages were available and everything
was static in the site.
Stage of Maturing

 The launch of Yahoo took the market by storm. It received 1 million (approx.)
hits that too within a year. It was regarded as "Jerry's Guide to the World
Wide Web" after its founder Jerry Yang started the work on the website.
Yahoo, turning into the biggest competition, led to massive changes in the
digital market, business houses created websites, employed optimizing tools
and tech experts. The strategies turned upside down. The increase in number
of search engines created opportunities for employment and potential
business ideas in the digital zone. Most of the companies engaged search
optimizer engines to come on top of the search engines.
Stage of Maturing

 In 1998, the birth of Google broke a new ground. Microsoft introduced the MSN search
engine and Yahoo presented Yahoo web search to the market. These giant innovation
shook the market as the baby search engines were either left behind or wiped out
leaving more space for the larger engines in the business. The first steep surge was
observed in 2006, when search engine traffic was estimated to have grown to about
6.4 billion in one single month of usage. Microsoft too put MSN aside and launched
Live Search to not to lag behind while competing with Google and Yahoo.
 Google hit the nail and expanded its horizon by launching products like AdWords,
which are 3 line ads that show up at the top or to the right of search engine results,
and AdSense -which is a cost-per-click advertising scheme. Within no time, Google
had thought shower and realized the value of analyzing the content they received is
by far more important and then released target ads based on the interests of the
users which enabled them to reach soaring heights in terms of sale and reaching the
public.
Stage of Maturing

 Then the launch of Web 2.0 made people more active participants rather than
remain passive ones. It allowed users to have interactions with other users
and businesses which eventually paved way for two-way communications.
Labels like ‘super information highway’ began to be applied to the internet.
 As a result, the share markets also saw a rise in the shares of search engines.
By 2004, Channels utilized by digital marketer increased manifold and
internet advertising and marketing in the US alone brought in around $2.9
billion. It became more professional in the 2000s and the 2010’s.
 This period observed the massive developments in the virtual world. The
reason being enlargement in the calibre of devices which eventually gained
access to remote location and gave birth to Digital Advertising
Rise of Social Networking

 On the same parallels, around 2004, networking diverted to another field

which was more social and came to be known as Social Network. Myspace and
Facebook were the newbies in this dimension which got popularised due to
their additional advantages and soon opened new doors for the prospective
branding ideas.
 It provided fresh avenues for business and marked the beginning of a new
chapter to business life. Hardcopies were converted into softcopies, ad
popping became rampant which aided in search optimising.
Cookies
 Another Tool in Line Following social networking came cookies which brought another
climax in the digital marketing industry.
 It became a next door technique to garner the taste and preferences of the users to
serve them accordingly.
 It mapped the search and browsing habits and presented a pattern to record the same.
 The first cookie was designed to record user-habits.
 The use of the cookie has changed over the years, and cookies today are coded to
offer marketers a variety of ways to collect literal user data.
 However, users are asked if they want to opt out from providing them. But most of the
people ignore the sense of having cookies and tend to press the accept button which is
a sort of permission for websites to extract information and transfer the same to the
owner of the website.
 Such mechanism also saw a turnaround during this time and websites even today have
the same model.
The Present Scenario
 While speaking about the present scenario, there is unfathomable measure to
the extent of the spectrum of digital marketing. Each days observes a new
brainchild in technology creating new sites, new platforms, apps, blogs, write
ups, etc. that are content based and provide a choice to the users to choose
whichever medium they prefer.
 The marketing dimension has completely transformed into a highly fledged
circle where when one enters, cannot come back. Even if a user wants to
make in person purchase then he goes through the internet first and then
continue further.
 From mere mobile recharges to International exchanges, every event has to
pass by one or the other digital medium
The Present Scenario

