What is Search Engine Marketing SEM

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a process of using various methods to improve the market awareness and exposure of brands, products or services. SEM mechanisms include search engine optimization (SEO), social networks, bidding, pay per click (PPC), content related advertising, paid inclusion, geographical location, AdSense and AdWords, and multiple media formats.

Search engine marketing tools include

• Search engine optimization (SEO): maximize the exposure of search results by positioning and driving network traffic and ultimately increasing sales. Most search engine page results come from free search or natural search. SEO optimizes websites to ensure the position of top search engines, such as Google, because only 15% of searchers continue to surpass the first page.
• Social Media Marketing (SMM): focus on improving brand, reputation and customer service through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social networks. Smaller SMM channels include Digg, Delicious, Wikipedia, StumbleUpon and MySpace. More than one billion people visit social networks. Therefore, even the simplest marketing work, such as paid advertising, may attract a large number of audiences.
• Paid search: Examples of paid search include sponsored links, banner ads, and sidebar ads, where content generated ads are based on natural search results.

SEM is represented by the following departments:

• Consulting/marketing services: 12%
• Retail: 10%
• Financial services (including insurance): 8%
• IT， Software and education: 70%

SEM increases web activity by:

• Attract users
• Driving traffic
• Improve brand awareness and reputation
• Add search engine result page (SERP)
• Selling products or services
• Generate leads
• Provide content for research purposes
• Improve conversion rate