group project report on a seo google ads campaign for hotcourse

They want accurate, up-to-date information and individualized guidance tohelp them make informed decisions about studying abroad.- Connect with the community: Target customers frequently

GROUP PROJECT REPORT ON A SEO & GOOGLE ADS CAMPAIGN FOR HOTCOURSE

-* -Subject: ADS301m - Google ads and Seo

Lecturer: Ms Nguyen Huong Ly

TABLE OF CONTENTMILESTONE 1

4 SEO Audit Summary 33

5.5 Write a piece of content

Milestone 1

1 Introduction

Hotcourses Vietnam is one of 11 worldwide websites for international students operated byIDP Connect IDP Connect, a subsidiary of IDP Education, takes pleasure in creating theworld's most comprehensive course search and comparison websites Hotcourses has offices

in key cities throughout the world, including Sydney, Chennai, Delhi, London, and Boston.Hotcourses assists overseas students in locating the appropriate course and school withprecise instructions

Hotcourses Vietnam has a database of over 2,700 colleges and over 250,000 trainingprograms from 67 countries Hotcourses' useful filters and course search tools can helpprospective international students find the ideal school for them The capability of comparinguniversity admission requirements, such as IELTS score and academic level, in particular, canassist you in submitting the most appropriate admission application Hotcourses assistsforeign students in making their own travel arrangements and studying in the mostappropriate way by providing a vast reservoir of Study Abroad Guides, a collection of alumnireviews, the most recent study abroad news, and endless articles covering a wide range oftopics

The organization, currently known as IDP Connect, has offices in the United Kingdom, India,the United States, and Australia, and their websites provide information on educationaloptions throughout the world Hotcourses, Postgraduate Search, Whatuni, The CompleteUniversity Guide, Hotcourses Abroad, and 11 more websites are owned by IDP Connect.Universities, colleges, and other course providers advertise on these platforms in addition tocollaborating with IDP Connect to learn more about their students and create enrolments IDPConnect also assisted the Hotcourses Foundation, a 2004 charity that collaborated withNyumbani UK to provide children in Kenya with access to education

IDP's objective is to create a worldwide platform and connected community to helpinternational students accomplish their lifelong learning and professional goals

2.2 Product/Service

Hotcourse Vietnam offers information on studying abroad and courses at universities in manycountries, as well as cost and administrative information, as well as articles about exchangingexperiences and university reviews learn,

They offer online and in-person consultation services on selecting a study program and studyabroad destination that is appropriate for their aptitude and financial ability, as well assuggestions and assistance in making procedures connected to study and settlement abroad.Furthermore, Hotcourse Vietnam offers FastLane Service - Check your ability to get intouniversities in just a few minutes based on the information you submit about your studyoutcomes, degrees, certifications, and profiles In the event that the application isunsuccessful, the consultant will provide advice on how to improve the application in order tomaximize the chances of admission.In the event that the application is unsuccessful, theconsultant will provide advice on how to improve the application in order to maximize thechances of admission

2.3 Customer Persona

2.3.1 Target Customer

a Demographics

- Aged: from 15-30

- Genders: Both male and female

- Occupation: High School, have graduated or are studying at universities, colleges orforeign language courses

- Income: Medium to high

b Geographic

- Location: Nationwide, with offices and offline consulting centers located in majorcities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

- Foreigners in Vietnam: In addition to Vietnamese customers, Hotcourse Vietnam alsoserves foreigners who are living in Vietnam and want to study in other countries

c Psychographic

- Education is a priority: place a high value on education and recognize that studyingabroad is the ideal method to better your education and broaden your employmentoptions while also pursuing intellectual development, language skills, and becoming aglobal citizen

- While studying abroad, students tend to be open-minded and keen to explore newcultures, foods, languages, and settings

- Desire to broaden social network: They desire to grow their social network bymeeting and communicating with people from different nations in order to increasetheir horizons and social connections

- Long-term perspective and career interest: They regard studying abroad as a vital step

in improving their qualifications, expanding their network of connections, andimproving their future employment chances

d Behavioral

- They utilize the Internet to find information on study abroad programs, universities,visa application processes, and other related topics, and they tend to trust crediblesources Official websites of colleges, government agencies, study abroad guides, andreviews from other students and overseas students are all credible sources

- Decision-based guidance: They tend to trust and rely on study abroad specialists'advice They want accurate, up-to-date information and individualized guidance tohelp them make informed decisions about studying abroad

- Connect with the community: Target customers frequently find ways to connect withthe study abroad community by participating in forums, social networking groups,and chats to exchange experiences, share information, and build relationships withpeople who share similar study abroad interests and goals

- Before making a final decision, they will compare and evaluate study abroad optionsbased on factors such as: quality of education, cost, location, career opportunities, andliving environment after searching for information, conducting thorough research,reading reviews, and looking at information from multiple sources

Keywords “học bổng du học”: học bổng du học canada cho học sinh cấp 3; học bổng du họcđức cho học sinh cấp 3,

Below 200

Missing: The title tag gives users and the search engines an idea of what the content

of a result is about and how it’s related to the search query Other than that, titles play

a significant role in whether a search result is clicked on or not

=> Good: Hot Course doesn't miss any titles 100% contents have titles.