 This generation is equipped with mobile phones all social media posting are at top in the list of
activities the time and it counts as. The average Indian spends 1 GB data a day when earlier it was 1
GB a month. The reason for the same can also be stated to be heavy competition between telecom
providers who offer the maximum at the lowest prices. Total time spent on social media using it for
posts, snaps, browsing, and etc. account for about 50% of the total time spent on the phone.
 Facebook, FUNDAMENTALS OF DIGITAL MARKETING - THEORY, PRACTICE, ASSIGNMENTS & MORE 11
Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Sharechat, Youtube are the major players in all the classes and age
groups whereas Pinterest serves higher classes and LinkedIn covers businesses and professionals.
 It has become imperative to grab the opportunities provided by the virtual world in order to sustain
and grow in the market. This market works on the principle laid down by Hitler “survival of fittest”
which can be edited to ‘Survival of the most updated or advanced’.
 Within a decade, digital marketing has been through a lot of innovations making it more competitive
and user-friendly. It’s the early bird that catches the worm hence within no time one has to make
its company among the top ones in the digital world to maximize profit and enlarge customer base.
Different Types Of Websites
 Having a website allows you to connect with the millions of people scouring
the web and opens up the opportunity for your customers to find you. 

 1. E-commerce sites
 2. Brochure Websites
 3. Portfolio Sites
 4. Entertainment Sites
 5. Personal Site
 6. Affiliate Marketing Website
 7. Educational Website
 8. B2B Websites
 E-commerce sites

An E-commerce site is a website that allows you to sell a product or

service through your site itself.

This means people can go to your website, choose a product they want, add
it to their cart and make a payment.
Imagine you have just started a T-shirt business.

Instead of paying for rent for a shop in the high street, you could instead start an e-
commerce site and sell your

T-shirts to people directly online. 

Eg:- AMAZON. FLIPCART

What is the best platform for an E-commerce site?

 There are many platforms out there that are built solely for e-commerce
purposes.
 If you are planning on having a handful of products in your shop or working with
a small budget then Wix, and Squarespace all come with E-commerce
functionality. 
 Well, it really depends on your goal and scope of the business.
 If your goal is time-based and you want to get a website up as quickly as
possible and start selling today then you can use a template on sites like Wix, 
Shopify, GoDaddy and Squarespace.
Brochure Websites
Brochure Websites
 A brochure website can be defined as an extension of a businesses sales
brochure.

 the Typically, a brochure website will provide information on a business such

as who they are, what they do and where they are located. 

 As opposed to an e-commerce site, a brochure website does not actually sell its
products or services on site.

 The purpose of the site is to display companies goods and services

to influence customer’s decisions.

 If you want to buy something on a brochure site, you would have to contact the
business themselves.
Brochure Websites
 In order to have a good brochure website, it needs to stand out visually and be
engaging to look at. Not only does it need to look good, but it also has to read
well.

 Hiring a good copywriter can come in handy for this to really showcase your
business in the best light and persuasively engage readers.

 When it comes to promoting your business, brochure sites can be highly

effective, providing that you have some stunning images and quality
marketing copy to go alongside it.

 If, however, you have a certain sales target you want to hit, an e-commerce site
may be more appropriate for you.
What is the best platform for a brochure website?

 As brochure sites will normally only have a few pages and do not need to be
constantly updated, a website builder such as Wix or Squarespace could be a
great option for you.

 Typically, small businesses will use a brochure website to establish an online

presence - an essential component of any business today! 

 If you are looking to include a blog on your brochure site, it may be a good idea
to get a developer or web design agency to build the site on WordPress. 

 Wix and Squarespace do, however, include blog functionality, although, from

our experience, a developed site on WordPress is your best bet.

 When creating a blog for your site, you should look at developing an 
inbound marketing strategy. 
Portfolio Sites
Portfolio Sites

 This is one for all the creatives out there looking to show their work off to the world!
Portfolio sites act as, yes you guessed it, a digital portfolio. 

 For many individuals, portfolio sites are the perfect tool for gaining more business
and most importantly, building their personal brand.

 Many employers will normally hire creatives based on them demonstrating their level
of skill beforehand. 

