Search engine marketing (SEM) is a way of carrying out internet marketing which involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) principally through paid advertising. SEM may integrate search engine optimization (SEO), which changes or redrafts website content to achieve a better and higher ranking in search engine result pages and to increase pay per click listings. Search engine optimization or website optimization describes the process used to optimize or to design from scratch, to rank well in search engines. Website optimization involves processes or procedures, for example adding keywords and phrases on the website to enable its accessibility to a search engine and improve the chances that the website will be indexed by search engines.  

Why the SEM Strategy?

The aim for introducing search engine marketing in business is to help a business person or customer searching the web either through clicking a directory inquiry or a text-box, and this is known as “Hunt Mode”. This format is unique as it sends signals to the search engine as well as marketers for them to be aware that a person is looking for information, be it of a direct or indirect nature. Marketers understand that the “Hunt Mode” means that the searcher may be at the beginning, middle or end phase of the buying cycle. When someone is looking for a service or product to satisfy an immediate or future need, they are in an unfamiliar state and by so doing, are yearning for significant information and are open to grasping and standing-in on the information they get at their disposal, all made possible by the search engine. This make search engine results some of the best sources of directed traffic, be it originating from “organic” unpaid search listings or paid advertising listings.

Many advertisers choose the SEM strategy because creating a SEM account is easy and can build traffic quickly based on the degree of competition. This is so because the costumer who uses the search engine to find information tends to trust and rely on the links showed in the results page.

Search engine optimization marketing is seen as a means for conveying search results or SERP (Search Engine Results Page) in the form of purely formal results. Search results can be a combination of text, images, video, audio or other file formats. For example in the United States, the search engines are not only Google, Yahoo, or Bing but commercial websites or search engines do exist viz.; eBay and Amazon and as well as domain search engines like You Tube and Hulu for video, restaurant search engines, “people” search engines for instance LinkedIn, or online business directories for local results, including IYPs (Internet Yellow pages) and sites such as Yelp, Angie’s List, just to name a few.  Many countries use domain search engines used locally to meet the needs of its population. All search engines use processes in an endeavor to provide the most significant results to each searcher, taking into account not only the search keywords, but also the searcher’s location, operating systems, previous search behavior, device and identity if possible. 

To influence the power to enclose within this targeted traffic source, marketers must understand effectively and efficiently the use of both paid, unpaid organic SEM and local SEMs.

Types of searches.

1.   Organic Search:

This is the cornerstone of search engine marketing. When people talk of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), this is what they are making reference to. Organic search, in other words known as free search, or natural search, is the best form of search and the one with the least control. Organic search results are those SEO content or listings that appear in the wide left column of a search page. These are the results most people recognize as the most trusted results. The reason advanced for this is that the listings that appear within this area are there on merit. An example of such is Google that has determined that those SEO content or listings do the best job of answering the question being asked in the search examination.

How then can one get to the top of his category?

To achieve high rankings in SEM marketing, one must have a compelling SEO content, keyword selection, inbound links, web page optimization and social sharing. The most important of all these is the SEO content and by that , one is making reference to the fact that it should provide answers to the questions the target audience are asking. SEO content is making a list of questions that visitors and customers are asking, write complete and thoughtful answers to the questions and provide it its own web page. When one has a single web page dedicated to a single question and answer, he can improve the probabilities of getting ranked high with the search engines.

With the organic search, each listing that appears on the search engine signifies an individual web page and not a website as a whole.

2.   Paid Search:

Paid search gives one control over the search placement and will allow one see results easily. Paid search refers to the Google Adwords program. Bing and Yahoo have similar programs, and less traffic than Google. With Adwords, the ad appears on the column down the right side of a search engine page. Often times, ads also do appear at the top of the page on the left hand column. They are also referred to as sponsored Ads. Your position in this section depends highly on your readiness to pay. The most pleasing thing with Ad words is that one only pays when another actually clicks on your ad- pay per click (PPC). Also, one can only pay what he is ready to pay. But to get to the top or the first page, one needs to outbid all the other companies that want to advertise there. It should be noted that placement is not only based on price. But Google rewards her customers for ad quality and informative landing page. Paid search mostly applies to websites, or landing page and not a web page.

3.   Local Search:

Local search is the ability for searchers to find out what they want in their local areas. Local search is mostly for small businesses on Google and when one searches, he is able to find a dedicated list of local businesses matching the search. But local search is not dedicated only for local businesses because it allows one to sell to other businesses in a broad region, though the competition gets tougher as one move away from his address. Local search are similar to organic search because the listings are done free of charge and one cannot control what Google decides to put up for a search. That notwithstanding, one can impact that decision by taking some important steps such as:

1. Claiming ones business on Google My Business
2. Make sure your company Name, Address and Phone Number (NAB) are the same for all other submissions.
3. Claim your business on as many online directories as possible
4. Encourage customers to leave online reviews. These reviews are necessary as prospective customers will use them as a preliminary sorting procedure and Google will use them to measure popularity. So the more positive reviews you have, the more likelihood you will come in a search.

