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). The three main methods are:
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Search engine optimization, or improving rankings for relevant keywords in search results by rectifying the website structure, and content such that they could be easly read and understood by the search engine's software programs. It is seen that website containing the latest trends and updates are first available to the visitor.
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Search engine advertising, or paying the search engine company for a guaranteed high ranking or an ad displayed aside the results (commonly known as pay per click advertising).
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Paid inclusion, or paying the search engine company for a guarantee that the website is included in their natural search index.
Search engine marketers are experts and firms who explore of weaknesses and strengths in the methods and individual products to find the best way to promote a particular website in search engines.
Methods
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization aims to improve rankings for relevant keywords in search results. This is done by adjusting the architecture of the website, including its build, structure, content and navigation, as well as influencing external factors such as links to the website. Also called organic search marketing, because businesses usually don't have to pay any fees to search engines for getting included in these rankings. Google search is the best example of a popular organic search engine. This is one of the reasons why most businesses try their best to get on top of Google search results.
Search engine advertising
Advertising with search engines is known by different names. It is also called sponsored search. Advertising with search engines could be further classified as follows:
- Advertising based on a keyword search
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Advertising based on a keyword search could take place through a search engine such as google.com, or a search engine partner site, such as shopping.com. For example, Google offers a service called AdWords, which allows companies, for a small fee, to have a link to their website featured when a user searches a specific keyword which the company specified.
- Advertising based on content context
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Many search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo! Search) have partner websites with specific content. The websites agree to let the search engines place content-specific advertising on their website, in return for a fee. The search engine then finds companies interested in advertising on websites with their desired content. For example, an online books retailer might have their advertisement placed on a site about books.
Both of these advertising formats allow advertisers to target specific users with certain interests. Generally these advertisements are paid for based on either a pay per click campaign or an impression based campaign.
Paid inclusion
Search engines use computer programs called spiders or web crawlers to automatically discover websites and catalog their content. As this process can take some time and requires a website to be linked to from another website (to allow the crawler to find it), most search engines except for Google provide another channel to be included in search rankings via paying. This is different from pay per click advertising because the inclusion is guaranteed but not placement.
Search Engine Optimization
Searching
on the Internet is the most frequent web activity after
e-mail. Everyday, Google alone receives over 150 million
queries, by web users looking for every type of product or
service.
Searching the web, through the major search engines or
directories is the most common method of finding a website
for the first time. When a web user searches for the
services or products that you provide - can your website be
found?
Long gone
are the days when owning a website was enough. Everyday
thousands of web users are looking for the services and
products your company provides, and search engine
optimization is the number one tool of delivering targeted,
pre-qualified traffic to your website.
How Search Engine Optimization can help
your business?
Many companies throughout Pakistan spend large quantities of
time, money and effort on a web site, to find that no one
actually knows that the website exists.
Website Search Engine Optimization can mean the difference
between the success and failure of your website.
Search Engine Optimization will ensure that your web site
achieves high rankings and targeted traffic from across the
major search engines and web directories for search phrases
and keyword terms that are relevant to your company and the
products and services that you company provides.
Why is Search Engine Optimization Important?
There are millions of websites on the Internet, and every
day many thousands are added. Search engines and web
directories are the key to bringing website users to a
website, who are looking for the products or services a
company provides.
Search Engine Optimization - Facts and Figures
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It is claimed that over 30,000 search engines exist across the web, however it is the top 10 search engines and directories that are used by over 95% of web users.
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Approximately 50% of online purchases are preceded by research on a search engine. [DoubleClick / Performics / comScore, "Search Before the Purchase", March 2006]
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84.8% of users found sites through search. [GVU, 11th User Survey, 2005, US data]
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75.7% searched with intent to buy.
Benefits of search engine optimization
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Your company website can access one of the largest Internet database platforms through the major search engines and web directories;
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Search engine optimization will drive qualified leads that are searching for your product or services to your website;
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Increased sales can be gained as consumers use search engines to locate and buy goods or to do research prior to making their purchasing decision;
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Search engines will increase your penetration globally and therefore optimize your brands 'message';
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Raise your profile - Search engine optimization will draw potential customers to your website and not to your competitors
How the
Search Engine Market has Changed
Over the last number of years, the online market has
dramatically changed. With an exponential increase in the
number of web users online, many companies have quickly come
to see investment in search engine optimization as a key
foundation in their online marketing strategy.
The Growth of Pay Per Click Search Engines
This in turn has seen search engines such as Google and
Yahoo capitalize on their position and have introduced Pay
Per Click (PPC) advertising services, whereby a company can
bid for search terms to appear in a desired position within
the results.
Natural
Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click Search Engine
Although Pay Per Click (PPC) has made online advertising
expenditure relatively transparent (you know exactly how
much you need to pay to get a certain position and is
relatively easy to track), Pay Per Click (PPC) is becoming
very costly as keyword prices are spiraling upwards and
accusations of click fraud has meant that many companies are
paying for clicks that are not generated by genuine
customers, but by competitors or affiliates.
The Problem with Pay Per Click Search Engines
Whilst Pay Per Click's are a relatively new phenomenon,
recent research has shown that, on average, the top two
'natural' search engine listings usually receive around 50%
of the clicks on a search results page. The average click
through for Pay Per Click advertisements is around 2%.