 Portfolio sites are essential when it comes to showcasing your talent, whether
that’s videography and web design or marketing and SEO.

  Communicating your skills/abilities with potential customers/employers is so

much easier when you can quickly send them a link to your site and they are met
with a library of your previous work.

 Portfolio sites are usually laid out in a simple way, by using engaging media such as
high-quality images, text and video.
What is the best platform to build a portfolio site?

 When it comes to building a portfolio site, there are a few stand out platforms that people usually go to.

 The first suggestion is a platform called Behance, an online platform to display creative work, owned by
Adobe. Behance is extremely easy to use and is perfect for someone who doesn’t want to spend a long
time building out the look of the site. 

 Simply upload your work to Behance and it will display it within its clean interface.

 If you are looking for some more freedom and really hone in on the design of your portfolio,
WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, and Fabrik are all excellent platforms to use.

 If you have a keen eye for design, you will love customising your portfolio to your liking with these
alternatives.

 It is worth noting, Adobe has recently come out with an upgraded version of Behance called “ProSite”.
This will cost more but give people the freedom to design their portfolio in any way they choose, similar
to Wix
Entertainment Sites
Entertainment Sites

 An entertainment website usually has the goal of driving high amounts of traffic to
the site in order to make money from advertisements or affiliates.

 These websites tend to always be centered around content, whether that’s video

content, text-based content or a combination of them both. 

 A great example of a video-based entertainment website is YouTube. 

 YouTube's gains millions of views daily from user-generated content and let’s be
honest, it’s very easy to spend hours of your time watching random videos on 
YouTube.

 BuzzFeed is a great example of an entertainment website that is centered around

text-based content. Buzzfeed pulls in around 22 million visitors per month and
thrives off breaking news, quizzes, celebrity gossip and much more trending
content. 

 If you have dreams of building the next BuzzFeed then you are going to need the
right platform to manage and support all the content.
What is the best platform to build an entertainment site?

 In order to build your very own version of BuzzFeed, WordPress is definitely the best
platform to go to. 

 For a content-based website, you are going to need a content management system and
WordPress is easily the best on the market. 

 WordPress is a really flexible platform that welcomes beginners but also has the functionality
to support technical developers.

 Expect to browse from thousands of plugins and themes when using WordPress, making it
easy for you to get the “BuzzFeed” look right away. 

 Not only does WordPress have viral-content themes such as Novapress, Buzzz and 

Newspaper, it also comes loaded with pre-existing solutions for building quizzes and
member registration.
How much does an entertainment site cost to build?

 In order to build an entertainment site, it’s going to cost you, but not much. Thanks to the wonderful
platform that goes by the name of WordPress, you can install a free theme onto your site which will give
you the layout and look of a BuzzFeed style site. 

 But firstly, you are going to need a domain. Now, domains can vary in price based on how general you go. 

 Want to buy “apple.com”? 

 Yeah... good luck with that one. 

 Want to buy “viralnewsstop.com”? 

 That’s more like it. 

 The more niche and specific your domain name, the cheaper it is going to cost you. 

 If you go for a domain name that is valuable to others then expect to be paying £2000 and above for one.

 Our advice… stick to £0.99p domains when you are starting out, there’s still plenty to choose from.
Personal Site
 A personal website is a website that has the sole purpose of providing
information about an individual.

 This can be great for future employers to get a feel for what you are like or to
become a thought leader in your field of expertise. 

 For some, a personal website is just an extension of themselves and allows them
to build an online diary.

 Personal sites will usually engage readers by sharing personal thoughts,

interests, opinions, advice and much more.

 Personal sites usually will have an integrated blog that allows the owner to
constantly update.
What is the best platform to build a personal site?

 More often than not, personal websites won’t be hand-coded by the owner of
the site (unless they have a flair for HTML and CSS).

 Typically, free hosting services such as GoDaddy will include a page-

builder that allows users to get a website up and running with no coding
required. 

