How to Use Search Engine Marketing To Promote
Using search engine marketing to promote either your sites or products is one of the most essential skills you need to learn in order for your online endeavors to flourish. Without the search engines, you are relegated to secondary markets, and while some of these can be promising, such as email marketing, social media marketing, and social networking. While these offer great possibilities, you are still left with the fact that when someone is searching for something in particular, whether it be information or products, it’s very likely they’re heading to Google or Yahoo, and not MySpace. This may change as time moves on, but for now, you need to understand how to use search engine marketing.
The primary methods used in search engine marketing include search engine optimization (SEO), paid inclusion, and contextual advertising. Each has its own vagaries, and each can take some time to master. A comprehensive strategy for promoting your interests can take advantage of all of these.
Search engine optimization is the practice of constructing your web pages so that they are “search engine friendly”, meaning that in the eyes of the engines, your pages are very relevant and easy to use for the web surfers who may happen upon it. There are a lot of elements that go into search engine optimization, and if these are followed closely, can help your pages rise in the search engine results pages (SERPS) and you will be more likely to be found in a search.
Paid inclusion refers to including a website for a fee paid to the search engine itself. The fees are usually for a year’s worth of inclusion, and your site will show up alongside pages found in organic search results. This is an older search engine marketing method, and the biggest problem with it is that Google doesn’t allow it, which right there knocks out 67% of possible web traffic!
Contextual advertising refers to programs such as Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher and MSN AdCenter. These programs allow contextual ads to be placed on websites and then serve up keyword relevant advertisements so that when a surfer comes to your page about radio controlled toys, Google or whoever you’re using will serve up ads that pertain to that market. If they are clicked on, both Google and the website owner make some cash. Recent improvements of the algorithms used in these programs have allowed the ads offered up to be ever more specific, thus aiding in the overall user experience on your web page.
Search engine marketing can be undertaken by yourself if you have the time and the patience to put into it. You can also outsource this task to any number of search engine marketing firms out there that have experienced and able staff to make this happen a lot faster and probably better than you can do on your own. Take the time to check them out, however, and when you’ve done so, give it some time to work. You’ll probably be glad you did!
Tags: Search Engine Marketing, SEM
