Online Marketing Tips: Search Engine Marketing for Beginners

By Rodney Brooks, on April 20th, 2009

Have you ever noticed when you run a search a Google that some of the most prominent results are actually ‘sponsored links’? If you’ve never noticed this then you’re not alone – research shows that relatively few internet users distinguish between paid and organic search results.

On this business television show, dozens of internet marketing experts give web strategy advice on using search engine marketing (SEM), also known as paid search or pay per click (PPC), to boost your website traffic.

So far in yourBusinessChannel’s search engine optimization (SEO) series, the business development advice has focused on boosting your website’s rankings in the non-paid or ‘organic’ search results.

However, all major search engines offer services where organisations can pay to appear alongside the top organic search results. These paid positions are visually differentiated from the organic results.

On this business television show, digital marketing experts share internet marketing tips on running a successful SEM campaign, and aligning SEM with your broader web strategy.

The show sets out all the basic background information you need to know in order to use an SEM internet strategy to drive business development and growth.

First, you need to select your specific search terms, just as you do in an SEO campaign. The search engines offer a finite number of placements for any given search term.

When you bid successfully on a search term, your short text ad will appear alongside the organic search results for that term, and only that term.

One of the great advantages of paid search is that it can be very cost effective compared to other paid digital marketing techniques, because you only pay to appear alongside searches which are relevant to your brand.

In their online marketing tips, the experts explain how to find a balance between very popular search terms which are frequently searched but very expensive to bid on, and narrower terms which are less commonly searched but which are more highly targeted.