Introduction to SEM
What is SEM?
There are many terms used when describing Internet marketing, some you many of heard of like SEO and PPC.
SEM encompasses many methods of driving traffic to your website using the search engines. The search engines list websites using many different sources and each one requires a different strategy. As Google accounts for around 70% of all searches made on search engines we will be using them in our examples but other search engines like Yahoo and Bing use similar methods.
Google’s search results are divided into 3 main sections. Pay per Click (PPC) or sponsored results, which appear at the top of the page and in the right hand margin, natural listings which appear in the main body of the page and Local listings which appear when a place name is used and are shown next to a map. (As from October 2010 Google may integrate the local listings with the natural listings See my post new format for Google local listings).
Other results may also be shown in the natural listings such as images, videos, news, blogs, updates, books and forums. So, as you can see there are many ways your website can appear in Google’s search results.
You must use different strategies to gain good rankings in all of these different areas, SEO for the natural listings, PPC for the sponsored listing and Local SEO for the local listings but before you start any of this you need to do some keyword research.
