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SEO & Web Article - SEM

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a branch of Internet marketing.

According to Wikipedia, SEM "seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs)." (Italics by us). Some other commonly used definitions go as far as to equate SEM with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

We at SEO Trump like to define search engine marketing as a "tool that marketers and advertisers use to promote their websites by methods other than purely conventional organic search engine optimization."

This definition allows for SEM to be understood in several ways:

a) as an alternative to SEO (SEM uses different avenues to achieving web visibility),

b) as a (chrono)logical consequence of SEO (SEM as an important, and occasionally indispensable, follow-up to organic search engine optimization),

c) as an umbrella concept (similar to the understanding of SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), whereby SEM would then be a collection of marketing methods which includes SEO.

It appears that our definition unifies the above three concepts, while at the same time avoids the pitfall of mistaking SEO for SEM.

Depending whether you agree or disagree with Wikipedia's above definition ("SEM = strategy to increase web visibility"), it is either interesting or problematic to try to place certain other marketing tools or strategies within the realm of SEM. Where, for example, would e-mail marketing belong ? And how about viral marketing ?

Another way of looking at Search Engine Marketing would be in line with the second definition above. Thereby, where SEO would be the opening shot in a web campaign and provide highly important initial visibility, SEM could be viewed as the continuation of the campaign toward closing, namely actual conversion of that visibility into profits.

SEM methods include: Pay per Click (PPC), Paid Inclusion, and (according to those who define it as an umbrella concept) also Search Engine Optimization. Some other tactics used by SE Marketers are blogs, article & social site marketing, e-mail marketing, etc.

As opposed to organic SEO which is built on structured on-page strategies including title tags, metatags, page content, etc., SEM is free-roaming, flexible and knows no creative boundaries. At the same time it can be quite challenging, precisely because of its many facets and creative possibilities. It is not necessarily easy to juggle opt-in e-mail marketing, landing pages, blogs, PPC, article marketing, and many other tactics all at the same time.

For more information about our SEO and Web consulting services, or an absolutely free web site analysis and SEO consultation, we encourage you to contact us. Our SEO Montreal consultants will be pleased to help.

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