What is SEM?
Most, if not all, marketers and online business owners have at least heard of search engine marketing, or SEM, but many do not understand it. In fact, it is often confused for SEO and the two are used interchangeably. Over time, search engine marketing was shortened to search marketing (SM), and it is now a blanket term for both SEO and SEM. However, it is a different practice than SEO.
While SEO is geared toward gaining organic traffic, SEM is about paying for traffic to reach your site through ads from search engines. Though SEO and SEM may seem similar and get confused with one another, they require different steps and have different risks and benefits.
SEO VS SEM: Is There Really a Difference?
Though they end with similar results, they are very different. They vary both in how they are used and how they reach those results. First, let’s break down search engine optimization (SEO). This is the process through which you improve your website and online marketing to rank high in the search engine results. Optimization includes tasks such as using popular keywords, choosing the right title, adding images, and more. SEO results in organic traffic- you work for website visits.
Search engine marketing (SEM), on the other hand, are visits you pay for.
You bid for ad space on a search engine, usually Google or Bing, and pay that bid amount each time someone visits your site through that ad. This is known as pay per click, or PPC, and these ads are both text and visual ads. Even though you are paying for ad space, Google does not just automatically send you to the top of the results. Where you rank in the paid space depends on your max bid and quality score. Therefore, if you are going to pay for the ad space, be sure that these two factors are the best you can manage to maximize your results.
Benefits of SEM
You likely know how SEO helps you. The better your SEO, the higher you rank in the natural search engine results. The higher you rank, the more visits you get. That, of course, leads to more sales, but what about SEM? How can that benefit you and your business? If showing up high in the natural search results leads to more visits and sales, ranking higher in the paid search results will, in theory, lead to more visits and sales. In fact, according to statistics, 50% of PPC visitors will purchase long before an organic visitor will.
There are a couple of additional benefits as well. The first is that when people research items online, they are very receptive to what they see. At that point, they are much more open to buying a product than they are when ads pop up on Facebook or some other platform.
Another benefit is that SEM can actually improve your SEO. The number of website visits you have affects your search engine results. As your SEM will send more visitors to your website, your SEO rankings will improve. Though being at the top with paid ads is a great opportunity, so is ranking high in the organic searches. Both can bring you more sales.
Risks of SEM
While probably the biggest risk with SEO involves wasting time if it does not work, SEM is more involved. Any time you spend money on marketing is a risk. If your strategy does not work, you will have spent money that you cannot get back. As previously stated, even with PPC ads Google ranks you according to key factors: max bid and quality score. If you rank low among the paid ads, visitors probably will not click your ad. As many as 41% of clicks are on the top three ads, so if you are not in the highest of the ads, you may never be seen.
There is also the chance that visitors come to your site but do not buy anything or engage with you in another way. This results in you paying for a visit that does not produce anything. Of course, you can expect this to happen some- not every click will become something more. However, if you are paying more for those PPC ads than you are making from them, PPC ads may not be the best idea for you. Ideally, you want to at least double your investment, so if you are not, you may need to rethink your strategy. What good does it do to pay for something that does not help you?
Improve Your SEM Success
If you are ready to try your hand at SEM, there are some steps you can take to increase your chances of success. The first is to optimize your website, ad, and landing pages as much as possible. The goal with this is two-fold: first, this optimization will make you look better in the eyes of the Google algorithms, which gives you a better chance of ranking high in the quality score department. Second, with everything optimized and interesting, you should have a lower bounce rate when visitors do come to your website. Although every visit will not result in a purchase, optimization should increase the likelihood of capturing email addresses and gaining potential clients.
Another tip for success is to bid for ad space on other search engines, such as Bing. Everyone is pushing for Google’s ad space, which means less competition elsewhere. The less competition you have, the better your chances of ranking high in the paid results. It may seem counterproductive to advertise on a less popular search engine, but consider what you could gain from it.
Sure, Google is the more popular search engine. The question is that if you are the 20th ad, does it really matter how many people visit Google? Probably not since most of them will never scroll down that far. It is better to be on a less popular search engine but still show up in millions of searches each day. The alternative is being on a more popular search engine with less, if any, views
This last tip is about putting every SEM tool you can find to work for you. Two of these tools involve your keywords. First and foremost, keyword research is as important in SEM as it is in SEO. The practice of keyword research is an important one. However, you can take it a step further by enlisting the help of long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords can help separate you from the competition. They may be called keywords, but they are much more along the lines of key phrases thanks to the length. Instead of being one or two words, they are usually three or more words that are much more specific. For instance, the regular keyword for this article could just be “SEM”.
However, if you type “SEM” into your browser, the results will show topics that are irrelevant to search engine marketing because it is such a broad term. The title “Search Engine Marketing” is more specific so it will show up in relevant searches. However, we could lengthen the title even further to “How Search Engine Marketing Can Increase Sales”. That is much more specific and will improve your rankings for this specific phrase.
Conclusion
Though search engine marketing is not a requirement for success, using SEM in combination with SEO can surely help. Creating your search engine strategy and search engine optimization strategy together can improve your chances of success with both. If you decide to put SEM to work for you, put the time and effort forward to do it well. Research optimal titles and long-tail keywords for the topic of your ad. Also, optimize your landing pages, websites, and ads for the best results