Different Types Of Search Engine Marketing You Need To Know

Today, we live in the digital age. Want to watch a movie? Go online! Want to book tickets for a movie? Go online! Want movie recommendations? Once again, go online! Want to share your thoughts about the movie? You know the drill!

You could replace the word “movie” with just about anything and the answers would be the same. For example, restaurant, phone, bag, mattress. Online shopping has propelled a customer’s ability to purchase products and services using the internet.

Yet, the one constant is that customers need to search for what they want and their preferred destination for this is a search engine. Google is the most popular one today, holding over 90% of the market share!

We don’t need to get into the nitty-gritty of how good Google is or how search engines work, however, we do need to discuss how businesses can use this technology to reach more customers and improve their sales. For the most part, this is done by using Search Engine Marketing or SEM.

Essentially, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) consists of a digital marketing strategy where businesses increase the visibility of their websites to customers on search engine results pages, using numerous techniques that could be paid, organic or a mix of both.

So, what makes SEM so important and what do businesses need to know about its various types? Let’s dive in!
 

What Is Search Engine Marketing And Why Is It Important?

 
Search Engine Marketing helps businesses appear quicker to customers searching for products or services related to the business. SEM encompasses strategies that utilize paid, unpaid or a blend of the two, to highlight a website on the top or bottom of search engine results pages (SERPs).

Most websites automatically optimize their websites to appear organically using a process known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEM includes both organic means and paid ones to attain higher ranks on pages. This is why it’s alternatively known as paid search advertising. These ads appear based on specific keywords related to the product or service the business offers or could be aligned with associated words.

For example, people searching for coffee could also see ads for coffee mugs or kettles. People searching for cakes could see ads for balloons, candles or gifting options.

The use of SEM is a powerful technique for brands and businesses looking to reach new customers, drive traffic, launch new products, boost sales and generate leads. Billions of people use search engines to gather information about products or services they require or want.

So why is this important? Well, because studies have found that most users tend to click on one of the top ads or one of the first five search results on the search engine results page (SERP)!


Now that you see the importance of SEM, let’s have a look at the different types of Search Engine Marketing you need to know. Let’s go!
 

The Types Of Search Engine Marketing

Different sources will have different definitions of SEM, with some including only paid advertising, while others extend to include organic searches and more. The interesting thing is that none of them are wrong!

This is because marketing is a tricky process and just like how normal marketing consists of word-of-mouth mentions, influencer marketing as well as paid advertisement, SEM follows a similar principle. However, there are three main types of SEM techniques.

So, what are these different types of SEM techniques?
 

Pay-Per-Click Ads (PPC)

Quite simply put, businesses can surpass the need to achieve high SEO scores organically by simply paying for a top spot when people use search engines. These special spots appear before the organic results and are based on how much a business pays for them. Of course, pay-per-click means that businesses only pay when people click on their ads!

Pretty simple, right? Well, it gets more complicated when dealing with niche keywords and highly competitive keywords. Let’s look at the process for the most widely used PPC platform – Google Ads.

After creating a free account on Google Ads, businesses design and set up campaigns with several ad groups, ads and keywords. Then, they set their target audience demographics and other settings, before launching their ad. Google Ads provides estimates before launching a campaign, however, the final price and spot provided is decided at the time of clicks and is based on the demand and supply of targeted keywords.

At the time of a search, Google Ads runs auctions for available spots and picks results to display based on advertisers paying more, as well as other factors. Some of these factors can be controlled by advertisers, some are decided during the auction, while some are known only to Google.

Even though the process seems straightforward, businesses must optimize their campaigns through A/B testing and other testing techniques to derive the best value. Yet, the benefits of PPC advertising are multifold: they allow businesses to target key audiences searching for the product or service the business is offering, garnering quicker results and higher ROI for search-based marketing strategies.

 

Organic SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a part of SEM that doesn’t make use of paid ads or PPC to rank high on search engine result pages or SERPs. This involves organically attracting viewers to a business’s website by optimizing the website and its content to reflect specific keywords.

Again, this sounds simple but straightforward, process, for which businesses must consider and adhere to the different types and best practices of SEO.

For instance, Technical SEO includes optimizing a website to facilitate search engine crawlers to discover, read, understand and index the website. The goal is to optimize the infrastructure of the website and doesn’t have much to do with the actual content being offered.
 
On the other hand, On-page or On-site SEO is used to optimize individual pages and provide search engines with signals directed to understand the right meaning and context of each page. Then we have Off-page SEO techniques that help businesses achieve higher SERP results by promoting social media marketing engagement, gathering online reviews, encouraging branded searches and building quality backlinks.

Backlinks act as anchors, linking one webpage to another or to other sources or websites, which could include press releases, guest posts or others. The idea is to connect or “link” relevant content from other sources to the webpage being optimized.

Next up, Content SEO focuses on the content being offered on the webpage, while Ecommerce SEO deals specifically with rules that apply to Ecommerce websites only. Similarly, mobile SEO helps optimize pages for mobile or tablet devices and international SEO is used for multilingual websites.

The benefits of SEO include targeting traffic by building a better SERP score without having to shell out for paid spots. Since such websites are promoted on their actual content, it results in better trust, recognition and awareness of the brand and overall, SEO helps create holistically better websites!
 

Local SEO

As we mentioned, SEO is the part of SEM that doesn’t use paid ads or PPC to generate traffic on a business’s website.

In Local Search Engine Optimization or Local SEO, businesses use organic SEO tactics to derive results but the focus is on gathering local region or local area attention and increasing visibility in local searches. However, businesses can use paid ads to enhance their reach and visibility within the targeted geographic area too.

This works especially well for businesses looking to get customers to their doors. Say, for example, you have a sports equipment store in Brooklyn. Now, you would do better ranking under the keywords “sports equipment store in Brooklyn” rather than just “sports equipment store”, right?
 
Location-aware searches require businesses to employ certain key strategies, beginning with creating a Google My Business listing and optimizing it by using correct information, contact details, operating hours, good product or premises images and more.

Next, businesses must optimize titles, meta descriptions and other website content to reflect location-specific keywords and connection to the location physically. This includes obtaining backlinks to other local websites, be that of newspapers, information guides or other businesses.

It’s also important to obtain positive customer reviews across numerous platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews and others to help organically boost the likelihood of being shown at the top of search results.

Local SEO is a brilliant technique to target people in the vicinity and get more in-store visits. It’s a simple strategy to implement and is cheaper than general SEO or PPC approaches.

 

Other Kinds Of SEM

Moving beyond the usual suspects of SEM, there are other advertising opportunities that businesses can indulge in, most optimized through and powered by Google Ads. These include image ads that appear on third-party websites and applications, shopping ads that display product listings on top of SERPs and Shopping tabs, video ads on YouTube, as well as ads that appear on social networking websites and other online web pages.  

With that, we’ve come to a close.
 

The Search Is Over!

With technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and automation stepping up to the game, SEM techniques are set to be revolutionized!

Essentially, it will facilitate easier management, targeting of customers and higher ROI. Hence, it is critical to be aware of the unique types of Search Engine Marketing, as well as the benefits of each type. This can help you adopt the most suitable strategy or understand the most ideal mix of approaches for the best results. Either way, in our digital age of today, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has staked its claim as the future of marketing!