{"id":689,"date":"2016-01-08T13:16:26","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T18:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watt-media.com\/blog\/?p=689"},"modified":"2025-01-24T03:28:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T08:28:42","slug":"what-is-search-engine-marketing-and-do-i-need-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wattmedia.com\/blog\/what-is-search-engine-marketing-and-do-i-need-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Search Engine Marketing, and Do I Need it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Search<\/a>As a business owner, you undoubtedly understand the importance of great marketing. In a time where everything has \u201cgone digital,\u201d tech-savvy marketing is crucial; even the smallest business owner is expected to have a website these days. With that comes a seemingly endless to-do list that can confuse even the most seasoned business owner. You can easily become overwhelmed by all the search engine\u00a0marketing jargon out there. SEO, SMM, SEM, CPC, PPC — what does it all mean? Do I need it, and if so\u2026 how do I do it?<\/p>\n

Delving into the what and hows of every form of digital marketing takes time, dedication, and experience. For our purposes here, let\u2019s take a look at one of the most critical forms of digital marketing. One that guarantees effective, fast results — search engine marketing aka, SEM.<\/p>\n

What is SEM?
\n<\/strong>
\nThe definition of SEM seems to be evolving. Some define SEM as an all-encompassing digital marketing strategy comprised of SEO (search engine optimization), competitive analysis, and paid search listings. More commonly today however, SEM is becoming a term solely for what we call, \u201cpaid search.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paid search, or SEM (get ready for more acronyms) includes:<\/p>\n

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising<\/strong> — allows you to buy visits to your site using advertisements that appear on the top of the search results. When someone clicks the ad, you pay a fee.<\/p>\n

This is often used interchangeably with the term, cost-per-click (CPC), however PPC is actually meant to describe the type of advertising program you are using, while CPC communicates what you are actually paying per click within that advertising program. Another option is cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM).<\/p>\n

The most common venues for PPC are:<\/p>\n

Google: Adwords
\nBing Ads
\nYahoo: Search Ads<\/p>\n

Good to know, but why do I need SEM?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glad you asked! SEM is great for many reasons. Here are a few:<\/p>\n