Search engine marketing, or SEM as it is known colloquially, has a proven track record of success. It deals exclusively with increasing the visibility of websites in search engine results pages, or SERP's.



Search engine marketing methods are defined as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid placement and paid inclusion.

Some Internet professionals simplify SEM as the purchase of paid listings. This is different from SEO, which has a goal of increasing results from free search listings. SEO is the practice of increasing traffic to a website through keywords and characteristics of the site. A site's coding, presentation or structure can all be factors.

By far, SEM has a wider acceptance among major Internet businesses as well as the casual affiliate/network/Internet marketer. In 2006, advertisers in North America alone spent an estimated 9.4 billion dollars on search engine marketing. Since 1992, this market has seen a whopping increase in sales volume of 750% with 62% of that coming within the last year.

These figures are global and not tied to any single national economy.

You have probably heard of the major SEM vendors. Names like Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter are synonymous with SEM and related Internet services.

As a matter of fact, SEM has been outgrowing advertising in traditional ways since 2006. It is evident from these statistics that SEM is the preferred method of getting your website seen.

That said, there is a lot to learn about SEM and it can be overwhelming, even for a seasoned professional. The integral things you need to grasp about search engine marketing are:

? Keywords and search terms

? Search Engine Optimization

? Search engine submission

? Link popularity

? Paid inclusion

Yes, there is a lot to digest in there. There are companies on the net that can help you through the process of getting your site ranked in the search engines. These companies are specialists in the areas mentioned above and can get your website ranked and placed near the top of the SERP's.

They will work with you on the keywords and terms?, showing you what is needed as well as what to avoid.

When it comes to SEO, you will want the assistance of a professional. SEO coaches can help you tailor your site and make it findable on any search engine. These pros will also assist you in getting your site submitted, listed and ranked faster and easier than you would on your own.

Link popularity refers to how often your link(s) is/are clicked and followed through. This is a major factor in determining your placement in the search results.

If you don't want to wait for search engines to index your site on their own, you can pay them to index it faster. This is called ?paid inclusion? as mentioned above.