Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a term used to describe the various ways of marketing
a website via search engines, and entails both organic search engine optimization and
paid search strategies.
Organic search is based on unpaid, natural rankings determined by search engine algorithms, and can be optimized with various SEO practices.
In contrast, paid means you to pay a fee to have your website displayed on the search engine results page (SERP) when someone types in specific keywords or phrases to the search engine.
The SERP will display the ads that you create to direct viewers to your site, and the fee you
pay is usually based on either clicks on or views of these ads.
Organic and paid listings both appear on the search engine, but they are displayed in different locations on the page.
On the next page, you’ll see a diagram of a search engine results page that highlights the positioning of the paid links vs. the organic search results.
According to research data, most searchers – more than 70% of them – click on the
organic results, while only 30% are likely to click on the paid links.
So does that mean you shouldn’t bother with paid search? No, it doesn’t! Paid search is a
great option if you are not ranking well in the search engines with organic search alone.
It is an extremely powerful tool and a valuable asset for enhancing your company’s online
presence.
