What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

According to Wikipedia, “Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.^” We’ll go over the details of SEO later (Check out this handy directory of Online Terms), but for now we’ll discuss why it’s important to be seen by the search engines.

First of all, you may be thinking that since all or most of your sales are made in store, you don’t need to have a strong web presence. Well according to BIG Research, “89% of consumers making in-store purchases in key retail categories have conducted online research prior to purchase.” This purchase pattern is often referred to as ROBO, or “Research Online, Buy Offline.” This could mean product research, price comparing or even researching the retailer. So whether or not you sell your products online, a solid online presence is essential to your business.

Search engines have a pretty tough job. It’s their responsibility to maneuver through the billions of pages of web content to find the most relevant results for users. When a user enters a specific search term, they are actively seeking a product, service, or information. For a business owner, there is no better way to reach your target market than to put your business in front of the person that is actively seeking your product or service.  So Search Engine Marketing is essentially the business owners way to reach out to the search engines and say, “Pick me! Pick me!”

Simply put: SEM/SEO means more traffic -> more traffic means more leads -> more leads means more sales -> And more Sales makes for a very happy business owner!