 The typical website builders, as mentioned above, would be perfect with

someone who has little technical skills.

 WordPress also has some really great themes for personal websites such as 
Jevelin, Soledad and Kalium.
Affiliate Marketing Website
Affiliate Marketing Website
 Everybody who owns a website would like to make money from it, right?
 If you have strong desires to earn some income on the side of your day job,
or even want to do this full-time, affiliate marketing may be what you are
in search for. 
 An affiliate marketing site is a website that recommends products and
services through content leading to a commission from the sale of those
products/services.

 Usually, there are four main parties involved with affiliate marketing:

 the affiliate website, the affiliate network, advertisers and finally, the

buyer. 

 For example, let’s say you want to start up a photography blog to advertise
affiliate products (cameras and equipment).
You, the website owner, would act as an affiliate and create content with product
links to cameras.
Your advertiser could be Amazon or other retailers, whilst the affiliate network
would track the sale so that when someone clicks the product link on your site, the
advertiser knows the sale has come from you.

So, the next time someone is searching for camera equipment on google, your
SEO optimized blog will, hopefully, be seen by a searcher.

If they trust your recommendations of the product and choose to purchase it

through your link, then perching, you’ve just made money online.
With affiliate marketing, your aim is to generate traffic to your website. In order to do
this, you are going to need to look at Search Engine Optimisation.
WordPress is a great platform for an affiliate site as it comes
loaded with plugins and templates specifically for affiliate
marketing such as “AffiliateWP”.
Wix and Squarespace is also an option for affiliate marketers,
in particular for those who are restricted by budget.
Squarespace and Wix are popular affiliate marketing site
builders, helping users who aren’t technically gifted build
beautiful websites.
Educational Website
 Who doesn’t love learning online? If you’ve ever visited Udemy, Lynda
or Coursera, you have interacted with an educational website. With the
vast amount of information on the internet, educational sites can act as
a hub to absorb information and learn new skills. 
 Educational websites are sites that allow users to learn new information
wherever they are in the world. This could be through blog posts,
videos or even interactive elements on a website. 
What is the best platform to build an educational website?

 If you were looking to create a website that teaches people how to learn facebook ads,
for example, you may have a blog or a series of videos on your site. For these types of
educational sites, that are quite simple in nature, WordPress would be an ideal
platform to build this on.

 However, if you are planning something big, you may want to look beyond WordPress. 

 If you need a website where people can login, make payments, view their chosen
courses and view them in a smooth and efficient manner, it may be best to have a
custom site built.

 While you can still achieve most of the above features on a WordPress site, if you plan
on having thousands, or even millions, of users each month, a custom built site would
be the way to go.
B2B Websites
 Are you looking to reach other businesses online? Or, maybe you are looking to generate
a high volume of leads every month.

 If you are a B2B (business to business) company, then it’s a no brainer that you build a
website that can generate leads and drive sales. 

 A B2B website is a site that is built specifically for business looking to attract other
businesses to their services/products.

 What does a B2B website look like, we hear you ask. Well, a B2B website needs to make
their sales process as quick and easy as possible. 

 This may consist of having clear call to actions for phone numbers or contact forms
presented clearly on the page.

