Search Engine Marketing
In Internet marketing, search engine marketing, or SEM, is a
set of marketing methods to increase the visibility of a Website in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEM strategies
include:
• Search engine optimisation attempts to improve rankings for relevant keywords in search results by improving a
Website's structure, content, and relevant backlink count.
• Pay per click advertising uses sponsored search engine listings to drive traffic to a Website. The advertiser bids for search terms and the search engine then ranks ads based on a competitive auction (plus other factors).
• Paid inclusion feeds listings into search engines. Typically comparative shopping sites like Nextag.
SEM is most important for the businesses who sell goods and services online or who use their Websites to generate sales leads. Other goals for SEM includ building a brand, enhancing reputation with investors, generating media coverage, and driving traffic to physical business locations. Organisations such as non-profits, universities, governments, and political parties also use SEM to promote their ideas.
Many forms of search engine optimisation only amount to ensuring compliance to search engines' guidelines for inclusion and removing any technical barriers that might keep the Website from reaching a proper ranking. However, other methods of search engine optimisation such as keyword spamming are often viewed as 'gaming the system' and considered unethical.
Displaying advertisements or sponsored results in an area visually separated from the determined natural results is generally considered ethical. However, some search engines allow the ranking of a Website to be influenced with a payment and provide little or no indication to the user that this has happened. Since the search engines give the impression or claim that the rankings reflect the relevance or popularity of the Websites, this is often seen unfair or deceptive.
Only the search engines themselves can truly guarantee top placement and for ethical reasons, they can only do so legally through sponsored listings. Searching for a reliable SEM agency should rely on sample success stories and client referrals.
