Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a term that has created some confusion over the years. It is used by some Internet Marketers and Online Advertisers for what is commonly referred to as Paid Search or Pay per Click (PPC) vs. Search Engine Optimization which always refers to Organic Search Results. Optimum7 and many others use Search Engine Marketing to refer to all marketing methods and processes involving both organic and paid search results.
Regardless of the definition that one chooses, the common objective is to meet the searcher at a common destination, namely, page 1 for all of the major search engines, whether it be a sponsored listing (paid ad) or an organic listing which are earned by scoring the highest according to the relevancy measurement criteria of each search engine.
As opposed to traditional outbound or outreach marketing, Search Engine Marketing seeks to be “found” rather than to “seek” to be noticed. Traditional marketing such as direct mail, print advertising, radio, TV, cold calling and telemarketing are all largely intrusive and unwelcome by the overwhelming majority of those receiving the outreach. Simply, less than 0.3% of all recipients of outreach attempts are welcomed as only a scant few are actually receiving the outreach are well received, quite coincidentally, at the exact moment in time that they are actually interested and thinking of exactly the same product or service.
Search Engine Marketing is searcher or prospective client-focused; control is in the hands of the searcher. The Search Engine Marketer seeks only to be found at that magical moment when the right person is seeking those products and services offered by the marketer. So the searcher initiates and the successful online marketer is just there because they have “done the right things” to be there. While this may all seem obvious, the psychological advantage and the resulting chance for success for both buyer and seller, is huge. When the buyer is the one deciding the right moment in time that they are interested, have the time, etc to investigate, compare and decide, it would make sense that the chance of an online marketer’s success is maximized by just being there. No one has pushed, cajoled, and hyped the buyer to take any action. This is very powerful.
Paid Search and SEO are the two main subcomponents of Search Engine Marketing. In theory anyone can do Paid Search. For instance, Google Adwords, the Google brand for Paid Search, provides excellent step by step processes and instructions for anyone to setup a paid search campaign; after all its Google’s main revenue stream so they want to make it as easy as possible or at least make it appear very easy to do. Paid Search is merely paid ads that are targeted to individual keywords. The advertiser pays every time the ad is clicked …therefore the term, Pay per Click (PPC). While anyone can technically do it, it really isn’t that easy to do without a professional Internet Marketing Company. These are still ads which require 2 important actions of the searcher … (1) to actually click on the ad and (2) for the ad to convert into a sale or another form of conversion. A professional can optimize the ad itself and use sophisticated multi-variant testing to get the highest click-through rate or CTR. Likewise the same kind of testing involving dozens of variables and specific landing pages are used to optimize the conversion rates of the landing pages. It is not enough to just bid the highest bid; if your ad does not perform (does not get clicked), Google won’t display the ad as often, if at all. Google uses something known as Quality Score to determine how often your ad will be displayed keyword by keyword. Again, this is how Google makes money. They want ads that get clicked the most to be displayed the most.
Organic Search Engine Optimization really cannot be done by just anyone. A professional Internet Marketing Company is essential to gain top rankings in the organic results. These are coveted for many reasons including:
1. Every click is free.
2. 85% of all searches result in an organic click and NOT a paid click because online searchers have mostly figured out, or at least intuitively understand, that the organic listings are earned due to their relevance and the paid listings are bought.
You need a Professional Search Optimization Company to employ a wide array of processes including:
1. Onsite Optimization – this includes all those things important to the search engines to just understand what your website and each page are actually about. You will hear things like Title Tags, Page Descriptions, metadata, sitemaps, etc that are all about the proper configuration of the site so that search engines can quickly index and understand the content of the pages and how they relate to each other.
2. Off-Site Optimization – the least talked about area but easily the most important. This involves the heavy reliance on relevant content and the successful syndication of that content to generate backlinks. Backlinks are direct one-way links into your website from external websites. These Backlinks represent votes for your website and the search engines value them highly in their ranking algorithms.
3. Social Media Optimization – while backlinks from external websites are important, the rise of social websites are gaining importance everyday and influence search engines directly and indirectly. In brief, Social Media, as the name implies, brings to social conversation into play where people are discussing everything under the sun including the use of all products and services you can imagine. This “chatter” results in recommendations, ratings, etc. Social Bookmarking Sites like Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon serve as human voting booths. People respond to this and the websites they are associated with. Backlinks actually arise from these human interactions. Other social sites including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and many more further create website activity for many reasons. Suffice it to say, that the social media is becoming a more and more important factor affecting website visits and even search engine rankings.
All of these processes have dozens upon dozens of sub-processes and specialties and require the special training, experience and day-to-day attention a Professional Internet Marketing Company.
As with almost everything else in the technology age, the individual is gaining more and more control of what they will do and when they will do it. Search Engine Marketing, however defined, is simply the marketplace response to this phenomenon.
May 12, 2009
