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What Is SEM and How to Use It
By jack123 | SEO | 1 Comments
SEM translates to Search Engine Marketing, and it refers to the activity of paying for advertisements to rank higher in Google Searches. Maybe you are more familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which refers to tweaking your website, and articles so they are more likely to be ranked higher by the Google algorithm.
SEO is great because it’s free but, it requires having some knowledge and time to invest in your site’s optimization. The issue is that it might take a longer time for SEO to come into effect and impact your organic searches, and that’s why people rely on SEM to get noticed.
Paying for advertisements it’s a great way to promote your brand because it allows you to rank at the top of the searching results instantly, which can generate you a lot of traffic.
SEM presents some great opportunities for growing your brand’s reputation but, you still have to take some factors like the following ones into consideration when implementing such a marketing strategy.
Keyword Research
Even if SEM basically means paying to rank higher on Google Searches, it still requires some effort from your end to work perfectly, and provide you with higher conversion rates. The best way to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your money is to pick the right keyword to represent your brand.
It’s often difficult to get your brand noticed even with SEM if you’re using a keyword that is too general and has too much competition. Usually, it’s best to pick a keyword with a high searching volume, and low competition.
Even if that keyword doesn’t have a volume as high as a general one, your conversion rates are going to be a lot higher, and due to the lower competition, your cost-per-click (CPC) a lot lower.
Platforms
When it comes to Search Engine Marketing, there are quite a few options at your disposal since basically, every search engine has its own advertising platform. The most popular, and best to use is Google AdWords, even if there are a few other ones like Bing Ads and Yahoo Search Ads.
Budget
All of the SEM advertising platforms work based on a bidding system, whoever bids the most money, ranks the highest in their searches. Even if it might be a game of who has more money to spend, the strategy you use will still have a great impact.
You have to figure out how much you can afford to pay for a single click. If a click, on average, only generates you $1 but, you have to pay $2 for that click, you’re coming out at a loss.
A way to have an advantage when it comes to bidding is to increase your quality score by optimizing your site. Google, for example, uses a combination between who pays the most, and who has the highest quality score to determinate who ranks first. This way, if your score is higher, you can reduce your CPC.
Conclusion
Search Engine Marketing is an important element of the game, and it can allow you to have a great competitive advantage in your industry. Ranking higher means that more people will access your site but, you still have to take into account the things mentioned above to have a successful SEM campaign.
The key is finding a great balance between everything mentioned above, and sticking to a strategy, once you find something that works.
Hey, great article! SEM is a very critical component of the internet marketing domain. In fact, paid searches can offer attractive ROI on their initial amount provided the campaign has been optimized properly.