SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing.
It is a core part of digital marketing, and its primary goal is to increase a website’s visibility and traffic. How? By improving its ranking on search engines.
How it works
Let’s start from the beginning. What is the meaning of SEM? What is it exactly?
Partly, we covered it in the introduction: it is a specific branch of online marketing.
It has a very clear purpose: to push a website into attractive positions on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), in order to attract qualified users who can easily be converted into leads or customers.
How does it do that? SEM uses strategies and techniques from two well-known disciplines:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which targets organic search results.
- SEA (Search Engine Advertising), which relies on buying ads and banners.
One thing is worth pointing out, though. In recent years there has been an important shift, in substance as well as in terminology: SEA and SEM have become synonyms.
In fact, more and more sources treat SEM as an essentially paid activity.
Tools
Search engines offer many tools for SEM marketing.
Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is by far the most popular.
There are several reasons for this: it is easy to use, lets you create custom ads and set your costs, without the risk of making mistakes.
Keep in mind, however, that other worthwhile platforms also let you do SEM, such as Bing Ads, Yahoo! Gemini, Facebook and Amazon.
Why work with a SEM specialist
If you own a business and want it to grow… we recommend relying on a true industry expert: in this case, a SEM specialist.
Who are we talking about?
Essentially, the professional who plans and runs advertising and pay-per-click campaigns.
Their responsibilities also include data monitoring, budget management and, where needed, SEO work.