Search Engine Marketing Explained
By Phil Smulian
SEM stands for search engine marketing, this is very basically a combination of promotional techniques and tactics to improve a website's ranking on search engines. There are two elements which deliver effective search engine marketing, which are SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) advertising.
Search engine marketing has become imperative to the success of online businesses mainly due to the growth and popularity of finding your particular website, products or services by using search engines. This means that most people use search engines to find their desired information regarding products and services. In fact it is true that 80-90% of online users are directed through the internet using search engines. So, now you can see that it has become important to get effective search engine marketing tactics to ensure that search engines and online users can find your website.
Search engine optimization is also sometimes referred to as website promotion, search engine promotion or website marketing. This is basically a process which naturally achieves search engine rankings and ensures that search engines find and include your website on their listings. SEO is basically a tactic which improves the levels and quality of internet traffic to your website. SEO techniques are generally made up of web design and development, content writing, link building, research and term analysis and other tactics such as website submissions and more. All these techniques is basically directed at improving the quality of online traffic to your website by raising the ranking level of your website on popular search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo.
So, if you have a website that you want to promote and effectively market on the internet, choose a leading search engine marketing company to deliver expert SEO and PPC services, ensuring you receive the benefits of successful internet marketing for your online business. A professional SEM company will deliver innovative and successful, expert SEO tactics to ensure your website gets maximum marketing exposure on search engines. Find a professional company on the internet, review services and compare with other SEO companies. Get online quotes and find more information on innovative and high-tech SEO tactics from chosen SEM Companies. Promote your website and allow your online business to grow through expert SEO tactics from a professional SEM company. Create a successful online business and market your website on the internet, allow a professional SEM company to harness the marketing power of the internet.
Search Engine Marketing - What To Focus More On?
By Qurratulain Akhtar
Most of the times when Search Engine Marketing is misunderstood as Search Engine Optimization, the whole marketing plan shrinks and the desired results remain unattained. The way out of this is to better understand Search Engine Marketing and to figure out the focusing point of it. What exactly to focus on while designing an SEM plan for a website entirely depends on the nature of website along with basic components of SEM. These components though same in all cases but vary in concentration level depending on the niche and the desired results.
Let's first identify the crucial elements or basic components of SEM. They are: keywords research, SEO, search engine submission, link building, link popularity analysis, traffic analysis etc. All these are, of course, crucial parts of SEM plan, but the first three are must, i.e. keyword research; finding the more search keywords related to a particular site and making a list of all alternative words or synonyms, optimizing the site for search engines so that they can better crawl at it, and letting the SEs know about the site by submitting URL to them. In other words these three are the major focus of SEM.
After the major focus, comes main focus, and that's link building. A site when marketed needs more and more links. And then it comes to keep a check on SEM plan by analyzing the whole campaign and the individual components as well, i.e. link popularity analysis, traffic analysis etc.
SEM experts may have a different view with the changing trends of search engines standards, and the varying requirements of e business, but the concept of SEM is constant and a fair conclusion will be, "there's not a single component in SEM to focus more on, instead all are interrelated to each other and need variable attention and consideration depending on desired output'.
Organic SEO - Great Return on your Marketing ROI
By David Harry
Well, what I have long suspected seems to be true. Organic methods of search engine marketing simply must be taken seriously.
What is organic SEO (I prefer SEM)? Well, while I have read many different versions, it is basically SEM, (search engine marketing) that utilizes SEO and submission tactics that are ‘by the rules' or ‘white hat' for natural listings (non paid listings). According to the Organic SEO Wiki, ( http://www.organicseo.org /);
“Organic SEO refers to the manual type of page optimization vs. automatic submittal and page alteration.” And “can be implemented by one motivated person, or you can always hire someone to do it.”
In short your inclusion to the major search engines is via non-paid inclusion routes. Now this isn't to say that one hasn't paid a firm to do so for them. It merely means one didn't pay the SE themselves for placement. Your SERP (search engine results position) is garnered by adhering to the algorithms that dictate results.
Personally I would even start to question some SEO tactics (can you say Paid linking and reciprocal linking) as being 'Organic'. Search engines are now starting to pick up on and even penalize such tactics . Theory being that if 300 links show up to a website in one day, then it was artificially created. Not an ‘organic' process of individuals enjoying the site and putting links to it. Some of these so called ‘legitimate' SEO tactics should be falling to the way side as SE's strive to give better organic results themselves.
Let's look atthe numbers
Large numbers of larger companies use SERPs to build brand more than they do for actual sales, showing the power of the internet for supporting offline sales.
Looking at data from the December 2005 SEMPO study, it is reported that the number one reason, at 62%, was to increase brand awareness . Number two (at 60%) was to sell brand awareness. This data reveals that search engine advertising is used as both a direct response and branding tool.
Why are organic SEO techniques so important?
It's simple. I marketing terms it is the best way to reach one's audience. All the paid inclusion and PPC advertising is not as potent as one would hope. Users have tuned out many of these platforms making them poor on the ROI. In fact, getting good SERPs through proper organic SEO and SEM is currently the greatest return for your Web Marketing dollar . Problem is, business just aren't using it properly.
Case, and point; According to the December 2005 SEMPO/Intellisurvey report, 83% of online dollars are spent on paid placement and only 11.2% is spent on organic search , (meaning inhouse or outsourced SEM and SEO work and the like). Problem is that the surfers of the world look at things differently. The findings from the iProspect study show 61% of internet searches think natural listings are more relevant .
So you're not in the consumer marketplace? You're a B2B company? Still no luck. A 2004 Enquiro study found that B2B users had a 63% preference for organic. Interestingly, according to a 2005 MarketingSherpa report, "organic SEO gets a higher conversion rate than does sponsored search."
Putting it all together
What's it all mean? You should be spending more time, effort, and money towards improving your natural search results. It is an undervalued area for most online endeavors and can certainly pay dividends and improve the ROI on your marketing dollar.
Start working on your organic SEO today, before one of your competitors read this article!
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