subject: What search engine marketing (SEM) means for Web Traffic [print this page] What search engine marketing (SEM) means for Web Traffic
Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to all the processes employed in order to increase a pages visibility on search engines. Given the hundreds of millions of websites comprising billions of individual web pages, businesses must find a way of ensuring an effective web presence that sets them apart from the competition. A good SEM strategy draws in new web traffic and grows business revenue from both online and offline sales. There are three main approaches to SEM.
Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) SEM and Organic SEO are often confused and some choose to use the two terms interchangeably. But over time, internet marketing professionals have come to acknowledge that SEM is a super set of SEO. Organic SEO is the use of search marketing techniques that do not require the website owner to pay search engine companies.
The term organic implies that the website is allowed to naturally' move up the search result rankings. Organic SEO mainly revolves around keyword optimization which is the targeting of specific keywords on the website. When compared to the other two methods of SEM, organic SEO is more cost effective.
Pay per Click Advertising (PPC) Unlike organic SEO, PPC requires that the website owner pay the search engine. PPC involves a competitive bidding process where the higher one bids for a particular keyword, the higher the priority their website will be given on search results. In order to prevent confusion, PPC ads will be highlighted separate from the organic search results. PPC is preferred by businesses that want to attract high web traffic fast since it provides visibility faster than organic SEO.
The down side with PPC though, is that it can get expensive if web traffic is too high. The website owner is required to pay the search engine every time someone clicks through the PPC link. To prevent manipulation, search engines also balance the bid amount with some aspects of organic SEO such as the relevance of the website's content.
Pay For Inclusion (PFI) PFI is also known as Paid Inclusion (PI). Here the website owner will pay the search engine to have their website included in the search index for one or more subjects. This is different from PPC since the cost is not a factor of the number of clicks to the page but is rather a static cost. Subjects may be anything from entertainment and automobiles to travel and education. PFI has however been on the decline over the years with the largest search engine, Google, having free website submission.
A business is not under obligation to use just one of these three SEM approaches to increase web traffic it can use a combination of two or three all depending on budget and business objectives.
