The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, 3rd Edition

What’s in It for You?

As discussed in Chapter 18, Spotlight on Search (Search Engine Optimization), when you take the time and follow the simple guidelines to making your web page appealing to the search engine spiders, you will rank the highest on the organic or nonpaid listings. When you add a well-thought-out SEM keyword advertising campaign, you will own the sponsored listings. When SEO and SEM are combined on one web page, the rankings are unstoppable.

SEM Stands for Search Engine Marketing

When someone is looking for the type of product or service you provide, he will use his favorite search engine—be it Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Ask, or one of the countless others available today. He will type in one to several words that he thinks best describe what you do or offer, and will then hit Enter.

SEM in part means marketing your web page(s) through a paid CPC (cost-per-click) or PPC (pay-per-click) marketing plan. You still have to consider your blog (see Chapter 6, The Ubiquitous Blog). If you are running an SEM campaign and are paying for PPC, the relevance of your online advertisements to the search query a user performed, how much you are paying per click, and what you are spending each month for that campaign, will determine where you show up on the sponsored links section of the search page. This is referred to as a paid listing. When you use Google, Bing, or other search engines to perform a search, you will usually see the organic listings in the left column, and the paid ...