Just about any company with an online presence can be a candidate for search engine marketing (SEM). For example, if you’re a retailer, you’ll want to make sure your online store gets noticed by your target audience. SEM can help. It’s a powerful digital marketing strategy that can help your website get more visibility and traffic from search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others. SEM consists of two main approaches—paid advertising and search engine optimization (SEO). With paid advertising, you can place ads on search engines and have them appear above or below organic search results. With SEO, which we dug into pretty recently, you can optimize your website to rank higher in organic search results.

For example, if you create banner or text ads to appear on websites within the Google Display Network, you can reach people through Google-owned properties like Google News, YouTube and Gmail, as well as an astonishing list of partner channels.

Getting SEM right

Imagine you’re the sample retailer we mentioned earlier. You just want to get your products in front of high-intent shoppers who are actively searching for what you offer. You can create ads that target specific keywords, locations, devices and even demographics. For example, if you sell clothing, you can target keywords like “women’s dresses” or “men’s shoes” to reach shoppers who are actively looking for those products. You can also target specific geographic locations to reach shoppers in your area. By using paid advertising, you can reach shoppers who are more likely to convert into customers.

You can build brand awareness through display advertising within display networks—millions of connected websites, videos and apps you can reach through one resource—and typical search channels. Display advertising is an effective way to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. For example, if you create banner or text ads to appear on websites within the Google Display Network, you can reach people through Google-owned properties like Google News, YouTube and Gmail, as well as an astonishing list of partner channels. If you sell home decor products, you can create ads that appear on home decor blogs or websites. By using display advertising, you can reach a broader audience and increase your brand’s visibility.

How SEO factors into SEM

SEM initiatives benefit from smart, strategic search optimization. Ensuring that your site is relevant for the search terms you are bidding for can lower your costs as you bring in organic traffic, too, and help improve your quality score with major search engines.

Search engines want to make money, but they also want to provide a great experience so consumers will continue to use their functionality (thus leading to more revenue). If a consumer searches for “basketball shoes” and is offered a Vans homepage, that isn’t very relevant, is it? But if they’re served the Dick’s Sporting Goods Men’s Basketball Footwear page, they’re likely to appreciate the experience. Good SEO involves optimizing your website content, meta tags, images and other elements to make everything more search engine-friendly. For example, if you sell sporting goods, you can create content that targets specific keywords like “basketball shoes” or “outdoor gear”. By complementing SEM with a strong SEO presence,
you can improve your website’s visibility in search results, drive more traffic to your website and lower your costs per click.

SEM is a powerful digital marketing strategy that can help virtually any marketer, service provider, company of any kind get noticed by their target audience. By using SEM, including paid advertising and display advertising, to complement smart SEO techniques, you can increase your website’s visibility and attract more traffic.

We know the secrets to a more effective, efficient online marketing strategy, and we’re happy to share. Find out how FATFREE can help you stand out.