Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to internet marketing that includes search engine optimization, ad placement, etc. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process in which a website is optimized for specific popular key phrases that people are likely to use when performing a search on search engines. These keywords are related to the website. In the optimization process, the content of the website is changed, the tags and the titles of the web pages are modified so that the website appears in the search engines when people search for something using those keywords. The website should also be rich in good content on topics related to the website. A special program of search engines (also called “spiders”) would crawl the pages of the website to check if the topic discussed on the website is relevant and consistent with the keywords listed.
The other two main factors besides SEO that determine search engine rank and importance are site popularity and link popularity. Site popularity is nothing more than popularizing the website through online and offline media resources. Link popularity is a method where multiple websites on the same topic are interlinked based on mutual understanding between the parties. The higher the number of linked websites, the more popular the website will be. But it should also be noted that the websites they are linked to are also popular. Linking to new websites that are new to the internet world would not be of much use.
There are also a number of simple and efficient methods that will help you gain popularity for your website. Creating a strategy for your website would help you a lot. This would involve understanding the market, the people who would be looking for information, their searches for key terms, etc. Identifying the competition and building the website around that would also help. Effective keywords for optimization should also be listed as not all keywords would be good enough to be popularized. There are many tools like Overture and WordTracker available on the market that can give you suggestions on good keywords.
You can also advertise your website online through classified ads, banners, and flashing ads. Google AdWords is a good resource to advertise your website. This is a paid system and the procedure involves placing advertisements on other websites with similar content. The idea is to generate more traffic from the websites where these ads are placed. Google AdWords also has something called AdWords Keyword Suggestions; this would again provide you with the list of good keywords.
PPC or Pay Per Click is something where the advertiser needs to pay only when someone clicks on the ad and visits the advertiser’s website. The keywords that the advertiser is targeting and that they feel are effective are specified. Ads are displayed and received from other systems such as Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Network, etc. In general, whatever the method, the main intention is to popularize the website and make it accessible to everyone. Clear planning and appropriate use of content would help achieve this goal.
