What is Search Engine Marketing?
When people ask about search engine marketing, there's usually a mixed response as to what it refers to. According to the official definition, search engine marketing includes all of the tools, strategies, and techniques which help maximise the visibility of sites and webpages in search engines like google.
But to avoid confusion, we refer to Search engine marketing (SEM) as the practice of marketing a business using paid advertisements that appear on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Advertisers bid on keywords that people may enter when looking for particular products or services on the internet, so they may be given the opportunity for their ads to appear alongside outcomes for those search questions. The most popular channel for paid searches is Google AdWords. The second-most widely used paid search system is Bing Ads. Each platform offers its guides and tutorials to help you get started.
SEO Vs SEM
SEO is a powerful way to drive traffic at the top of the funnel, while SEM advertisements drive conversions at the bottom of the funnel. Pay per click search advertising (PPC ads) appear above and beside natural organic ratings. You pay based on how many clicks you get on your ad.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is different, as you don't pay for traffic and clicks. Instead, you appear in the search results by having the most relevant content for a given keyword search.
You can improve your rankings by optimising your on & off-page SEO, but this process takes time and effort before you begin to see any changes. In the long run, the ROI can be significantly greater than continuously paying for PPC ads.
The common trend every business is using to get more traffic to their site organically is using a link building method called blogger outreach. With Blogger outreach, you’ll boost your organic search visibility when bloggers with trusted sites link back to your
site. However, compared to PPC ads, this is a lot more complicated if you don’t have an in-house team that specialises in this field.
It can be difficult to master, and often, a strategy is needed along with expert support.
Regardless, both SEO and SEM should be integral parts of your online marketing strategy.
