Search engine marketing also know as SEM is composed of a set of online marketing methods used to enhance or establish website visibility with the search engine results pages (SERPs). Without Search engine marketing, your website would only get traffic from your traditional marketing efforts (i.e. Business Collateral, Word of mouth, and advertising, etc.), the acquisition of strategic inbound text links, and affiliate network marketing. Search engine marketing enables you to cast a wider net to catch your target audience when they are actively searching for key terms that describe your websites relevancy.

There are three major methods of search engine marketing: Natural search engine optimization, Pay-Per-Click advertising, and Paid Inclusion. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages which vary return on investment (ROI). The ROI is dependent on the vertical market your in, competition, and proper management.

Natural search engine optimization also known as SEO, by far, produces the highest return. Studies have been conducted that demonstrate the natural or organic side of the search engine not only gets more clicks then the pay-per click side, but also hold approximately a 1.5% higher conversion rate. Another benefit to natural search engine optimization is that the clicks that you receive from the search engines through the natural side are free. So, what side do you search on? The reason for this is that most searchers feel that the pay per click section or Sponsored link section is unnatural and not trust worthy. How often have you clicked on the sponsored side and the ads were misleading, unwanted shopping links or totally different than what you were looking for. The only true disadvantages of ethical search engine optimization is that there is no guarantee that the search engines will rank you in the top ten or twenty listings and it doesn’t happen over night. Organic SEO takes months to really get the keywords properly placed.

Sophisticated search engines use robots or spiders to crawl your site for information pertaining to your relevancy. They visit periodically, but on their own schedule. Imagine the search engine results pages as ladders. Each time the spiders come to crawl your website your website listings can jump up or fall down the ladder. If the robots feel that you website is not coded properly for them to index or the content and links are not changing, they will visit less frequently. Additionally, with frequent changes in the search engine algorithms SEO firms must constantly tweak websites to maintain positions.

Pay-Per-Click Marketing also known as sponsored listings come in many forms. The major search engines offering this form of advertising are Google’s Adwords; Yahoo Search Marketing; and MSN’s Adcenter. The advertiser bids for search terms, and the search engine place ads in the sponsored link section based on a competitive auction as well as other factors.

Basically, the advertiser, or a pay per click bid management firm, will choose a set of keywords that they feel will draw qualified leads, clicks, or web traffic. For each keyword that the advertiser or pay per click management firm chooses, an ad is written to draw the attention of the person searching, therefore they click through to the website. At this point the company hosting the searches charges the amount you bid on also known as a cost per click (cpc) basis. Click costs start at $0.10 and have been seen as high as $69.

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The advantage to ppc marketing is that the minute you finish your campaign set-up, your listings show up. Additionally, you can target specific geographic areas which are particularly helpful for medical practices and real estate websites.