The Serious/Not Serious Series on Jargon:
YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS:
Successful Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves you being the cyber equivalent of an obnoxious child. The type who always takes the teacher a shiny apple, sits at the front in class and shoots their eager hand up at every opportunity squealing, “Me, Miss, pick me!”
It’s about getting noticed. Of course in cyberspace nobody can hear you screaming, “I’m the best and I must be at the front of the line!” so you have to find other ways to get seen.
If Google is the mother pedagogue in our hypothetical SERPS school, then other search engines like Yahoo!* are sort of like supply teachers. We don’t know them as well as we know Mistress Google, we don’t always trust that they know what they’re doing either, but we must please them all the same. It’s worth buying an extra apple from time to time.
Mistress Google doesn’t always expect A* work from her pupils. Sometimes all you need to do is suck up a bit more and make yourself known to her. She likes to keep an eye on her charges. When it’s head count time will yours be the high visibility noggin that gets included? It will if you’re on stilts and donning a psychedelic plumed hat.
How will being teacher’s pet affect your relationships with your online peers? Oh, they’ll probably flick bits of saliva-sodden paper at you, shove your head down the toilet at lunch times and stick ‘Kick Me’ notices on your back. Oh well. Popularity doesn’t always mean being popular.
Note: * Can’t recall the names of the other search engines/supply teachers – though there are vaguely disturbing recollections of one of them drinking hooch under the desk and another being asked to leave after an embarrassing incident in Pet’s Club that startled a stick insect and several guinea pigs.
SERIOUSLY:
SEM (aka Search Engine Marketing) is a type of marketing where you promote your website by increasing its visibility in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). The purpose of using SEM is to ensure that your website is visible in the search results when a user enters a query relevant to your business in the search box.
Sometimes SEM is used to describe paid placements only. The ads on the right hand side of the search results page are examples of paid placements. These are usually CPC (Cost Per Click) ads but you can also purchase them as CPI (Cost Per Impression). With CPC ads, you as the advertiser only pay when a user clicks through on the ad. With CPI ads, you pay based on the number of times the particular ad is shown.
The SEM term actually extends beyond paid placements as it also includes SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As mentioned in a previous post SEO involves increasing the chances that your website will show high up in the unpaid search results. Users are more likely to click through to the unpaid search results as they have, to some extent, developed a certain blindness to PPC (“Pay per Click”) ads.
Other Resources:
There’s a post over at Interleado’s blog which provides an insightful analysis of SEO v PPC marketing strategies. As mentioned above, both SEO (unpaid Search Marketing) and PPC (paid search marketing) fall under the heading of Search Engine Marketing. Bill Egan extols the benefits of investing in SEO and he stresses the importance of investing in fresh engaging content as part of your SEO strategy. The Interleado blog is quite technical at times. However, it is well-written and very clear.
Other Jargon Buster Articles:
Attraction Marketing; Buzz Marketing; Content Marketing; Content Strategy; Duplicate Content; Fresh Content; Interruption Marketing; Linkerati; PageRank; Permission Marketing; SEO; SERPS; The Cloud; User Experience
Welcome to The Wittery Blog (aka The Witty Writer Marketplace)
You’re in the right place if you’re looking for Witty Freelance Writers to add zest to your business content. (Simply click here, click the Register button [remembering to wipe your feet first] and give us some info about you. We don’t do spam (can’t stand the taste). There’s even a limited free trial where you can post your project for free.)
Witty Freelance Writer with a burning desire to join the wit mob? Click here, remove your shoes and then come through to the application form (you can’t miss it. It says “Apply”)
If you’d prefer to follow the scenic route instead, start off at the home page. See you soon.