What is Search Engine Marketing?

f you are a website owner, you already understand the importance of keywords and advertising in search engines. In order to make sales, websites must use the latest advertising technology geared toward the internet. These methods include search engine optimization and search engine advertising (pay per click) and are necessary for success in any online venture. Together they are known as search engine marketing.

Search engine optimization consists of a variety of techniques to increase the rankings of a website in search engines. Search engines base rankings on a number of factors that determine relevance of a site and where they will go in their search results. The search engines use spider programs which search out websites and, using algorithms designed by the search engines, gather all sorts of information from the website. Some considerations in the algorithms consist of things like age of site, how often the site is updated, content, links, and many other things. Search engine giant Google uses PageRank to measure sites, with 10 being the highest ranking which is given to very few sites. If your site has a 4 or 5, that’s pretty good.

Search Engine advertising or Pay per Click advertising is another tool used in search engine marketing. By advertising directly with the search engines, a site will be given higher ranking in search results. Search engine marketing also gives exposure to a site based on content, so the site appears in search engines when users are looking for a particular product or keyword. This targeted searching and advertising is dominating consumer spending. In 2003, $2.5 billion in sales came from search results, and that number is expected to grow 25 percent this year to $3.2 billion.

Employing these methods of Search engine marketing will increase your sites visibility in the search results. Both parties win using search engines. For advertisers using the best techniques of SEO, they will gain visitors who are looking for their specific products or services. When their business is put into the search engine, visitors are more likely to visit the site specifically for their services. Research also shows that when visitors come to a site through a search engine, they are typically more motivated to buy.

There are much more to these techniques than listed above. Search engine optimization itself is very detailed and complicated. To truly optimize your site, it is important to hire editors who specialize in SEO. And advertising too requires knowledge of the industry. It is very important to follow the search engines guidelines to the letter to avoid being penalized. A company that provides exclusive search marketing services will do everything from keyword selection to monthly maintenance.

Adwords, Adsense, SEO – Common Denominator, Keywords

If you have just put up a website, you probably all ready have heard words like: keywords, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, SEO. Adwords, Adsense, SEO have one thing in common – Keywords. How important are keywords? Very Important.

Google Adwords

Adwords, be it through Google, Miva, or any pay-per-click search engines, you need keywords. With Adwords, you create a three-line ad – 25 word title, with two 35 word lines of ad copy – then you create your keywords. To get the hits, you have to brainstorm for different keywords, that are different but relevant to your target audience. Sound easy? It’s not. It takes time, patience, constant tweaking, and hoping that the product you are selling is not already saturated -- to much competition, makes it a little more difficult for the novice to make a profit.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is an advertising program created by Google, and which is beginning to be explored by other search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN – that allows you to put targeted ads on your website. If someone clicks on the ad, you earn a small amount of money. These ads are keyword driven and are relevant to your webpage or website.

Sounds simple? Well, not really. There is more too it than just putting an ad on your website and expecting someone to click on it. What’s involved? Let’s see – color, position, style, to name just a few.

SEO

Search engine optimization – this for me has been a time-consuming process – since I am still learning. SEO is keyword driven – the search engines pull the keywords from your web copy – not, to my surprise,
from the meta keywords tag. Granted, I still use the meta keywords tag, but maybe in the near future, I will slowly eliminate the tag from my webpages…

The search engines do, however, pull information from Meta Description, Meta Title, and the content of your webpages. Thus, content does reign supreme.

Since content reigns supreme, each page should contain useful content and most importantly, your most relevant keywords that you want to emphasize. Secondly, it is best to try and base your keywords around a central theme. I have found that when the keywords diverts away from the main theme – that sends a red flag to search engines. So, if you want to look at your keywords and the density of the keywords on your webpage or webpages – You can get a quick rundown at: http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html . It’s a free
tool, and very helpful.


To conclude, keywords is one of the main ingredients that leads people to your website, product, service and/or ad. …AND, keywords based around your quality content will help with your positioning on your website.

Marketing Your Web Site

For most good online marketers it took at least a year to get up and running to get successful. They had to budget their time and money well. Don’t assume that putting a huge sum of cash into your business will bring you instant rewards. It is important to spend your time and money on several different approaches to see which ones generate the best hits. You need to remember to be persistent and spend your time and money wisely. When you fail to plan you plan to fail at your business. You want to find targeted visitors that are interested in what you have if you want to make sales.

1. Build Your List

Most online marketers send their offers to many targeted sources and prospects that they have generated. They do this regularly and have great success. It will allow you to build a lasting and trustful relationship with the list members. As the trust grows so will your money. There have been plenty of marketers who have made thousands just from sending an e-mail to their lists.

2. Pay Per Click search engines.

This type of search engine is the way to build high volume traffic immediately. Many hosts will be more than happy to set you up with this and you will be able to see how many people have been to your site. You will also end up paying less per month. You will also want to get Wordtracker to get as many targeted keywords as possible. The more targeted keywords you get the more traffic to your sites.

3. Article Submissions

You want to provide free and interesting articles related to what you are trying to sell to your audience. This will inform them on the benefits of what you are promoting and give it worth. Make sure your articles are truthful and not plagiarized.

4. Regular Search Engines

You will want to get started immediately to be able to build an online web presence. This will help to promote your site and gain you ranking which will move you to the top of the list. The higher on the list of ranking you are the more hits you will generate. You can link your self to a reciprocal linking campaign. This will give you the highest success in search engine rankings than anything else.

5. Forum Posting

A great way to target your market is to join a forum that is geared towards your audience. You can become friends and be helpful with all the people. This will let you gain trust. You want to be friends with your customers when marketing on the net. Visit and join high traffic forums daily and share your experiences with them and offer any advice as much as you can.
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Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization – A Perfect Marriage

Pay per click or search engine optimization, which one should you use? Many view PPC marketing as a colossal waste of money while others disdain search engine optimization. In reality, the two marketing strategies form a perfect marriage.

Pay-Per-Click - PPC

PPC marketing is a love it or hate platform. For the “love it” crowd, PPC marketing is a way to get instant exposure and feedback on site designs. In a matter of minutes, you can start receiving traffic and adjusting your site to convert the traffic at the best rate possible. For those in the “hate it” crowd, bids are to high and one never knows how may of the clicks are fake and worthless.

Search Engine Optimization – SEO

As with PPC, seo marketing has its proponents and detractors. Those who love it look at the free traffic and glorious profitability of a site that converts the traffic at a decent rate. Detractors view seo as an unnecessary waste of time since it can take a year or more to get high rankings, particularly on Google. Detractors also argue that high listings are subject to changes in the search engine ranking process, which means you can lose your rankings.

So, who is right? In truth, both sides make accurate arguments. PPC is expensive and click fraud is a monstrous problem. Seo produces free traffic, but it takes along time to get to the top and rankings are subject to the whims of search engine ranking changes. The truth, of course, is both marketing platforms should be used whenever possible.

Marketing Marriage

Every site is unique, but most should combine PPC and seo marketing as part of an overall internet marketing strategy. When starting out, the PPC campaign is critical for getting immediate traffic and tweaking the site to maximize conversions. At the same time, a seo campaign should be undertaken. As the site rises in search results, the PPC campaign should be fazed out for the relevant high listings.

PPC and seo marketing are not mutually exclusive. When married together as part of an overall marketing strategy, both platforms will deliver the goods.