If the online marketing activities were combined and given a single name, then the right name to give them would be ‘Search Engine Marketing’, as most of the online marketing activities are directly or indirectly related to search engines. The search engines are the nucleus of online marketing and all the activities revolve around them.
When it comes to search engine marketing (SEM) there are three major areas of it, and many companies provide services related to these areas of SEM. These areas include, search engine optimization, Pay per click management and social media marketing. The lines below give a detail of these areas of SEM.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
As the name indicates, this activity is concerned with optimization of a website in the search engine results. The service provider works on applying different techniques that make the website likeable in the eyes of search engines and make the website rank high in response to the particular search query. Some of the methods adopted by SEO service providers to increase the ranking of a website are:
- By conducting an apt keyword research and finding the most relevant keywords.
- Adjusting the selected keywords in the content and Meta of the website
- Designing a search engine friendly website
- Building content around the selected keywords and propagating it for the purpose of back links.
- Increasing the number of back links and abiding by all the instructions of search engines to make the website rank high in results.
2. PPC Marketing:
Compared to the organic way of attracting visitors towards a website, the other way in which visitors can be attracted is PPC marketing. PPC is considered a very affective and viable part of SEM campaign. In PPC a business pays search engines to let them have it run its ads in the search results of a particular query. Although apparently simple but the process of PPC marketing is very complicated and requires a professional monitoring the activities of the campaign. A PPC marketing services provider would manage the campaign in the following manner:
- Selecting the right keywords to bid against so that the ad appears at the best possible position for the particular keyword
- Setting the right budget for different ads so that maximum ads could be displayed in the total budget of the campaign
- Writing an attractive ad copy that is persuasive and provokes the user to click on the ad
- Applying analytics to monitor the conversions and flow of traffic
3. Social Media Marketing:
It is the recent development in SEM. Although, social media marketing is not related with SEM directly, however its relation with search engines is very covert and strong. The activities performed on social media platforms have a strong influence on the above-mentioned to activities. The social media marketing services offered by a company may include:
- Managing social media profiles
- Communicating with the customers and clients on social media platforms
- Developing brand promoting content for profiles
Conclusion:
In short, SEO, PPC and Social media are the major active elements of search engine marketing. A business which wants total search engine dominance should work on all three of these areas.