F.A.Q's

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the answers to all the questions which arise most frequently in your minds, in respect to SEM.

What is SEM?

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. It is the process of selling a website through the relevant search engines, so that your potential customers can find your website easily. SEM would include all activities such as researching, submitting and positioning a website within search engines in order to achieve the maximum visibility for your website. SEM includes all strategies and tactics which are undertaken to increase the amount and quality of traffic that is generated by search engines on which your website is positioned.

What does SEM include?

Search Engine Marketing includes SEO (search engine optimization), paid inclusion, pay per click campaigns, paid placements, directory listings of the company and other search engine related services and functions. All of these ensure that both your website’s visibility and traffic see a great rise. By using SEM techniques you can increase targeted traffic to your website and increase your website ranking on search engine results.

What are the benefits of SEM?

The benefits of an effective SEM package are plenty. In the present business scenario, even small companies understand the advantages of SEM, since it has been provides the maximum returns on investment, as compared to the rest. An effective SEM strategy can increase your website’s overall qualified traffic and can significantly increase the number of conversions. Whatever is the objective of your site, be it e-commerce or lead generation or just providing great content, SEM helps in achieving it efficiently. SEM provides the most effective means of marketing a website through search engines either by paying for links or by striving to improve your site’s ranking among the unpaid listings.

Through demographic ad targeting, you can limit the display of your ads to the area of your interest, or display them worldwide, as you choose. This will ensure that only those users click on your ad, who can utilize your services. So you will save the marketers money and the users’ time.

Search engines will give you top rankings if you are willing to invest well. You can also direct the visitor directly to the section of his interest when he visits your website. He does not have to go through your website homepage in order to access the page of his interest.

What is lead generation?

It is the ultimate goal of all promotional and marketing activities. It means to make connections between relevant retailers and targeted customers. Putting it simply, it refers to actually finding buyers who are interested to purchase the product or service which you are selling. Lead refers to a buyer.

What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

SEM is the perfect blend of advertising and marketing efforts. It includes SEO, pain inclusion management, pay per click, paid inclusion etc. SEM personnel need to have a thorough understanding of consumer behavior and also hoe the search engine industry works. They also need to possess a high level of business acumen along with real life business experience. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a vital constituent of an effective SEM strategy and is more of technical labor. In SEO, the existing code is analyzed and all existing issues are addressed and the website content is optimized to keep pace with the search engine algorithms. This helps to dramatically increase the website’s visibility on popular search engines such as Google, MSN etc. SEO is an important part of, a much larger picture called the SEM.

What is PPC?

PPC stands for pay per click, which is an advertising model that is used on relevant search engines, advertising networks as well as content websites, wherein the advertisers would pay every time the user clicks on your website. You have to bid on keywords or phrases which you believe are most likely to be typed in by your target market, when they are browsing for a product or service. Every time the user types a keyword query that matches your keyword list, your website is displayed.

Where will my ad show up?

PPC is a very powerful component of an effective SEM strategy. AS soon as you sign up with a PPC service, your ad will be displayed in the Sponsored Search section in the relevant search engine. Usually you would find the words “sponsored listings” under which your ad will be seen. This is normally the first 2-4 listings on top of the page and sometimes even the listings down the page. Your ads are likely to show up in Google network, which include AOL, Netscape Net Center, EarthLink, CompuServe, AT&T, About.com, Lycos, NY Times.com, Info Space, Reed business and its network partners such as business.com, How Stuff Works.com, food.com, HGTU.com, etc, if they are relevant to your topic. If you are a member of the Yahoo Search Marketing network, then your ads may be displayed in the Yahoo search engine and also its partner sites such as Alta Vista, CNN.com etc. Your ad may be displayed within MSN search engine and Windows Live Search as well.

How much do I have to pay?

You have to pay a certain amount of money every time the user clicks on your ad, in the search engine. The higher you are willing to Pay Per Click, greater will be the visibility of your site in the results related to the keyword you select. So the higher the bid you place per keyword, it would result in more clicks. You have to do an in-depth analysis of different search engines, to chalk out what it would cost you to bid on your keywords, as well as the amount of traffic they draw. Depending on the worth of your customer to your business and the effectiveness of the search engine you decide on the amount you are willing to invest per click. It could be any amount as small as 5 cents to as big as 50 dollars depending on your competition.