
Search Engine Marketing has been gaining massive traction in marketing circles
This is because, as research has proven, websites that appear in first-page search results usually have higher traffic as well as increased sales. SEM often combines aspects of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which involves rewriting and rearranging a site’s content so as to raise their ranking in search engine research pages.
Since 2006, SEM has been gaining massive traction in marketing circles, growing at an even faster rate than traditional marketing as well as various type of online marketing. For example advertisers in the United States invested approximately 24.6 billion dollars in 2007 on SEM.
By 2015, popular search engines Google, and the Yahoo/Bing collaboration accounted for almost the entire amount spent on SEM. This has hardly changed since then: by the end of 2016, Google led the worldwide SEM fray with a market share of 89.3%, followed by Bing with a 4.36% share, and Yahoo in third place with a market share of 3.3%.
Search engines began gaining relevance in the late 1990s when the number of sites on the Internet started increasing. Since then, search engines have formulated business models to bankroll their services. One such model is the Pay per Click (PPC) program.
The most popular service in this regard is the Google Ad Words service, which was rolled out in 2000. By the end of 2007, last-quarter financial records of the major search engines showed that PPC programs were among their top earners.
Today, numerous SEO consultants and agencies have come up to assist businesses in taking advantage of all the promotional opportunities afforded by search engines. Today, search engine marketing encompasses abroad spectrum of activities, including search engine optimization, placing paid listings in various search engines, listing websites on the relevant directories, as well as formulating digital marketing strategies for individuals, businesses as well as organizations.
SEM utilizes the following methods and metrics to increase a website’s visibility:
- Keyword research and analysis
This involves making sure the website can be indexed by search engines; researching the most popular keywords for the site’s service or product and utilizing those keywords on the website in such a way that will generate more traffic to the site.
- Search perception
Search perception refers to the proven ways in which a brand’s search results impact a consumer’s perception of said brand. It involves tie tags, Meta tags, indexing, and keyword focus.
- Website popularity and saturation
This metric refers to how much of a presence a website has on search engines. Site saturation can be measured by analyzing the number of the site’s pages that are indexed by search engines. On the other hand, site popularity is determined by the number of backlinks it has.
There are various tools available that can be used to measure a site’s population and saturation, including Top 10 Google Analysis, Link Popularity, and Link Popularity and Search Engine Saturation by Market leap.
- Various back-end tools
Back end tools supply data on a site as well as its visitors so as to measure the site’s success. They range from simple tools to complex ones that utilize page tagging to keep track of actions on the page.

Conclusion
As people become more and more dependent on the Internet for all their information needs, businesses must adapt to compete in the changing commercial landscape. Ensuring your business can be found easily by various search engines is the most important step in ensuring it remains relevant. Search engine marketing offers an efficient and more affordable means for businesses to increase their visibility and popularity.