Search Engine Marketing

[rachelbles]

What is Search Engine Marketing? How does it work? What's the difference between Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

[silveraden]

I think SEO is longterm and SEM is specific and more on PPC..

[Manu]

http://www.raisemyrank.com/articles/seo-sem.htm

[Andy]

Yawn - SEO is optimizing your site content and links to get good ranking after the analysis of your site by the search engine algorithm.

SEM includes social engineering to get traffic to your site. In this case, you will promote your site in web 2.0 social networking sites as well as any other ideas that you may have to drive visitor traffic.

At least that is my take on these subjects.

[mtptl]

With social media and search engines driving a huge percentage of the traffic to a web site, it's essential to make sure you're building your brand and convincing people to come looking for YOU. Find out how to build a stronger brand by positioning yourself in search results and by branding yourself through social media conversations.

[BellaVega]

Wouldn't PPC be considered SEM? I would think SEM is more about creating paid ads on the search engines and other sites. Where SEO is more about getting your site ranked on Google and getting traffic through searches.

[MarcusWrite]

Some Comparisons and Similarities of SEO and SEM:

Link Building:
SEO – Inbound links are a large determining factor in rankings.
SEM – Links are a result of success, which means that SEO benefits from good SEM.

On Page Elements:
SEO – Title tags, headers, image title, bold text and use of keywords are all influential on search engine rankings.
SEM – Coding and tags are not so important, while visual attention grabbers make a bigger impact.

Titles:
SEO – The title tag of a page tells the search engines what a page is about and carries a lot of weight in the rankings.
SEM – Titles and headlines are extremely important for grabbing attention and getting users to click-through.

Content:
SEO – Quality content is important in order to rank well.
SEM – Quality content is important in order to hold the readers’ attention and win their approval.

Analysis:
SEO – Analysis is necessary in order to know which changes have made an impact (positive or negative) on the site’s rankings.
SEM – Analysis is necessary to know what types of content draws interest.

Predictability / the Benefit of Experience:
SEO – Experts are able to reproduce success with new sites (although it’s not as easy as it sounds), as the same elements can be applied.
SEM – Those who know the social media audience can recreate success by publishing posts and headlines specifically for this purpose.

Success Breeds More Success:
SEO – Trusted domains will have a positive effect on all pages, including new pages.
SEM – Power profiles on sites like Digg can keep traffic flowing with new submissions.


I believe that SEM is the best way for new websites and blogs to draw visitors. This early success with social media can have long-lasting effects on search engine rankings as well.

[nsterling]

Finding a good topic this time. Great! This forum is awesome. I learn many things.