Search Engine Marketing Strategies
Contents
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to the combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and search advertising.
Despite what you may have heard, there really are no secrets to search engine marketing. Getting a high search engine ranking does not take clever tricks or mysterious tactics. It does however take knowledge of how search engines rank websites and knowing the tools that are available for both organic rankings and paid rankings.
Getting a top organic search engine ranking also takes good website content. Unlike humans, search engines are not impressed with graphic intense sites. Generally, search engines like themed sites with simple layouts, and they like popular sites.
Important search engine ranking criteria include:
- the quality and quantity of incoming links (sites that link to your page),
- content,
- keywords.
Keywords are the everyday words people enter in search engines to find things. Search engines find the theme to the page, figure out how sites refer to the page, and determine the page’s ranking for each keyword. Improving these 3 main factors is the key to successful search engine optimization (SEO).
For more detailed SEO tips see our other resources SEO Basics and Advanced SEO.
For the advertising side, we have prepared guides including an intro to search ads to get you started on the right foot.
If you are looking for a professional to create and/or implement your SEM strategy, consider speaking to a professional consultant.