What is
Search Engine Marketing?
Search engine marketing is a very broad term
that refers to a number of other different activities, such as:
·
Search engine optimization (SEO)
·
Search retargeting
·
Submitting sites to directories
·
Managing paid listings in search engines (primarily pay per click,
or PPC)
·
Describing the development of many different online marketing
strategies
·
Social media marketing
NOTE: When people
refer to SEM, it can often mean all of the above, or it’s possible that they
are using the term simply to describe pay per click advertising, or sponsored
advertising.
To put it simply, SEM is anything that you
can do to help improve your site’s ranking in search engines, like Google or
Bing, as well as the amount of traffic you receive from those search engines.
This is particularly important, as over 70% of all new visitors will find your
website just by performing a search query through a search engine.
Next time you do a search in Google or MSN,
look at the layout of the page. If you do a search in Google, the left-hand
side results are natural, organic listings that will appear when a certain
keyword is entered into a search query. On the right hand side are the paid
advertisement results that are linked to that keyword, like the PPC
advertisements we mentioned earlier. Both of these are essential in driving
traffic to your website, especially both organic listings and paid listings are
a very economical way to get people to your site.
NOTE: In a recent
study it was found that people who use Google do prefer the organic or “left
hand” search options, while those who used the MSN search engine actually
preferred to visit the paid listings.
Let’s put it this way. There are millions
upon millions of websites on the Internet, many of which may be similar to
yours, sell the same products as yours, and may be a competitor of yours.
Through all of the above methods – SEO, PPC, social media marketing, search
retargeting, etc. – you are allowing your website to stand out and scream,
“HEY! I’M WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR!” All of the above methods are ways that
increase your ranking n search engines so that rather than being on the last
search result page of Google or Yahoo!, you’re on page 5, 3, or possibly even
page 1.
While this may sound all fine and good, to do
SEM right you will have to spend a lot of time at it. You have to get it
started, you have to learn what you’re doing, and then you have to continually
revisit your site and fine tune it to make sure that it is fully optimized and
as search engine friendly as possible.
Can I Create
A Website Without SEM?
If you’re creating a website just to be a
sort of hobby site or a personal site to update family and friends on your
life, then you don’t need to be overly bothered with SEM. But if you have a
business, or have finally realized just how profitable your blog can be if you
put some time and work into it, then SEM is absolutely essential. Without SEM,
there’s a small chance that anyone will be able to find your website amongst
the millions of others that are on the web.
Search engine marketing has become so
important that many experts are predicting that the amount of money that
businesses are investing into it is going to double from the $13 billion USD in
2009 to $26 billion USD by 2014.
You Need An
SEM Plan
If you want to be successful in SEM, then you
need to come up with a plan. We’ll start with the first and most important
point first:
·
Who is your target audience? You need to do your research and find
out who will actually want to visit your website before you really delve into
your SEM plan.
·
Create a business plan or make goals. You want to have something
to keep you on track when coming up with your plan, whether it is through PPC,
organic search results, or social media marketing.
·
Get the proper tools. Keyword analysis tools to find how well
certain keywords are performing is obviously of the utmost importance, but
other tools like web analytic tools and HTML tools are important, too. Arm
yourself with what you will need in order to be successful.
·
Once you have a keyword tool, build a list! See which ones will
perform best for you and your niche (word of the wise: don’t choose the highest
ranking keyword or keyword phrase. If you do, you’ll end up on page 432 of
Google search results)
·
Continuously test your keywords and see which ones work best
·
Keep on top of your current search engine ranking
·
Always add fresh content to your site, and continually improve
your web design
·
Don’t forget about link building! Begin building partnerships with
people on blogs, forums, and other websites and start building up your links.
This will give you a great boost in the search engine rankings
·
Expand beyond your website. Do some video marketing or vlogs and
post them on YouTube. Put pictures up on Flickr. If you don’t have a blog, get
one. And submit articles to article submission sites, like eHow and About.com.
Add a link to your website along with each of the above.
·
Turn on your RSS feed and update your site or blog regularly!
·
Get yourself some quality tracking software, and continue to track
your site’s performance.