Search engine marketing is rapidly becoming the keystone of effective online marketing endeavors. Search engine marketing, or SEM, isn’t the same as (or a replacement for) search engine optimization (SEO), but rather a broader, more robust method of increasing traffic to your website. SEM ensures that your potential customers can find your site, which is harder than you might think today. Read on to learn the basics of this concept and discover ways to leverage SEM to your advantage.
This term refers to a type of marketing that leverages search engines to improve your site’s visibility and visits, enabling your target clients to find you when they search online. SEM achieves these goals using a few different methods. We'll talk about two of them here. One is by using search engine optimization, or SEO, which focuses purely on raising your site’s position in search engines’ rankings. The second tool SEM uses to increase visibility is pay-per-click, or PPC, ads and listings, which involves paid search placement and sponsored links. In other words, SEO is only a part of SEM, albeit a critical one.
A keyword is a word or a phrase that your potential customers might enter into Google or another search engine to find you. Keywords and phrases are then placed into your content in a natural manner. In many cases, the best keywords for your business might include the brands or types of products or services that you sell. Unfortunately, effective keyword selection depends on a complex set of factors, including Google’s ever-changing search algorithms. Most companies today hire an SEM expert to identify the best keywords for your site, and to keep your key phrases up to date. Once you have identified keywords, add them to your website in the form of regularly updated content, especially in web page titles and first and last paragraphs of web and blog copy.
Pay-per-click is the second key facet of SEM. This approach places online ads for your website using keywords. You pay an agreed-upon sum of money to the ad platform (Google, for example) every time someone clicks your ad and is taken to your site. Whereas SEO addresses your visibility in natural searches, PPC is concerned with paid searches. PPC may cost a little money, but it is ideal for new or growing businesses or those that seek instant results.
The combination of SEO and PPC provide the most effective approach to growing your company’s online presence. Addressing both short-term and long-term revenue creation, this approach is critical for virtually every company today, as they endeavor to thrive and carve out their own market niche. Help your customers find you. Contact a professional search engine marketing expert today to help you get started.
Our expert recommends:
Demystifying SEO Jargon
The Small Business Guide to Voice Search and Mobile Marketing
Hyper-Local SEO: The Key to Improving Your Search Engine Ranking