 While Brochure websites are all about the aesthetics, B2B websites are about capturing
user information and eventually closing a deal. 
Building Websites/ Blogs : 8 steps to WordPress
1. Get a domain name
Register and pay for a domain name. Choose something
simple and memorable, preferably followed by ‘.com’.
2. Sign up to a hosting provider
Sign up to a hosting provider to secure your own patch
of internet land. Consider WordPress hosting experts
Bluehost as an option, and start on a shared or cheaper
VPS hosting plan while your site finds its feet.
3. Install WordPress
Install WordPress through your hosting provider with just
one click (if supported), or manually if not.
4. Choose a theme
The fun begins! Pick a theme to be the springboard of
your site’s design. Browse the free ones on offer through
WordPress, or buy something more unique from a
reputable third-party site.
5. Add content
Add pages, posts and images to your site to make it your
own.
6. Customize your site
Undertake some quick housekeeping to make sure
everything is shipshape and your site is set up for
success.
7. Install plugins
Take your site to the next level with plugins to add extra
 8. Update, update, update
Keep an eye on the updates section of your dashboard, and
accept updates as soon as they become available.
Consider automating some (or all) of them as well.
Keywords
 The words which are used to search about something on search engines are the keywords. For
example, If a consumer types “buy books” in Google search box, then the keyword or key phrase
is “buy books”.
 On the basis of searched keywords, Google will display the search results. Hence, it becomes very
important to understand what are keywords in digital marketing and their importance in SEO.
 Keywords form the basis for digital marketing campaigns and are not just restricted to Search
Engine Optimization. They are the building blocks for your SEO and a very important 
On-Page SEO factor.
 Importance of Keywords
 This process of finding the relevant keywords for your website is known as Keyword Research.
 The research starts by listing down the keywords related to your domain or the keywords for
which you want to rank.
 For example, if you are selling square pizzas in Mumbai, you would love to be discovered when
someone searches for “Square Pizza in Mumbai” or “Best Square Pizza in Mumbai” and so on.
Make a list of such phrases.
 Short tail keywords 
 don’t give a clear idea of the intention of the user as they are brief and usually contain a general, non- specific
term. This leads to lots and lots of results that may be irrelevant to satisfy the requirement of the user.
 Long-tail keywords 
 are detailed and specific terms which give a clearer picture of the intention of the user. This helps the search
engine in displaying more accurate results rather than what it does in case of short-tail keywords. Long-tail
keywords should be a part of your keyword strategy.
 The keywords entered by a person on the search engine reflects his intention of the search.
 For example, if one enters “jacket”, it doesn’t specify whether he wants to buy a jacket, sell a jacket or simply
know what a jacket is.
 On the other hand, a person with a specific intention of buying a jacket will rather search for “buy leather
jacket” or if more specific “buy best brown leather jacket under 3000 rupees”.
 The first keyword “jacket” is a short tail keyword while the other two are long-tail keywords.
 Technical keywords
 Evergreen keywords
Domain Name

 Domain name is the address of your website that people type in the browser’s URL bar to
visit your website.
 In other words, if your website was a house, then your domain name will be its address.
 Internet is basically a giant network of computers connected to each other through cables.
 To easily identify them, each computer is assigned a series of numbers called IP Address.
This IP address is a combination of numbers separated with dots. Typically, IP addresses
look like this:
 66.249.66.1
 A domain name can have words which makes it easy to remember website addresses.
 Now if you wanted to visit a website on the internet, you don’t need to type a string of
numbers. Instead, you can type in an easy to remember domain name, for example,
wpbeginner.com.
Web Hosting

 Web hosting is the place where all the files of your website live.
 It is like the home of your website where it actually lives.
 A good way to think about this is if the domain name was the address of your house, then web hosting
is the actual house that address points to. All websites on the internet, need web hosting.
 When someone enters your domain name in a browser, the domain name is translated into the IP
address of your web hosting company’s computer.
 This computer contains your website’s files, and it sends those files back to the users’ browsers.
 Web hosting companies specialize in storing and serving websites. They offer different types of
hosting plans to their customers.
 Domain names and web hosting are two different services.
 However, they work together to make websites possible.
What do I need to Build a Website?
Domain Name or Web Hosting?

