Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing is a technique used to get highly targeted traffic to a specific web page in a short amount of time. This is usually done using Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

The ROI on SEM is often lower than that of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) due to the need to pay for keyword advertising on top of the cost of managing the campaign. The upside is that the increase in traffic generated by SEM will be much quicker than by using SEO and can be highly targeted - creating valuable leads with a high chance of conversion.

Developing a website without a search engine marketing strategy in mind is the equivalent of opening a store on some back country road...

E-consultancy estimates that paid search accounts for around 89% of the overall search market in the UK, and that it grew at a faster rate than SEO (67% compared to 50%) in 2006. However, figures indicate that SEO spending is increasing more quickly than paid search spending in 2007, albeit from a much smaller base.

Even small local businesses are beginning to realise that SEM can be more useful than a yellow pages advertisment - their customers are searching the internet for local services as well as global ones.