What Is Search Engine Marketing?
Once relegated to the edges of alternative marketing, search engine optimisation and paid search marketing campaigns are fast becoming essential parts of all business marketing budgets. That's exciting progress for what is still a fairly new industry, but it doesn’t mean the industry’s work in educating people about search marketing is done. There's still quite a bit of confusion about the different types of search marketing and how companies should decide where to put their marketing dollars.
Ask 10 different people what Search Engine Marketing (SEM) means and you may receive 10 different answers. We define SEM as the total process of using search engines to send targeted visitors to your Web site. SEM involves absolutely everything about your marketing via search.
We estimated that search marketing accounted for just under $8 billion in advertising dollars in 2006. Roughly 10% of that figure went toward organic optimisation while most of the rest went toward paid search advertising through networks like Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and smaller players like Ask.com and Microsoft’s adCenter. SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organisation) claims that the numbers are even higher, citing $9.45 billion in search related spending in 2006. In fact, according to SEMPO, roughly three quarters of the surveyed firms were using organic search tactics and paid search advertising campaigns.
That said, many within the business world are still slow to adopt search engine marketing tactics. A recent study noted that just 13 companies on the Forbes 100 list had "well-optimized" Web sites -- only a slight improvement from the nine optimised sites in 2004. That means that in many industries, the search marketing landscape is wide open and ready to be conquered. Those who choose to embrace search marketing will find themselves with a valuable avenue to reach new customers.
