Search engines are tools which are created in order to search for information on the World Wide Web. A person using a search engine types in what they are looking for, this could be something like ?Computers for sale? and the search engine will then find all the websites and pages that are relevant to that search. A search engine performs this search by using ?crawlers? or ?spiders? which will crawl through the text on websites and pick out which ones contain the words in the search. Sites which have the exact word match ?Cars for sale? will rank highly in the results and ones which only have ?cars? for example in them will rank less highly.

This high ranking is of key importance to the owners of websites as they want to get as much traffic to their websites as possible, especially if they are selling something. This is where search engine marketing becomes crucial to a websites success. Many people will use to improve the search engine result pages, or SERPs, for their site.

What are the different methods of search engine marketing?

Search engine marketing can take many forms, and probably the most favoured method is , or search engine optimisation. This is a way in which the theme of the website is represented in the text of the site by using keywords. These keywords are the words that are thought to be the ones used by people performing searches. In order for a crawler to pick up on these words they must be used a number of times during the text. This is known as the keyword density of a body of text. The usual keyword density is 2-5%, although some sites will go as high as 7% - this technique however is seen as keyword stuffing and this can have the opposite effect on a websites rankings.

Another search engine marketing technique is using paid inclusions which is a fee that the owner of a website will pay to a search engine in order to be placed regularly on rankings for the chosen keywords. Some people do not agree with this form of search engine marketing as it is seen as paying for advertising space and some search engines do not allow it.

Are there any more forms of search engine marketing?

There are many different forms of search engine marketing and everyone will have been the target of email marketing at one time or another, if not every day. This form of search engine marketing can be very frustrating as sometimes you may have used a search engine to find out about a subject, and at one point inputted your email address to get more information. This can trigger a barrage of spam emails advertising some service or product to buy.

Pay per click is another popular form of search engine marketing where an advert is placed on a search engine in the hope that a user of that search engine will click through and go onto to advertisers website. These advertisements appears when a keyword is entered into a search engine that matches a keyword on the advert, or a page is clicked onto who's content is relevant. These adverts can be very frustrating and there is no way of preventing them from appearing.

Search engine marketing is like any other form of marketing, there to grab the reader's attention and get them to go into a new website. It is important to know the tricks of search engine marketing order to avoid going to websites that are just trying to sell something you don't want. However, when used properly search engine marketing is a fantastic way of getting traffic to a website.