Search Engine Marketing Explained

If you are new to the Internet or to search engine marketing, then you may be overwhelmed with the hordes of information that is available to you. This “information overload” can frustrate even the sharpest business owner. We’d like to break this information down and summarize the basics of search engine marketing and explain it to you.

There may be several terms that are new to you so let’s quickly go over them. Below is a picture to help identify the different areas that I am referring to.

1) *Sponsored Listings. The Sponsored search on the top of pages are usually the top 1-3 bidders of Pay Per Click advertising (see number 4 below). This is typically very expensive and reserved for business that rely heavily on global internet marketing (as opposed to regional or local internet advertising).

2) *Local Business Results or Local Search Listings – Local search listings can be Gold because they are free and they actually appear above or on top of the natural search engine results! If you have a business in a certain city or cities then you need to make sure that you are showing up on Google Local. Sticking with the same example, let’s say that you are an accountant in Pensacola, Florida. You should make sure that your business is in these listings or you are missing out on potential customers.

3) *Natural Search engine optimization – The process of designing your web page(s) with the proper html coding, keyword density, and backlinks to achieve top ranking in the natural search engine results pages (SERPS). The natural search engine results in Google for the term “Pensacola Accountant”, are shown above.

4) *Pay Per Click, or Google Adwords – Any time a user clicks on one of these links, the owner of that link has to write google a check. As the owner of the link, you get to decide how much you want to spend. Google will remove the link once your pre-determined, monthly spending limit is reached.

This is a method used by people who do not want to wait for the time it takes to get natural search engine results. The more you pay per click, the higher up on the list you will be.