IBM 6100 Search Engine Marketing

Hybrid Synchronous Course | Spring 2025

1. Instructor

Dr. Sonya Zhang
E-mail: [email protected] 

• Use “IBM 6100” in the subject line, spell your full name in the email body, and send it from your cpp.edu account.
• Do NOT submit any homework to me via email – they won’t count.
• I typically aim to reply to student emails within 24 hours. However, please note that this timeframe does not include weekends, as we are advised not to work on weekends or outside the 8-hour weekday limit according to university policy. Therefore, I recommend emailing on Thursday or early Friday if you would like to receive a response before the weekend.
• Office hours and the instructor’s Zoom link are provided in Canvas – Modules – Welcome to Class.

2. Class meetings

This hybrid synchronized course meets face-to-face (Building 163, Room 1020) or through synchronized Zoom meetings. Weekly learning materials and activities will be posted on Canvas modules.

3. Course Description

Monitoring customer behaviors on firms’ websites and developing digital advertising strategies by establishing website performance measurements and measuring them using popular search engine optimization and online advertising tools such as Google Analytics and SEMRush.

4. Learning Objectives

Students completing this course should have acquired the ability to:

1. Describe how web and mobile analytics can provide business insights that help the business optimize digital presence and performance.
2. Analyze and interpret User (including User Attributes and Tech), Acquisition, Engagement, and Monetization reports.
3. Create data-driven insights and recommendations.
4. Apply filters, dimensions, metrics, event tracking, tag management, configurations, and segmentation.
5. Develop custom dashboards and reports.
6. Describe and explain analytics-driven optimization.
7. Prepare and take the Google Analytics certification exam.

5. Textbook and Software

Required Textbook

• “SEO: Strategy & Skills” by StuKent (included with Instant Access)
• Access to a computer and the Internet

Required Software (all software is browser-based and free with a Google account)

• Google Analytics
• Google Tag Manager
• Google Looker Studio (previously Google Data Studio)

6. Exams, Projects, and Assignments

All weekly learning modules are published. I will send a Canvas announcement every Monday and a reminder every Friday. Weekly learning activities and assignments are due Friday at 11:59 p.m.

• Quizzes: Students will take quizzes based on lectures and readings.
• Simternship: Students will practice optimizing an established website using on-site and off-site SEO in a simulation.
• Group project: Students will work in groups of 3-4 and apply the comprehensive knowledge and skills learned in class to analyze digital data for a client’s website and provide business insights and/or recommendations. Final deliverables include a written report and a presentation. Groups will form after the add/drop period.

Make-up policy: Make-up exams are not offered except for serious and compelling reasons substantiated by formal and authoritative documents.

Late submission: Late assignments or projects will incur a 50% penalty if submitted within 24 hours after the deadline, and no late work will be accepted afterward.

Plagiarism: Students’ written assignments will be checked for plagiarism detection through AI software and Turnitin, which will check against not only Internet sources but also previous students’ work submitted to Canvas. Plagiarism activities will be reported to the university’s Student Conduct Office.

Student Responsibilities:

• Each student is responsible for completing and submitting all assignments and projects. Corrupted files or incomplete submissions will not be credited. Students are also responsible for keeping a backup copy of each submission.
• To ensure fairness, the instructor will NOT review, debug, or fix problems in student assignments and projects BEFORE grading the entire class. The instructor will, however, help students understand expectations, clarify requirements, provide guidance, help students gain knowledge and skills in analysis, design, and problem-solving, and answer specific questions on course topics.
• Students must have spent a significant and reasonable amount of time and effort researching and working on the issue independently BEFORE asking for help.

7. Grading

8. Course Schedule

Module/Week	Learning Activities and Assignments	Assignments Due
Week 1 (Jan 20, MLK, no class)	Post a self-intro on the discussion board SEO lecture video SEM lecture video	Self-intro post SEO Quiz SEM Quiz
Week 2 (Jan 27, F2F)	Stukent Chapter 1 Overview of Search Chapter 2 Searcher Behavior	Chapter 1 Quiz Chapter 2 Quiz
Week 3 (Feb 3, Zoom)	Chapter 3 Search Engines Project Client’s visit	Chapter 3 Quiz
Week 4 (Feb 10, F2F)	Chapter 4 Performance Indicators	Chapter 4 Quiz Group project proposal
Week 5 (Feb 17, Zoom)	Chapter 5 Technical SEO Cal Poly Innovation Incubation’s visit re: Microinternship	Chapter 5 Quiz Simternship Introduction
Week 6 (Feb 24, F2F)	Chapter 6 User Experience (UX)	Chapter 6 Quiz Simternship Round 1
Week 7 (Mar 3, Zoom)	Chapter 7 Keyword Research	Chapter 7 Quiz Simternship Round 2
Week 8 (Mar 10, F2F)	Chapter 8 Site Structure & Keyword Mapping	Chapter 8 Quiz Simternship Round 3
Week 9 (Mar 17, Zoom)	Chapter 9: Content Optimization	Chapter 9 Quiz Simternship Round 4
Week 10 (Mar 24, F2F)	Chapter 10 Off-Page SEO	Chapter 10 Quiz Simternship Round 5
Mar 31, Spring break
Week 11 (Apr 7, Zoom)	Mid-project presentation	Mid-project report and presentation slide deck
Week 12 (Apr 14, Zoom)	Chapter 11 Link Building	Chapter 11 Quiz Simternship Round 6
Week 13 (Apr 21, F2F)	Chapter 13 Local SEO	Chapter 13 Quiz Simternship Round 7
Week 14 (Apr 28, Zoom)	Chapter 14 YouTube SEO	Chapter 14 Quiz Simternship Round 8
Week 15 (May 5, Zoom)	Group project – final project presentation	Group project report and presentation slide deck

9. University Policies

Accessibility: Cal Poly Pomona is committed to student success as a learning-centered university. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the instructor privately or to visit the Disability Resource Center to coordinate course accommodations.

Computing Resources: At Cal Poly Pomona, computers and communications links to remote resources are recognized as being integral to the education and research experience. Every student must have access to a computer with all the required software for this course. Contact I&IT if you need help.

Academic Integrity: The University is committed to maintaining academic integrity throughout the university community. Academic dishonesty is a serious offense that can diminish the quality of scholarship, the educational environment, the academic reputation, and the quality of a Cal Poly Pomona degree. Plagiarism or cheating will not be tolerated in this course. 

Copyright Policy: Copyright laws and fair use policies protect the rights of those who have produced the material. The copy in this course has been provided for private study, scholarship, or research. Other uses may require permission from the copyright holder. The user of this work is responsible for adhering to the copyright law of the U.S. (Title 17, U.S. Code). The course website contains material protected by copyrights held by the instructor, other individuals, or institutions. Such material is used for educational purposes following copyright law and/or with permission given by the owners of the original material. Students may download one copy of the materials on any single computer for non-commercial, personal, or educational purposes only, provided that (1) do not modify it, (2) use it only for the duration of this course, and (3) include both this notice and any copyright notice originally included with the material. Beyond this use, no material from the course website may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way without the original copyright holder’s permission. The instructor assumes no responsibility for individuals who improperly use copyrighted material placed on the website.