- Duplicate: The more duplicate content and duplicate page titles on the website, the

worse those pages will rank in the search engine's page rank

=>Good:The percentage of titles duplicated is low (4 titles), taking up to 1,12% However,

we can skip these mistakes as the main page is a duplicated main section It’s not the case thatthe different pages have the same title

- Characters and Pixel: Google won’t penalize a page for a long title, but it may

shorten or rewrite it And its version of the title won’t always make sense With theshort titles, it does not contain enough information and is attractive enough to users.The same goes with the pixel In addition, the title tag should be 55 characters or less

to be safe It can be up to 60 characters in length

=>Not Good: Overall, the titles that have over 60 characters are 175 (48,8%) and over 561pixels are 185 (51,58%) The title length is long (average 65 - 75), some titles reach the peak

of 100 characters while the title tag should be 55 characters or less to be safe Pixels of HotCourse are also too high (average from 600 - 700) Therefore, the website should truncatetitles when displayed on search engines

Hotcourses also has the title that under 30 characters are 11 (3,07%) , below 200 pixels are 8(2,23%) They are small numbers, however, they also need fixing as they do not containenough information and are attractive enough to users

- Same as H1: Make it difficult for search engines to differentiate the 'best' page for agiven search query.

=> Keyword cannibalization (multiple pages on your own site competing for the samesearch terms, and hurting each others' rankings)

=> Good: Hot Course has 40 titles which are the same as H1 (11,17%) - the low one.

- Multiple: If search engines pick up a non-relevant <title> tag, it can mislead users

and result in high bounce rate which, subsequently, is harmful to rankings

=> Good: Hot Course makes sure each page has only 1 title It doesn't have any multiple

titles

3.1.2 Meta description

A meta description is an HTML tag used to describe the content of a web page Thisdescription will show up below the title and URL of your page as it appears in the searchengine results

Meta description URLs % of Total

=> Good: Hot Course has 35 contents (9,78%) that miss the meta description Practical

review with these addresses does not show any serious issues However, as the contents donot have meta description, Google will auto-generate it We cannot make sure it will ensureoptimized factors (keywords, CTA, meaning, etc.)

- Duplicate: Having a good one that shows up in search results is important because it

is what the user sees when deciding whether or not to click the link to your site.Duplications in meta descriptions make user-experience confusing, not letting peopledifferentiate one page from another and not optimizing users' click-through-rate

=>Good:The same as duplicate titles, the percentage of meta description duplicated is low(4 titles), taking up to 1,12% We can skip these mistakes as the main section is a duplicatemeta description It’s not the case from the different page

- Characters and Pixel: Google may shorten long descriptions, and the excess words

will be displayed by " " This leads to the interruption of the information you wantusers to read as they do not fully understand the meaning of the content With theshort ones, they may not be sufficient to effectively communicate the desired message

=> decrease customer's intention Meta description should have limited character (lessthan 160)

=> Good: Hot Course mostly has the meta description ranging from 70 => 155 characters

(approximately 95%), and pixels ranging from 400 => 985 (approximately 94%) They do notexceed 160 characters and do not interrupt the information the audience wants users to read

- Multiple: Good: If there are multiple meta descriptions on a single page, they can

lead to the wrong display of Google (or other search engines)

=> Cause low interaction and low click-through-rate

=> Good: Hot Course does not have multiple meta descriptions.

- Meta descriptions that are less than 70 characters:too short that it may not besufficient to effectively communicate the desired message.

URL Meta descriptions Meta descriptions optimization Characterhttps://www.h

Danh sách các trường đại học

và cao đẳng tại Mỹ đượcHotcourses Việt Nam liên kết

Danh sách các trường đại học

và cao đẳng tại Úc đượcHotcourses Việt Nam liên kết

82

https://www.h FASTLANE COURSE LEARN ABOUT FASTLANE 70

Danh sách các trường đại

học và cao đẳng tại Anh

Quốc

Danh sách các trường đại học

và cao đẳng tại Anh Quốcđược Hotcourses Việt Namliên kết

Danh sách các trường đại

học và cao đẳng tại Canada

Danh sách các trường đại học

và cao đẳng tại Canada đượcHotcourses Việt Nam liên kếttriển khai

Vui lòng liên hệ với chúng

tôi nếu có câu hỏi, gợi ý

hay lời khuyên

Vui lòng liên hệ với chúng tôinếu có bất kì thắc mắc, gợi ýhay lời khuyên về việc đi duhọc

95

5.2.3 URLs

- Parameters:

Example https://www.hotcourses.vn/study/compare-college.html?from=topnav remove

“from=topnav” or change to “source=main_navigation” remove “?”

