SEM for Dummies

If you’re only just becoming familiar with the term SEM and still coming to grips with what it actually means, then you’re not alone. Basically, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the use of Web search engines to generate business. SEM includes the use of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and PPC (Pay Per Click).

So… What the hell are they? SEO is the use of keywords and popular links to generate ‘organic’ traffic on your businesses website. SEO is defined by Chaffey et al (2012) as “a structured approach used to increase the position of a company or its products in search engine natural or organic results listings for selected keywords or phrases”.

Basically, search engines use ‘bots’ to scan through the entire index of the internet to find the most relevant and popular sites to present to users when they use Web search engines. By utilising keywords and valuable links and pages on a site, a business can optimise their search engine results.

PPC, or Pay Per Click advertising is another common form of digital marketing. The most common form of PPC advertising is Google AdWords, but businesses can also utilise paid advertising on social media and other search engines, as well as banner on third-party websites, usually using keywords, similar to SEO. Businesses that use PPC advertising only pay when their link or ad is clicked on by a user, making it easy to monitor the success of the ad in generating traffic.

But is paying for online advertising worth it? While PPC averts may not have the longevity that a great SEO campaign does, it can provide instant and easy results within a short space of time through immediate exposure. PPC makes it easy for a business to target their specific audience, without wasting funds, as the charges only occur if the ad/link is actually clicked.

According SEO Melbourne (2012), to create a solid PPC campaign, a business needs to ensure precise use of keywords, which would lead to greater chance of the keywords being picked up by major search engines such as Google, and boosting the ads to the tops of the search pages.

Failure to select accurate and useful keywords, even though the ad may be placed at the top of the list in a list of search results, could still end up being the wrong pages. Having the top search result on the wrong types of search results can render the ad unusable, meaning the amount of website traffic won’t increase.

So, while using PPC means you only pay for performance and have greater control over spending, without the right keywords, may be less valuable than developing a great SEO campaign and generating organic traffic.

It would appear that PPC will only be successful if the website has all the elements of a good SEO campaign and digital marketing strategy. So, is it worth it to introduce a PPC campaign if SEO can do almost as good a job over a longer period of time?

References:

SEO Melbourne (2012). Why Set Up Pay Per Click Advertising? Why PPC?. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=7SjXJoPern4 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2018].

Butters, K. (2013). Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Marketing. [Blog] Unamo. Available at: https://unamo.com/blog/sem/beginners-guide-search-engine-marketing [Accessed 16 Sep. 2018].

Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012). Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, 5th ed. Essex: Pearson Education. [Accessed 16 Sep. 2018].