Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Service

Search Engine Marketing or SEM encompasses the steps taken to increase relevant traffic to your website, through higher rankings on search engines. Traditional SEM is made up of two processes: “organic” search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) (or cost-per-click (CPC)). However, the field of SEM is a changing and expanding field thanks to constant new developments, such as:
Google Adwords placement targeting- Its interface allows for placement advertising, which means PPC marketing has the ability to advertise across the entire Internet, and is not just limited to search engines.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)- Sometimes considered to be a part of SEM, social media sites like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Delicious have search fields and also pass authority to sites through links. Making sure your content and links are placed (where necessary) on these social media sites can increase your influence in user search engine queries. SMM is a rapidly growing area of Internet marketing but to discuss it further is beyond the scope of this Guide.

Integrated Vertical Search-Probably the most well-known Integrated Vertical Search is  Google’s “Universal Search” –  although all of the major search engines have now adopted similar search formats. This is the practice of incorporating different types of results in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), such as news releases, images, videos, etc., depending on the query.  This was a game changer for SEO when it was first introduced – it became necessary to create and optimize many different types of content because they all show up on SERPs. The term for this comprehensive approach is referred to as Digital Asset Optimization (DAO).

This is both a challenge and a great opportunity. The challenge is because the organic spots aren’t what they used to be – there used to be ten organic spots on the first page to compete for – and only five above the fold, (which refers to the vertical limitations of a user’s screen and the amount of content one can view without scrolling). Now there might be local search results, news releases, images and video included in the results – many of those above the fold. What’s the new number one spot? Is it the first local result, news release, or organic listing?
Search Engine Marketing vs SEO 
Until relatively recently, search engine optimization used to fall under the umbrella term “search engine marketing,” but both have become so complex that SEM and SEO now exist as two separate (but closely related) entities. Search engine optimization is focused on improving your site in order to increase your organic search engine rankings. SEO primarily revolves around placing keywords strategically throughout the site, link building, establishing site authority and using meta data that’s crawl able by Google.

With search engine marketing, on the other hand, you pay to play on the SERPs. Essentially, you pay to show your ads to users who are actively searching for the keywords you’re targeting. You don’t need a high site authority in order to be able to show up on the first page of Google when you’re willing to pay for it.