Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM stands for “Search Engine Marketing”. Search Engine Marketing is the process of marketing a website via search engines. SEM strategies primarily consist of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay per Click (PPC) advertising.

Search Engine Marketing creates an Internet marketing presence for your company by utilizing those terms that research dictates your prospects are using to find you in the search engines. Target marketing through the search engines, combined with link popularity, organic search engine optimization (SEO) and paid placement campaigns, or pay-per-click (PPC), generates qualified online leads in the search engines, which helps bring you increased revenue and profits.

SEO process involves for improving natural or organic rankings on search engines. Search engines rank websites based on a variety of parameters and each search engine has its own algorithm to rank different websites. However, one common and most important ranking parameter is a site's credibility which is determined by the quality and quantity of other sites that link to it. PPC is a type of internet advertising in which the advertiser pays an agreed amount to a search engine for every click a visitor makes on the advertisement. It is also referred to as Cost per click (CPC), Paid Placement, and Search Engine Advertising.

Why we need SEM?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is quite simple: when a consumer or business person searches the Web through either a text box or by clicking through a directory hierarchy, they are in "hunt mode." This mode is unique because it indicates that the person is looking for information, usually of a direct or indirect commercial nature. Marketers understand that this "hunt mode" means that the searcher may very well be somewhere in the buying cycle, researching a product or service to try and satisfy an immediate need or future need. That makes search engine results some of the best sources of targeted traffic, whether that traffic originates from "organic" unpaid search listings or paid advertising listings.

Effective Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is essential to assure visitors can find your site when searching for the products and/or services you offer. Regardless of your industry, more qualified visitors translate into more sales and leads for your business.

Advantages of Search Engine Marketing: -
1. Drives Quality online-targeted traffic to your site.
2. Helps in improving the position of your website in the search engines listing.
3. Highly flexible to adapt to the changing needs in the search engine marketing techniques.
4. Helps in quick addressing to the various aspects of marketing.
5. Helps in reinforcing your brand in a number of highly effective ways (text advertising, one way links, banners, pay per click etc).
6. It is one of the cheapest ways of online advertising.
7. Increased client acquisition lowers web promotion costs.

Important keys of Search Engine Marketing: -
1. The first step is to ascertain your targets. It is very crucial to choose what market or which group of people you want to reach. Discover the key phrases that the targeted group may employ to find your website.
2. Note the current traffic numbers for your website. Find out which keywords are leading people to your web site. Getting high ranked SEM with keywords and phrases only helps your website if they are used to search quite a bit.
3. In order to have the best search engine marketing, try to map the pages that are rapidly indexed by web spiders. Static pages generally work better than dynamic pages.
4. Make your website less thick so that the search engines spiders are able to check your web pages with no timeout problems.
5. The search engines will not list your web site if it is on a free web hosting service. Using a quality web hosting service for your web site is must if you want to have the best search engine marketing scheme.
6. Make certain that your website is offered to search engines according to the specific search engine guidelines.