Search engine marketing definition: What are search engine marketing services (SEM) and what can they do for you?

Search engine marketing definition: SEM is the art and science of optimizing a site so that it earns more traffic from the search engines. A search engine is a website, such as Google.com, Yahoo.com or Live.com (MSN), that helps you find other websites. SEM arenas include:

• Organic or natural optimization : Practiced by addressing both internal and external elements of a website to make it and its contents highly relevant for search engines and human prospects. Typically, the higher a site ranks in the organic listings, the more prospects will see and visit that site.
• Paid placement or Pay Per Click Services (PPC) : An auction-based pricing model where advertisers bid on keywords their target markets are likely to use as search terms when looking for a product, service or information. With pay per click services, advertisers only pay when a user clicks on their ad to visit their website.
• Paid Inclusion : A product where the search engines charge fees to include a website or portion of a website in their search index, or inventory of websites. This paid inclusion product is provided by most search engine companies with the exception of Google.

Why do you need search engine marketing services?

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