What is SEM?

Search engine marketing, or SEM for short, is the area of activities that relate to attracting search engines users to your site. In theory, this can be either paid efforts (PPC) or organic efforts (SEO). However, in speech and most writing SEM now commonly refers specifically to pay for placement efforts.

The top three search engines, including Google, MSN, and Yahoo offer a PPC program with Google being the biggest in terms of ad dollars changing hands. All three engines use a bidding model to determine which ads show for which keywords and in which position. There are other variables that can affect the position of the ad include a measure of relevancy along with the click-through rate. And of course the rules are constantly changing.

Paid programs have some similar characteristics to SEO namely the targeting of keywords based on their search volume and chance to convert a visitor in to a consumer. The biggest difference is that search engine advertising produces immediate results. All you have to do is build an ad, place your bids, and fund your account to see clicks within hours or minutes. SEO on the other can take months before an impact becomes measurable.

The ideal, in my opinion, is to engage in both paid and natural search programs. In this way you can target users regardless of where they are in the purchasing cycle.