Search Engine Marketing

Exactly what is search engine marketing?

Search engine marketing (SEM) aims to connect internet searchers looking for information related to your company, services, and brands with your business. Increased visibility within search engines will attract new visitors to your site(s).

SEM helps site owners meet their various online marketing objectives such as:

• generating leads
• increasing sales
• building brand awareness
• delivering the right message to their audience.

What’s the current landscape of search?

Search usage continues to rise among consumers and professionals alike. Web users love to search. They use the main search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN Search and Ask to find one thing only – information. In fact, in many cases, the trust derived from search results leads many web surfers to only believe the results in front of them. For this reason, it's imperative for any business to consider the implications of ignoring search behaviour.

So what’s the big challenge?

Tapping into the searching behaviours of your audience and figuring out which keywords you need to focus on requires great tenacity. Not to mention securing top rankings for your chosen keywords. If you have tried SEO you’ll know how tricky this can be.

Constant innovations from the rival search engines, coupled with increased activity from your competitors, means that you have to identify the right approach and deploy the right resources to rank well.

What are the risks?

Almost 80% of internet searches are carried out through Google. Any significant change to the algorithm that derives the search results can seriously dent your traffic. There are numerous horror stories of websites being top one day and nowhere the next; but how do you ensure this doesn’t happen to you?

i-KOS SEM methodology

• Research the marketplace
• Research chosen keywords and keyphrases - to determine demand in those areas and to understand ‘language’ and search behaviours
• Create a strategy that marries ‘searches’ to business ‘needs’
• Analyse and recommend areas with most potential for return on investment

Two distinct SEM disciplines are employed to achieve these goals.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO aimed to achieve a high ranking in the 'organic' listings on the search engine results pages. There is no charge for organic listings to be displayed, nor when a link to your site is clicked on. The cost is linked to the effort and resources that are allocated to achieve this. Search engines love regular updates to content, so a website targeting this approach needs to have a long term strategy incorporating significant use of manpower. SEOcompanies such as i-KOS can manage optimisation, and the ongoing work often needed to make a website appear higher in the rankings.

Pay-per-click (sponsored listings)

Adverts appear when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase. These adverts are displayed in the sponsored listings section of the search results page - typically on the right hand side. As the name suggests, a fee is charged for every click of each link. Google's service is known as Adwords. More information can be found in our Google Adwords overview.

A significant benefit of pay-per-click is targeting. As adverts are only displayed when specific keywords / keyphrases are searched for, it's possible to match businesses with their target market.

What should I do?

Many business that i-KOS work with, use a combination of SEO and PPC dependent on budget and expectation. We ensure that we outline all benefits and pitfalls of each approach before undertaking any work in this area. Without this level of understanding, it's impossible to achieve a good ROI.