SEO/SEM Services

What is SEO/SEM?

While many of you are familiar with the terms SEO, SEM, SERP, PPC, etc. others don’t know what all the acronyms in this business stand for and are not sure that the internet and online marketing can help them achieve their goals for their business or organization. We have prepared this brief overview to provide a definition, help you understand the industry and decide if you could benefit.

SEO refers to search engine optimization, the process of structuring a web site so that it will appear at or near the top of a search engine results page (SERP) for your chosen keyword phrases. It also involves researching the best keywords to use for your industry, and they are not always the ones you would expect. Often our potential customers use different search terms than we would use, or they search for the solution to a problem without knowing exactly what they need. Keyword research is an important part of SEO and critical to the success of any campaign.

SEM (search engine marketing) is a term that encompasses SEO and all the other things you have to do to be successful in online marketing. With growing competition and increased sophistication of search engines, it is no longer enough to choose your keywords and make sure they are used properly within your site. There are now many more elements to a successful online marketing program. Among other things, you must regularly update your content and add new content. You must get links to your site from other sites, but it is important to know which sites can help you and which are a waste of your time.

Search engines take as many as 200 different elements into account when determining how to rank your site. The more of these elements you get right, the better you will do. It is an ongoing process, so once your site is doing well you will have to keep up with industry changes and ever-increasing competition in order to keep doing well.

You may also want to spend some of your SEM budget for pay per click advertising (PPC) which allows you to bid for ranking position among the listings labelled as sponsored. These usually appear above and/or to the right of the regular search results. All major search engines have PPC programs. The benefit is instant visibility on search engines. The downside? You have to pay for every click, and as soon as you stop your visibility disappears.

SEM has also come to include analysis of your site traffic and conversion rates. A number one ranking and increased traffic are no longer the only things necessary to declare success. They must be accompanied by increasing conversion rates and sales (or signups, phone calls, downloads or whatever action it is you want your visitors to take).