 To build a website you will need both a domain name and web hosting account.
 Buying a domain name alone only gives you right to use that particular domain name for a specific
period (usually 1 year).
 You need web hosting to store your website’s files. After you get hosting, you need to update your
domain name settings and point it to your web hosting service provider.
 You can also buy both the domain and hosting from the same company. Typically a domain name
costs $14.99 / year, and web hosting normally costs $7.99 / month.
 If you are starting your first website, then this may sound like a lot.
 Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our
users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.
 Once you have purchased hosting and registered your domain name, you can start building your
website. For complete step by step instructions.
 Wordpress
 WordPress is the force behind a third of the websites live today.
 It’s a Content Management System (CMS) – and a powerful one at that.
 Plus, it’s free!
WordPress.org is a CMS system, while WordPress.com is a website builder.
Confusing, isn’t it! Check out our article explaining the key differences for more info. In
this article, we’ll be focusing exclusively on making a website using WordPress.org.
Setting up a website with WordPress.org requires a little patience, but this guide
is here to help.
We’ve pooled our experience and knowledge to bring you something comprehensive,
yet easy to follow.
Keep it handy, and you’ll have a site up and running before you know it.
 Get a Domain Name
 First, you’ll need to buy a domain name. This is the web address people will use
to find you – for example, our domain name is websitebuilderexpert.com.

 Buying a domain name is super simple.

 Just head to a domain name registrar – a well-known one is Domain.com – then

search for the address you want.

 A good domain name should be as close to the name of your website or

business as possible.

 It should be to remember, or even guess, and be as short as possible.

o net – available to everyone, but often associated with tech companies
o .org – available to everyone, but especially popular among NGOs and charities
o .co – available to everyone, but often associated with startups or trendy new
companies
 Sign Up to a Hosting Provider
 Now you’ve got your address, you need to rent your plot of land: it’s time to find a
host for your website!

 Okay, it’s not a perfect analogy – but it is a crucial step in your website-building
process. Without a space to host your website – a virtual plot of internet land – you
simply won’t be able to get your WordPress site online.

 You need to make sure your WordPress hosting provider meets the following criteria:
o PHP version 7.2 or greater
o MySQL version 5.6 or greater, OR MariaDB version 10.0 or greater
o HTTPS support

 Top tip: Start your site on a shared hosting plan, then simply upgrade when your
traffic picks up and you outgrow your shared plan.

 Here’s a quick overview of how signing up for a hosting provider works. We’ve used
Bluehost in our example, but the process is pretty similar across the board:
 1. Pick a plan

 Head to the Bluehost homepage and select shared, VPS, or dedicated hosting

 from the ‘Hosting’ dropdown on the menu.

 Let’s assume you’ve decided to start off with a shared hosting plan. Here are
your options:\
2. Link your domain name

 You’ll then be taken to a screen like the one below, where you can enter your
domain name:
3. Set up billing details

 Once you’ve linked your domain name, you’ll need to create an account and fill
in your billing details:
  Once you've connected your domain, you'll need to set up an account

 At this point, you’ll also need to select how long you want to sign up for. As you
might expect, signing up for a year or more will work out cheaper than paying
on a month-to-month basis. Bluehost also offers a 30-day money back
guarantee, so you can always give it a go and switch later if need be.

 So now you have your domain name and a hosting plan, you’re ready to install
WordPress!\
 Install WordPress
 Now you’ve got the admin out the way, it’s time for the real fun to begin – it’s
time to install WordPress!

 This is something you can do directly through your hosting dashboard.

Depending on the provider, installation will be one-click or manual:

 One-click WordPress installation

 Choose a Theme
 WordPress comes with its own set of themes. You can ‘demo’ each one to find
which best fits the purpose and vibe of your site. To install a free WordPress
theme, follow these simple steps:
1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Hover over ‘Appearance’, then click ‘Themes’. This will take you through to the
theme dashboard.
3. Click the button above the themes that says ‘Add New’, then browse themes under
‘Featured’, ‘Popular’ etc, or use the search bar to search for specific industries.
4. Demo a few themes to find the one you like, then hit ‘Install’ under the theme to
download it.
 After a couple of minutes, a button will appear under the theme that says ‘Activate’.
Click this, and the theme is all yours!
 Add Content
 1. Pages

Pages are static, in that  they won’t change unless you edit them. The “About Us’
page is an example that most websites will have a version of. Many themes will
show the different pages in a navigation bar along the top, or you can add the
‘Pages’ widget to list them down the side, too.

