subject: 3 Components Of Search Engine Marketing [print this page] According to Neilson's social media statistics, approximately 84% of worldwide internet users prefer to shop online. Neilson's online panel estimated that there were 0.2 million internet users in the US who stay active across more than 0.3 million websites. With so many people using the internet to search for products and services, it has become crucial for online businesses to deploy search engine marketing (SEM) techniques for optimizing their websites.
Components of Search Engine Marketing
Google, Yahoo and MSN are some of the popular search engines and form the platforms for promoting your business. If you wish to opt for search engine marketing for your business expansion, it is important to understand its main components.
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is a technique that involves the use of identified keywords to attract traffic to your website. These keywords can be put in the title, meta-description and across the content of your web page so as to improve its ranking on search engine result pages (SERP). Inbound and outbound links are also an effective tool to rank higher in SERPs.
* Pay per Click (PPC): Search engines place your business advertisement on various web pages. When somebody searching with these selected keywords looks at your advertisement, he will click on it and eventually be taken to your web page. This is a very efficient and cost effective SEM technique as you pay only when someone clicks on your advertisement.
* Reputation management: You can use social networking sites, such as facebook and twitter, to create your brand online. Networking on these platforms can connect you to your target audience. This gives you the opportunity to build brand loyalty, get to know what your customers are thinking and desiring, get critical feedback from your customers on your products and present yourself as a thought leader in the industry. Search engine reputation management (SERM) or online reputation management (ORM) is a critical component of search engine marketing. In case there are negative reviews about your company or product, this technique can also help to lower the ranking of those comments on the SERPs.
