Search engine marketing
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Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion.[1] Other sources, including the New York Times define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings, different from SEO which seeks to obtain better free search listings.[2][3]
Market Structure
In 2006, North American advertisers spent US$9.4 billion on search engine marketing, a 62% increase over the prior year. The largest SEM vendors are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.[1] As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising. [2]
History
As the number of sites on the Web increased in the mid-to-late 90s, search engines started appearing to help people find information quickly.
Search engines developed business models to finance their services, such as pay per click programs offered Open Text in 1996 and then Goto.com in 1998. Goto.com later changed its name to Overture in 2001, and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, and now offers paid search opportunities for advertisers through Yahoo! Search Marketing. Google also began to offer advertisments on search results pages in 2000 through the Google AdWords program. By 2007 pay-per-click programs proved to be primary money-makers for search engines.
Search Engine Optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunites offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged.
The term "Search Engine Marketing" was proposed by Danny Sullivan in 2001 [4] to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals.
Paid search advertising hasn't been without controversy, and issues around how many search engines present advertising on their pages of search result sets have been the target of a series of studies and reports [5] [6] [7] by Consumer Reports WebWatch, from Consumers Union. The FTC also issued a letter in 2002 about the importance of disclosure of paid advertising, in response to a complain from Commercial Alert, a consumer advocacy group with ties to Ralph Nader.
See also
- Organizations
- SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, is a non-profit professional association for search engine marketers.
- Search engines with SEM programs
- Google - global
- Yahoo! - global
- Microsoft Live - global
- Ask.com - global
- Baidu - China
- Yandex - Russia
References
- ^ a b "The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006". Search Engine Land. February 8, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b "More Agencies Investing in Marketing With a Click". New York Times. March 14, 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "SEO Isn't SEM". dmnews.com. December 5, 2005. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Congratulations! You're A Search Engine Marketer!". searchenginewatch.com. November 5, 2001. Retrieved 2007-06-09.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work (Abstract)". consumerwebwatch.org. June 30, 2003. Retrieved 2007-06-09.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Searching for Disclosure: How Search Engines Alert Consumers to the Presence of Advertising in Search Results". consumerwebwatch.org. November 8, 2004. Retrieved 2007-06-09.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Still in Search of Disclosure: Re-evaluating How Search Engines Explain the Presence of Advertising in Search Results". consumerwebwatch.org. June 9, 2005. Retrieved 2007-06-09.
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