Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Search Engine Marketing an overview



Search Engine Marketing is the method of marketing your products over the internet through the use of search engines. Search Engine Marketing is one of the most complex but successful methods of marketing available for products. The product visibility achieved through the internet cannot be matched with any other marketing strategy. If Search Engine marketing is made efficient and effective, High Traffic and product Marketing can be achieved with minimum cost.

With a rise in the number of internet promotions, websites and the frequent use of the internet, Search Engine Marketing is required by all websites for even minimum visibility. Methods under Search Engine Marketing include Search Engine Optimization, paid placement and paid inclusions. There are a number of different techniques available such as Blogging and Directory submissions etc. though these are less frequently used.

SEO is the method of increasing visibility on Search engines which leads to increased traffics to the website. This is one of the primary and most efficient Search Engine Marketing strategy available as a Higher Ranked Website on a search engine like google would result in a huge increase in visibility. Paid placements cost rather less as payment is related to the number of times users click on the advertisement which leads to the advertisers website. Paid inclusions are methods where search engines charge fees to allow advertisers website to be in their search index. There are many other engineered methods as well which could be a combination of one or more of the methods mentioned above. Combining paid inclusions and paid placements ,an engineered product available though yahoo, would lead to increase in net traffic as well as visibility though it would cost more.

Search Engine Marketing is achieving popularity and is growing at a faster rate than traditional methods of marketing. It is also preferred over other methods of marketing products online. The Search Engine Marketing market in North America saw advertisers spending US$9.4 billion on advertising which is substantial in comparison to traditional marketing methods. The market is predicted to grow upto $18.6 billion in North America by 2011. Search Engine Optimization is still considered one of the most popular forms of marketing.

There is no need of enlisting the advantages of Search Engine Marketing which is one of the largest consumer database available to mankind. Regardless it is noteworthy to state that if the resources used to advertise through other channels such as television and radio are applied to the internet it could lead to an upsurge in product sales and visibility as well.

Controversies have touched the Search Engine Marketing as well and the Federal Trade Commission has issued a letter stressing on the importance of disclosing the advertisements which have been paid for as well. This can be seen as a part of an Anti SEM propaganda as there are various methods used by advertisers such as movies, TV series etc where there products are shown and there is no disclosure regarding the companies having paid for the same.



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