Search Engine Marketing is being talked about all around the world. Today, I will give you an exact definition of what it refers to, and how it relates to both Web Search and Web Marketing.
Search Marketing is also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and as such we will refer to it as SEM.
Search Marketing is a part of business marketing efforts that is aimed at increasing traffic (the number of visitors) to your website from the search engines. Additionally, it addresses conversion (the percent of visitors who become buyers). The first is achieved by increasing search engine visibility, i.e. the position of your site in search engine results for certain keywords that people type in the search box to obtain these results.
For instance, if someone wants to find a landscaper in MT, they will go to a search engine such as Google and type “MT landscaper” in the search box. Google will list, in this case, a bazillion results. If you are a landscaper in MT, offer any related services, your site may be listed among these results. Here, everything depends on how deep you are. If you are on the first or second page of the search results, it’s more likely that such visibility will bring many visitors and customers from Google. If you are the 300th result, it’s unlikely that anyone at all will come to you from Google.
Together with the power and size of your banner / ad network, your affiliations and partnerships, SE visibility comprises a broader concept - Web visibility (aka online visibility).
Generally, there are two main methods of carrying out SEM: 1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 2) using pay-per-click and paid inclusion listing models.
Although paid inclusion and pay-per-click advertising methods seem like the fastest methods to search engine marketing, website owners prefer to adopt a more time consuming search engine optimization method to obtain better marketing of their website on search engines.
Organic rankings are results that you get for free. That is, you create Web copy and publish it, then after a certain period of time a search engine robot finds it (either by itself or as a result of your submission).
Finally, the robot reads your content and puts your site into its index. Now your site will be found by this search engine when people query for some words contained within your pages. Obtained this way, your positions in the result list are called your “organic search engine rankings“.
Paid listings are different: pay a search engine and it guarantees the inclusion of your site in the index. Moreover, many search engines offer advanced pay-for-performance programs, such as showing your site / ad in the search results for keywords of your choice. These are the so-called “sponsored” results. Most commonly, you will have to pay a specified rate for each visitor that comes to your site from this search engine that clicks on these ads.
Mastering both methods and their proper combination can provide maximum search engine visibility. Because things keep changing, search engine marketers need to devote a good deal of time staying on top of the SEO industry and its trends.
The aim of SEM is not only to find a proper balance between organic and paid listings, but also to achieve maximum conversion of visitors into loyal customers. Nowadays SEM relies on the statement that it’s not the traffic itself that matters, but how targeted and convertible it is. The way your traffic converts also matters a lot – even more than your site rank on a search engine. You can rank worse than a competitor and yet the percentage of your visitors that turn into buyers can be high enough to actually outperform a competitor several times over.
SEO Services cover a lot of areas like email marketing, directories, and the list goes on and on. If you have questions, post them on the blog, or contact BLaST Creative.