To add a new page, go to Pages > Add New.

 2. Posts

These are entries listed in chronological order, either on the homepage or in a

dedicated ‘blog’ section. You can set posts as ‘sticky posts’ so they remain at the
top.

To add a new post, go to Posts > Add New.

Customize Your Site

Install Plugins

 Installing plugins is a way of installing features that WordPress doesn’t already include. Think of
them kind of like apps. And like apps, some you pay for, and some you can get for free. Like
themes, all plugins featured in the WordPress plugin directory are free – it’s just third party ones
that you’ll have to pay for, which can cost between $40 and $200 (as a one-off, or recurring cost).

 There are over 56,000 plugins available to WordPress users; enough for every function you could
possible need, and then some. But not all plugins were created equal!

 Some of the most popular WordPress plugins include:

1. Contact Form by WP Forms – a simple but effective ‘drag and drop’ form builder plugin for
adding customizable forms to your site.
2. Yoast SEO – a plugin to help optimize your content so that it ranks well on search engines.
3. WooCommerce – add ecommerce functionality (i.e. the ability to sell products online) to your site.
 Anyone can upload a plugin to the WordPress library, so it’s definitely a mixed bag. Pick a poor
plugin, and you can bet it won’t receive that all important update prior to new WordPress versions
being released.
Update, Update, Update!

 Not only will your site probably stop working properly once a major WordPress update
swings around, you’ll also leave yourself vulnerable to hackers and viruses. Updating really
is a no-brainer!

 To check for updates:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Head to ‘Update Options’.
3. Check for updates under the various tabs (plugins, themes etc.) or see an overview in
‘General’.
 From here, it’s easy to accept each update one by one, or set them to update automatically
(either all, or individually).

 Also, don’t forget that you’ll need to renew your domain and hosting contracts when the time
comes.
Blogs
 A blog is a collection of articles, also known as posts.
 That means a blog has many pages. Some are manually created, while
some are created automatically.
 There are 5 types of pages in a blog:

1. Home Page / Blog Page

2. Post Page (Articles Page)

3. Category Pages

4. Tag Pages

5. Static Pages
 #1. Home Page / Blog Page
 This page is technically called an Index page (the first page). It can also be
called as blog page since it lists all the blog articles in preview format.
 That means, all the latest articles & featured articles are listed on the
Homepage. This page is automatically created by the blogging platform (tool).
#2. Post Page (Article Page)
This page is manually created by the blogger.
This is the actual article page (post) that is manually created each time for each
individual article.
#3. Category Pages
This page is automatically created by the blogging platform (tool).
As you create the post, you select relevant categories for each article.
A blogging platform automatically creates the category page for each category and
lists all the blog articles that were given that particular category.
In simpler words, the category page is a page that shows the list of all the
articles in that particular category.
The page acts as an index of that category.
#4. Tag Pages
 This page is also automatically created by the blogging platform (tool).
 Just like you select categories for the post, you also select a tag for that post.
 A blogging platform automatically creates the tag page for each tag and lists
all the blog articles that were given that particular tag page.
 The page acts as an index of articles having that tag.
#5. Static Pages
 This page is manually created.
 Mostly about, contact, terms, disclaimer & privacy policy are the static pages.

 Post Pages (Articles) & Static Pages are manually created by you, whereas
the Homepage (Blog page), Category pages & tag pages are automatically
created by the blogging platform.
 Settings of each page type can be controlled by you & depending on which
blogging platform you are using.
What is the best platform to build a B2B website?

 With our experience building B2B websites for a range of different industries, we have

found WordPress to be the most cost-effective and efficient platform to build on. 

 Not only is it easy for the business to update content in the backend but WordPress
 websites are generally more cost-effective than custom built sites. 

 When it comes to adding forms to your website and collecting user information, 
WordPress is really effective and has a host of plugins that you can utilise, a lot of them
for free!