Worthy of note is that local search is more about ranking your entire website while organic search is about ranking individual pages.  

In order for any of the above mentioned types of search engine methods to be efficient and to increase best SEO Marketing, business men must optimize their websites through what is known as web optimization. Website optimization main objective is to improve the presentation and performance of your website hence meets your business goals. Website optimization is best conducted as an on-going procedure that over time makes your website more operational and appreciated. This is important because it helps your website visitors to be more efficacious with their visits to your website. With website optimization, your site becomes more effective for your business. Optimizing your website means optimizing the entry or landing pages where visitors first come into contact with your site.

To better optimize your website, it is good to have a good SEO campaign. But before the campaign comes in, certain aspects of your website should be looked upon in order to better make more efficient your SEO campaign to attract satisfactory results such as;

-      The expected visitors for your website,

-      The benefits one can derive from your website,

-      The focused function of your website,

-      The expectations of visitors to the website,

-      The features in your website to meet their expectations.

The best SEO marketing depends on the success of your SEO campaign as it can attract a large number of visitors who can benefit from your website and have the highest opportunities of getting the products and services that your website has to offer. To achieve a profitable SEO campaign, the following steps are indispensible;

-      Use profitable set of keywords: Your success depends on how best you have chosen your keywords and how operational they are in fascinating your targeted audiences. A good combination of keywords involves mixture of phrases that your targeted audiences will most likely use in researching for the products or services you are marketing.

-      Also, achieve a competitive analysis of your selected keywords: After selecting the keywords you can use, you should perform a competitive analysis to streamline your selection and come up with the best set. The keyword phrase should have a high search value from the targeted audiences and a low level of competition from competitors and other internet marketers.

-      Equally, perform an on-site search engine optimization: Search engine optimization are either the on-site or off-site strategies put in place in order to get best results and give more chances for your website to rank in SERPs. In order to boost the on-site SEO, the following strategies will be used;

1. Optimize your post title: To attract targeted visitors, one has to start from optimizing the title of his/her website posts. The targeted keywords should be integrated into the title. Once the title has been optimized, the title will not only be visible for visitors, but will attract the attention of search engine spiders once they crawl you web.
2. Optimize your meta-description: The meta-description will also inform crawling search engine spiders of the content or your website posts and how important they can be. The meta-description can be a set of particular keywords used during search. While it is not as weighty as the title tag, it helps you get more clicks for your website in the SERPs. The idea with using meta-description in marketing is to make it more pleasing enough so as to get more people clicking on your site rather than on others. 
3. Optimize your content: Website ranking depends on how relevant your content is in providing value for people searching for information using particular keywords. Ones content does not have only to be original, but should be able to fulfill the expectations of visitors (this is the first and most important on-page SEO factor in today’s SEO). Once this has been done, you can now focus on the technical side of the content which includes; length of words, key density (meaning the number of times a particular set of keywords appear in the content) and the quality of writing best enough for your targeted audiences to read.
4. Optimize your post frequency: This means updating your website with fresh content either by adding new articles or other content or refreshing old ones with updates of new information. This has to be done regularly so that the search engine will bot and take note of how regular you update your website.
5. Perform off-page engine search: The proceeding half of your search Engine Optimization Campaign actions should focus on performing off-page SEO. To carry out a successful SEO campaign, quality and relevant inbound links are very vital and is the core activity for this. This can be done by
6. 1. Content marketing: the surest and safest method to do link building nowadays is through content marketing. Content makes the whole internet go round, so focusing on “quality” content creation first and get a link is the best thing you need to keep in mind in order to avoid Google slap in the future.
   2. Guest Blogging: this is a particular type of content marketing to get links. The aim is to provide significant websites in your niche or quality content in exchange for a link back to your website.
   3. Quality Blog Comments: this is apparently the most popular SEO spam in existence. Though this method is often abused, you can still do blog comments by leaving significant comments that adds conversations to an article that you need to comment on. The idea here is to look for an interesting article and then leave a feedback to that post. You ignite the conversation in your blog post and get links in your site.
   4. Infographic Marketing: this is the newest type of content that hit the web in recent years. It is also one of the wildest and most current ways to get quality and appropriate links. The idea is to change an existing text content into a visually and lovely infographic. After creating the infographic, you go ahead to show an inserted htlm codes for other website owners to insert and use your infographic in their site with credit link directing back to your site.
   5. Social sharing: Every blog of article you publish on your site; don’t forget to share these links with your social media accounts. This is because social media links are as powerful as other quality links and one cannot afford to miss them.

Conclusively, the best SEO marketing can be achieved if there is website optimization, a good SEO content and also a good SEO campaign. If this path is properly followed, many business owners will generate more targeted traffic and profitable results to their business websites and eventually profitable online success.