Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is paid placement of your website above or next to the organic listings on the results pages of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Paid advertising on search engines is sometimes called Pay Per Click (PPC) search marketing, since you only pay when a potential customer clicks on your ad and lands on your site.

Two of the most popular search engine marketing services are Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Google AdWords is one of Google’s main sources of revenue, since they do not charge for inclusion in organic search results. Bing Ads is the second most important SEM / PPC service, and although it doesn’t generate as much traffic as Google, its value should not be discounted.

The higher the search term volume, the more expensive it will be per click. What’s more, there’s no guarantee that you somebody that clicks through to your site will become a paying customer. So why risk it? If you’re targeting new customers with search terms that you aren’t yet ranking for using traditional SEO methods, SEM can give you a jump-start into that segment of the market.