What Are the Pieces of a Successful Search Engine Marketing Campaign?

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the art of combining search engine optimization (SEO), or on site changes, with organic and paid link building techniques to increase a web site's profile and improve its standing in search engines. In the modern world of cutthroat online competition, it is essential for any company's success, whether the company is an international megaconglomerate, a small town business, or a single freelancer working from home. But what exactly is involved in search engine marketing?

First, the web page itself needs to be optimized to be as appealing as possible to search engines. The page content, the titles, and even the web site's structure should be streamlined and reworked to target the most advantageous keywords and to improve the site navigation.

When the SEO is complete, SEM specialists turn their attention to building new links to the site. Free and organic links are best, but shooting up the ranks in search engines and fine tuning link targeting usually requires paid links as well. Paid links can include "classic" methods of advertising like buying advertisements on web sites and joining advertising networks, as well as relatively new methods like paid blog posts. It is important to get expert help in building links because too many links from "bad neighborhoods" (sites considered spam by search engines) can lower a site's standing, and bad neighborhoods are not always obvious to newcomers to SEO. Also, people who are new to link building are often tempted by methods like astroturfing, in which a company representative pretends to be an ordinary consumer and posts comments about the company in other people's blogs. Astroturfing looks like an excellent and legitimate way to gain attention, but blog readers easily recognize company ringers and consider their comments to be spam. An astroturf campaign can severely damage a company's reputation. The field of SEM is dotted with many more bad ideas that look like good ideas, so before putting any new idea into use, a web master would do well to call in an expert.

Paid inclusion is another important part of any link building strategy. While many search engines and directories are free, quite a few either require a fee to include a site or give higher rankings to sites that pay. Since only a few ranking points can make the difference between a steady stream of visitors an an anemic trickle, many companies find paid inclusion to be a good investment.

Search engine marketing is a careful balance of search engine optimization, paid and free link building, and paid directory and search engine inclusion. When all the parts of an SEM strategy word together, they can shoot a web page to the top of the search engine results. The important part is to get the right balance, linked to the right sites, with the right experts managing.