When you are using the Internet to find out about a subject or even to buy something you will always begin by using a search engine. This is a tool that will scour the Internet for you looking for websites and pages that contain the information you are looking for. These sites are filtered by relevance and depend on the use of keywords within the text on the site to rank the sites. A website that is ranked on the first page, or even at number one will be the ones that contain the most relevant, and unique text, images and even audio.
What is search engine marketing?
Search engine marketing is the term for the methods used by website owners to ensure that they are maintaining a high ranking in search engine searches. It is not good enough to just have a great website on a topic without some clever search engine marketing. One method of Search Engine Marketing is using search engine optimisation, or SEO. This is a way of writing the content of a website so that it is seen as relevant to the crawlers that search engines use. These crawlers scan, or crawl through all the websites on the internet, very quickly, listing all the sites that contain the keywords that were typed into the search engine. The more relevant to the search a website is, then the higher it will rank on the SERPS, or search engine results pages. Such high ranking sites are usually clicked into as the searcher believes they will be the best website for them. After all a person will not go trawling through the millions of sites a search engine may present them with.
Are there other kinds of search engine marketing?
There are lots of different types of search engine marketing, and another very popular form is Pay Per Click advertising. This is a clever form of advertising, where the advertiser only pays a fee to the search engine owner if a person clicks into their site. The adverts appear when a keyword or phrases that the advertiser has bought is entered into a search engine. Such advertisements usually appear on the left hand side of the screen when you are using a search engine. However, there is a downside to this kind of search engine marketing and that is that many people simply ignore these adverts as they are so commonplace.
Paid inclusions are another form of search engine marketing which work by the website owner paying a fee to the search engine owner to be included in their index. This method is good for weeding out any sites that are not genuinely about a product or service as these type of websites will not usually want to pay money out. It is also useful as it can ensure a revenue for the owners of the search engine, so it can work out for the benefit of all concerned. Some people are against paid inclusions as it can be argued that it is a paid form of advertising that is not fair on the owners of smaller websites who cannot afford the fees for a paid inclusion.
Why use search engine marketing?
Owners of websites that sell products rely on people clicking into them in order to make money, due to this search engine marketing is very important to them. Without it the website might not receive the amount of desired traffic and this will lead to the site having to close down. Due to this search engine marketing is a very important aspect of doing business on the Internet, and without it many websites would not be achieving the kind of ranking that they do.
A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, December 13-16, 2004, Chicago, IL. There is a wonderful folk tale about a wise man who observed a wood cutter spending lengthy hours chopping down trees. The wise man said "Why don't you sharpen your axe? The wood cutter replied, "How can I when I am so busy?" Told by Netramind's Ani Kortikar, the story sounds a lot like working in SEM these days. Demand for services is up and growing; hours in the day are not. How do you expand to meet demand for your search marketing services without increasing payroll and overhead? Break tasks into vital components and outsource the ones you don't want to do to other specialists, according to panelists discussing "Virtual SEM" at December's Search Engine Strategies in Chicago. Providing insights from their own experience were longtime SEM consultants Scottie Claiborne, Jill Whalen and Stacy Williams, joined by Kortikar, whose company provides contracted SEO services by teams in California and India. "It's a problem when you feel like you want to clone yourself," observed veteran SEM Jill Whalen. "When you are too busy, you never get the chance to become a full expert. You miss nuances and end up with poor client relations." Jill's solution: know who you need to hire. Her company, the widely known HighRankings.com, is all virtual; she has no employees, most of her clients are not local, and many she has never met face to face. "We do most things by email," she said. "Be a specialist," advised Scottie Claiborne. "Soar with your strengths." She founded Right Click Web Consulting, which she recently merged into the Karcher Group. "Some part of SEM intrigues you, but more than likely not all of it," she said. There is a huge demand for specialists right now. Be one and increase your satisfaction with your career. The specialists Stacy Williams seeks for her firm, Prominent Placement, need two skills: search engine marketing and an ability to handle account management. "It's easier to find seasoned account managers and teach them search engine marketing," said Williams. Her secret? "SAHMs," she announced. "Stay at home moms are better educated and more experienced than many job seekers, and are glad to have challenging work to do part time from home. Stay at home moms make grateful, loyal workers you never have to worry about." Weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing overseas? "Build a complete team, rather than one-off project teams," counsels Kortikar. He stressed the importance of setting the right objectives in an outsourcing relationship. "Focus on core competencies and use outsourcing to explore new profitable customer segments," he said, rather than assuming sending work overseas will immediately reduce costs and provide 24/7 operations
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