Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

As we noted on our Search Engine Optimization Page, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is distinguished by actions orchestrated outside of the Site and its code. Where SEO is more technical, SEM is more marketing and sales oriented.

In our SEO tutorial we covered some of the basics in producing a website with intrinsic value. The topic of "Website Value" is also covered in our "Executive Express" pages with more detail.

We have used several terms in our presentations of SEO and SEM, most of which we have made sure to define in some detail. This is one of the best marketing terms reference (glossary) when ever in doubt. If you didn't find it there try this Internet Marketing Term Source.

Inbound Links

One of the most important features of a website by which the Search Engines attribute the value of a website to the Internet Community is how many Incoming Links it has from other Sites. At this time this factor remains one of the most important ranking features for the top 3 Search Engines; GOOGLE, MSN and YAHOO especially.

A Brief History of IBLs

Since Inbound Links, also referred to as "IBLs", "BLs" and "Backlinks" are one of the most important ranking components for all sites, the acquisition of IBLs has been exploited by spammers and "Black Hat SEO" types almost since the inception of the Internet.

Internet Ad revenue tallies up $Billions, every year. GOOGLE and spammers constantly wage a horrific war where new technology loopholes are exploited by "Black and Gray Hat SEO/SEM" methods, countered with Search Engine algorithm refinement. These algorithm changes are made periodically by all of the top Search Engines but GOOGLE commands the most attention, since they dominate the market. The webmaster world names each of the updates, which happen about 4 times per year, or quarterly by GOOGLE, with a system similar to the way hurricanes are named.

Two of the more significant GOOGLE algorithm updates during 2005 where the "Bourbon" and "Jagger" Updates".

Reviewing IBLs for any Site on GOOGLE, MSN, and YAHOO

The commands given below require that they be search criteria requested in that particular Search Engine. GOOGLE only shows a small representative number of IBLs, where MSN and YAHOO show a great deal more. MSN presents the most complete report at this time. Substitute the URL you are inquiring about below for www.yoursite.com below.

GOOGLE
link:www.yoursite.com
example using; link:www.cnn.com

MSN
link:www.yoursite.com
example using; link:www.cnn.com

YAHOO
link:http://www.yourdomain.com
example using; http://link:www.cnn.com

Note the inbound link quantity difference reported by each of the Search Engine Link Count examples above.

Where Does Website traffic really come from?

"Expert" sources report that 80% of Internet traffic comes from the Search Engines and the remaining 20% comes from "Type-Ins" and direct links from "Saved Favorites" and "Direct Links" from other sites. Although these "Stats" may be real from an overall, they simply don't apply to all Sites, and certainly shouldn't.

If you have a Site that is properly SEO'd and established, you have likely experienced a decreasing percentage of Search Engine Traffic referred to your Site over time!

We have one client we took from 3 million to 7 million page views per month implementing a multifaceted SEO plan and his website traffic is being generated as follows.

Direct address / Bookmarks – 93.1%
Links from an Internet Search Engine - .6%
Links from an external page (other web sites except search engines) – 6.1%

A large percentage of visitors to his Site save it as a favorite or bookmark it. Over time these return visitors can accumulate well for any Site. Return visitors are much more likely to be return customers.