Combine Search Engine Marketing (SEM) with SEO Strategies

SEM or search engine marketing is the practice of buying “paid” search listings for top placements in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

Search engine marketing focuses on utilizing online marketing techniques and strategies to immediately attract highly qualified, highly targeted visitor traffic to your website via the major search engines.

Many website owners like the fact that the results they get can be immediate but search engine marketing is just one of many Website Promotion strategies that website owners can employ to increase their online visibility and attract the visitors they need.

If your goal is to immediately attract highly targeted visitors to your website then search engine marketing may be something you should seriously consider.

Through search engine marketing, the internet marketing consultant has two primary goals:

  1. To increase the volume of visitor traffic to your website
  2. And improve the quality of visitor traffic to your website

While search engine optimization (SEO) efforts can be more cost effective and the results for top organic search engine listings can be long lasting, SEO can often take months to implement.

Implementing a search engine marketing/ PPC management campaign then, is a great way to help visitors find your website quickly while you are waiting for your organic search engine optimization efforts to kick in.

The two more popular forms of search engine marketing strategies utilized by website owners include:

  1. Contextual Advertising, where as a website owner you would ‘”buy ads” on other websites that provide services and products complimentary to your business.
  2. Pay-per-click (PPC Advertising), where you bid for top “paid advertising” placements on the major search engines through their pay-for-placement services like Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. Your paid ads appear in the "sponsored" listing results, which are usually listed first, above the organic listing results on the SERPs. PPC advertising is the fastest, most measurable way to drive targeted traffic to your website but will only last as long as your budget allows.

What makes search engine marketing so popular is the fact that it “is” immediate and can be extremely effective, providing an excellent return on investment (ROI) when compared to other forms of advertising.

Which Is Better…SEO or SEM?

Ask an SEO consultant and they’ll probably tell you search engine optimization is better. As an SEM consultant and they’ll probably say search engine marketing is better. The answer can vary depending on which Internet marketing professional you talk to.

The best strategy perhaps, whether it be organic website optimization or PPC advertising (or a hybrid) is an online strategy that best meets your online business objectives.

Remember, with search engine marketing, your “paid listings” disappear as soon as your PPC advertising budget runs out so your best option may be to utilize a combination of SEM and SEO strategies.

To learn more about both SEO and SEM marketing strategies, visit our Internet Marketing articles section.

For more information about search engine marketing or search engine optimization, please call us
Toll Free at 1-888-262-6687, complete the online Request Information form or email our SEO consultant.