While many people include the practice of natural search engine optimization with paid search under the umbrella term ‘search engine marketing’, experts divide the two. Search engine marketing, according to well-accepted definitions, is the practice of paying for inclusion in search engine results pages via pay per click advertising, sponsored results, or contextual advertising. What is search engine marketing, and what are the main issues surrounding it?
The best recognized form of search engine marketing (SEM) is pay per click advertisements. These appear in the right hand sidebar of Google, Yahoo and MSN search results pages, and sometimes above the natural results. They are usually differentiated from the ‘natural’ results for the search, and have a heading of ‘Sponsored Results’ or something equivalent.
The process of engaging in SEM is much simpler than SEO. You will determine the keywords that you want to appear in the results for, write advertisements that adhere to each search engine’s character limits, and input a bid for the keyword that will determine how high up you appear in the results. The company that bids the highest amount for a particular keyword or keyphrase will appear at the top, the second highest bidder will appear second, etc. Conventional wisdom states that there is little benefit in appearing outside the top three places.
PPC ads are generally seen as good value by companies, as you only pay for the advertising when someone is interested enough to click through to your ad. Of course, there are initial campaign set up costs involved also, as well as monitoring and testing. PPC does have costs outside of the actual click, so it is still in a company’s best interests to have a well-executed campaign.
PPC ads are not generally seen as being as trustworthy as natural results – and there is some legitimacy to this view. Relatively new players in the PPC game can get to the top of the results simply by spending more money. While Google’s algorithms for natural results favor the sites that offer real value to searchers, their program for paid search favors the businesses spending the most money in the short term. That could be you.
Search engine marketing is like many marketing activities on the net – something that appears simple, but can quickly spiral out of control with regard to time and costs if not managed properly. We recommend outsourcing at least some of your initial campaigns for best results.
Internet marketing,search engine marketing,search engine optimization and ppc tips and techniques there
Most Effective Search Engine Marketing Strategy?
As the search engines develop, so too do the potential avenues for effective marketing. So what exactly is the most effective Search Engine Marketing strategy?
Traditionally, the two ways in which you could improve your website’s visibility on search engines was through SEO and Pay per Click (PPC) advertising. Whilst they may remain at the forefront of most strategies, SEO and PPC are by no means the only way to get your name where it matters.
As the search engine results pages (SERPs) have diversified, including new facets and restructuring their layout, marketing methods have been quick to follow suit. With Twitter updates, local search results and news items infiltrating the SERPs, the realms of possibilities are more diverse and in greater supply than ever before.
Most Effective Search Engine Marketing Solutions
Let’s start with the forerunners though. There’s a good reason why SEO and PPC have endured for so long, whilst losing none of their popularity amongst Search Engine Marketers – they work.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The basic premise of Search Engine Optimisation is to improve a website’s ranking within the search engines. This is achieved by following a basic code of understanding – there is no finite blueprint – with work completed internally and externally of a site’s parameters.
Fundamentally SEO revolves around two basic elements, content (on site) and links (off-site and on). Within the confines of your website a search engine crawler (which indexes pages and ultimately ranks them too) can only understand text. It assigns more weight to some areas than others, with factors including headings, page copy and Meta. Unique copy throughout your site will avoid any possible duplication issues and will provide the crawler with sufficient information to rank it for your keywords – which should be used in moderation throughout.
Off site, you want to get as many links coming in as possible. Variety is the spice of life and search engine algorithms are in no mood to argue with that. They want links from relevant, authority websites where possible and will assign your site with added strength as a consequence. So the more you can attract, without paying, the better you should perform. Using optimised anchor text where possible, including within the internal linking structure, will help to give search engines even more understanding of what to rank a page for.
SEO works, but it is a competitive industry. There are millions of sites competing for keywords worldwide, so to really succeed you need to be at your best. Top rankings are by no means guaranteed, but with SEO you could be surrendering the one free, constant source of targeted traffic .
Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
If you’d rather pay for those targeted clicks, maybe PPC is more up your street. Pay per Click advertising is almost as simple as the name suggests; you create adverts, choose which page on your site to link them to and then set them live. Of course there is a lot of work that needs to be done to get them to the top and ensure that you’re targeting the best possible traffic.
In terms of Search Engine Marketing, PPC is a very important facet as the adverts appear in some of the most prominent positions on the SERPs – the top and right hand side of the page. Therefore getting your adverts to the top of these lists can be a simpler way of getting yourself noticed for the keywords you’re targeting. Through effective ad copy, catchy titles and focused keywords (and negative keywords) a PPC campaign can easily pay dividends for your Search Engine Marketing strategy.
Source: Search Engine Marketing Strategies: Which are Most Effective?
Traditionally, the two ways in which you could improve your website’s visibility on search engines was through SEO and Pay per Click (PPC) advertising. Whilst they may remain at the forefront of most strategies, SEO and PPC are by no means the only way to get your name where it matters.
As the search engine results pages (SERPs) have diversified, including new facets and restructuring their layout, marketing methods have been quick to follow suit. With Twitter updates, local search results and news items infiltrating the SERPs, the realms of possibilities are more diverse and in greater supply than ever before.
Most Effective Search Engine Marketing Solutions
Let’s start with the forerunners though. There’s a good reason why SEO and PPC have endured for so long, whilst losing none of their popularity amongst Search Engine Marketers – they work.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The basic premise of Search Engine Optimisation is to improve a website’s ranking within the search engines. This is achieved by following a basic code of understanding – there is no finite blueprint – with work completed internally and externally of a site’s parameters.
Fundamentally SEO revolves around two basic elements, content (on site) and links (off-site and on). Within the confines of your website a search engine crawler (which indexes pages and ultimately ranks them too) can only understand text. It assigns more weight to some areas than others, with factors including headings, page copy and Meta. Unique copy throughout your site will avoid any possible duplication issues and will provide the crawler with sufficient information to rank it for your keywords – which should be used in moderation throughout.
Off site, you want to get as many links coming in as possible. Variety is the spice of life and search engine algorithms are in no mood to argue with that. They want links from relevant, authority websites where possible and will assign your site with added strength as a consequence. So the more you can attract, without paying, the better you should perform. Using optimised anchor text where possible, including within the internal linking structure, will help to give search engines even more understanding of what to rank a page for.
SEO works, but it is a competitive industry. There are millions of sites competing for keywords worldwide, so to really succeed you need to be at your best. Top rankings are by no means guaranteed, but with SEO you could be surrendering the one free, constant source of targeted traffic .
Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
If you’d rather pay for those targeted clicks, maybe PPC is more up your street. Pay per Click advertising is almost as simple as the name suggests; you create adverts, choose which page on your site to link them to and then set them live. Of course there is a lot of work that needs to be done to get them to the top and ensure that you’re targeting the best possible traffic.
In terms of Search Engine Marketing, PPC is a very important facet as the adverts appear in some of the most prominent positions on the SERPs – the top and right hand side of the page. Therefore getting your adverts to the top of these lists can be a simpler way of getting yourself noticed for the keywords you’re targeting. Through effective ad copy, catchy titles and focused keywords (and negative keywords) a PPC campaign can easily pay dividends for your Search Engine Marketing strategy.
Source: Search Engine Marketing Strategies: Which are Most Effective?
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