Search engine marketing (SEM) is often confused with search engine optimization (SEO). With SEO, the goal is simply to get your site to the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs). However, search engine marketing is much more encompassing. It is a complete marketing campaign for your website. Of course, high SERP rankings are important for an online business so SEM includes SEO. Yet there are many other factors involved in search engine marketing.
The first aspect of search engine marketing has to do with branding your online business. This can include factors like choosing a memorable domain name, picking the most profitable keywords for your niche, and making a stunning website. After the business’s image fits the appropriate demographic, the goal is getting targeted visitors to the site. This may involve paid methods of traffic such as pay-per-click (PPC), banner ads, or Google ads. Search engine marketers will frequently analyze site statistics and find new ways of improving conversion ratings, or the ratio of sales to site visitors.