Ensure consistency and logical hierarchy

Remove unnecessary subfolders

Implement URL rewriting

- H1: Duplicate

Duplicate H1 headings do not come with penalties But identical headings on pages withdifferent content imply that the headings don’t uniquely describe the specific content on eachpage This can make it difficult for search engines to differentiate the 'best' page for a givensearch query

=> Rewrite the H1 same title tag

H2-1 Tại sao nên vay tiền du học?

H2-2Và tại sao không nên vay tiền duhọc?

https://www.hotcourses.vn/sitemap.html H2-1 Điểm đến du học

H2-2 Tìm khóa học theo ngànhH2-3 Tìm khóa học theo trình độH2-4 Học bổng theo ngành họcH2-5 Bảng xếp hạng các trường đại họcH2-6 Tin tức và kinh nghiệm du họctrên Hotcourses Việt Nam

H2-7 Xem tất cả các ngành họcH2-8 Nhận xét của sinh viênH2-9 Danh sách các trường theo quốcgia

H2-10 Link hữu íchhttps://www.hotcourses.vn/study/trainin

…

5.3 Technical optimization

5.3.1 Site errors

- Error Redirect not found 404: The 404 error occurs when we try to access a resource

on a web server (usually a web page) that does not exist This cause a decrease in userexperience and search engines could not index the site But we don’t have any 404error page

5.3.2 Core web vitals

Performance: 71/100

- Use the Opportunities section of your Lighthouse report to determine which

improvements will have the most value for your page The Lighthouse show that

“Reduce unused javaScript” will yield the biggest improvement

- The core web vitals assessment has passed:

+ According to Google, a website is measured mainly on 3 metrics:

+ LCP: stands for Largest Contentful Paint metric reports the render time of thelargest image or text block visible within the viewport, relative to when thepage first started loading

Hotcourses’s LCP = 2.4 seconds → Good

+ FID: stands for First input delay that measures the time from when a user firstinteracts with a page to the time when the browser is actually able to beginprocessing event handlers in response to that interaction

Hotcourses’s FID = 3 milliseconds → Good

+ CLS: stands for Cumulative Layout Shift that measures how much a webpageunexpectedly shifts during its life For example, if a website visitor loaded apage and, while they were reading it, a banner loads and the page jumps down,that would constitute a large CLS score

- Accessibility: 72/100 → PageSpeedInsights recommend some methods to fix theseerrors.

-Names and labels Link elements without recognizable names

Buttons without names are reachableThe image element has no attribute[alt]

Best practices [user-scalable="no"]used in elements <meta

name="viewport">or attributes[maximum-scale]less than 5.ARIA [aria-hidden="true"] elements contain focusable descendents.Contrast The foreground and background colors do not have enough

contrast ratio

Table and lists Lists contain more than just script-enabled elements<li>and

elements (<script>and<template>)

Navigation Some elements have a value[tabindex]greater than 0

- SEO: 53/100 → Some errors needed to be fixed

- Links are not crawlable

- The image element has no attribute[alt]

=> PageSpeed Insights recommend some methods to fix these errors

5.4 Off-page optimization

5.4.1 Overview

5.4.2 Backlinks

Use Google Search Console and SEMRUSH

- High-quality backlink is one that is natural, highly reputable and highly relevant(Williams, 2020) Not like spammy backlinks, natural ones are chosen by the websiteowner because it provides value to their readers The more reputable, the morepowerful authority a website through backlinks, which can be measured by DomainRating and URL Rating Relevancy can be influenced by anchor text because it tellsthe reader what the page being linked to is about, but more importantly for SEO,search engines use it as a relevancy signal when ranking the page being linked to

- To optimize, we should remove:

+ Nofollow backlinks as they do not pass any authority to the site

+ Irrelevant backlinks as the content is not related to the linking site

- To optimize, we should build a strategy to increase:

+ Dofollow backlinks as they pass any authority to the site

+ Backlinks with high Domain authority (DA) and Page authority (PA) to stronglypass authority the site

+ Backlinks that are relevant to the website Anchor texts associated to the contentand surrounding text

5.4.2 Social media

- Facebook: Hotcourses page has pretty low engagement (0.0011) even though thenumber of followers and likes are high Facebook page is a potential channel to reach