Category: Search Engine Marketing

Breaking Down Search Engine Marketing

Breaking Down Search Engine Marketing

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are interlacing and complex. The difficulties of knowing where and when to invest, particularly if the business is small, and the budget is constrained, with perhaps staff shortages in addition, may require real expert and experienced advice.

The Targets

The very fact of surfers pro-actively searching websites for nuggets of information indicates that these visitors are hot prospects for the products on offer. It is for this very reason that the display of the marketing message is so important for the business. Google is the biggest target of SEM, but Bing and Baidu (of China) are beginning to gain ground. There are other big players who also use a search engine to display results. YouTube and Amazon are important contributors to SEM now. There are others too, like FaceBook and Linked-in, but they are different, because their displays of ads are based on demographics and preferences, and not pro-active searches.These are factors that are highly considered buy businesses looking to strategically allocate there marketing budget funds. For example, a casual dating platform like the fuck finder hookup site or affair dating site Ashley Madison would be geared toward strict demographics. Namely, adults. Moreover some of the previously mentioned platforms don’t allow advertising of what they deem “adult content.” This is just one example more specifics are applied to many businesses from pharmaceuticals to medical devices. However, in the world of search there are always places to be discovered, accessed, and harnessed for conversions.

The Method

The interesting thing is that, even if an individual Advertiser has not run paid Adwords, and in fact not done much to ensure about being seen in the main results, the Ad may already be showing up for certain phrases in the main listings. And even if the console is not hooked up, much information may be gleaned from other analytic tools like Matomo. The search procedure advised is as follows:

  • The Advertiser (or his support team) should try to locate any words or phrases for which significant numbers of impressions are already showing up.
  • Next, the Advertiser should make efforts to improve the message in the META description and title that are usually displayed in the default text. This is to try and find out if clicks can be increased this way.
  • Lastly, the Advertiser should concentrate on the page itself, in order to make attractive offers to encourage people to contact the Advertiser or leave contact details an email address will suffice).
  • If the website isn’t co-operating, a free copy of “the Website Debug Checklist” may be downloaded and checked out.

Here are 8 Paid Search Marketing tips for Beginners

  • Study how PPC works
  • Define the Conversion Goals
  • Select the PPC Platform
  • Detailed Keyword Research must be performed prior to any action
  • Careful estimation of means, in order to determine Budget, must be performed in advance, to ensure continuous flow of finances
  • The Ad copy must create powerful impact, and be compelling
  • Landing Pages must be relevant, and ensure continuation of interest
  • Optimization should continue at all times, with powerful tests

The best known and powerful SEM Platform in current use is the Google AdWords. But there are also Bing Ads and Yahoo Search Ads which are very popular also. As an interesting aside, it may be noted that, while all SEM Platforms utilize a PPC advertizing model, not all PPC is SEM.

The Main Types

The main aim of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is to help the User/Advertiser to get better visibility in search results. There are three main types of SEM:

  • Organic SEO is a SEO process that leads to the advertiser’s website content gaining higher visibility in non-local, unpaid results. No charge is levied for clicks through to the Advertiser’s site. Organic search results appear in the first few pages of the search engine results pages organically.
  • Local SEO focuses majorly on the Google Map results. Every time a user searches for a specific location, then results that show up based on the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps the local businesses. There is no charge for clicks. Local search results appear approximately in the middle of the search engine results page (SERP), and stand out because of the presence of a map. Google gave local businesses a page of their own on their computers on mid-2010, and used to rank businesses in the “Local Search Results”. They have renamed several times, and are right now called “Google My business pages”.
  • Sponsored Search Results or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are Google AdWords or PPC is a form of online advertising with Google. The idea to do advertising based on keywords and phrases that bring the sponsored results to the SERPs. Every time a user clicks on the ads, the advertisers will be paid a fee.

While these three are similar, the main difference between them are as follows:

  • The prompts for business or content display in search results
  • The speed with which the search results show up the business
  • The major factors in achieving page 1 ranking

The SEM Tradeoffs

In a general rule of thumb, the sum total of income to a business , organization or individual, is proportional to the amount of attention received. This is one reason why those who can afford it, splash out on celebrities for their Ads. But to leave a lasting encashable interest, the Advertiser must create attention to the Product or Services offered. To achieve this, appearance and content are the key.

The SEM is only one of the ways to deliver good quality traffic to a website. But it is not the only way. And it may not even be the best solution. This is due to the sometimes very long wait in SEO, and also the prohibitive cost of paid ads. These costs have shot up since the advent of Adwords. It is often a better option for the smaller businesses to start with Facebook Ads, not only for the far lower cost feature, but the unbelievable targeting options.

But in spite of some such drawbacks, SEM can still provide extraordinary pro-active leads, and in short time, massive exposure for a Business. Not just the small enterprises and startups, but established Giants have splashed out on SEM.