Marketing Dictionary

Search engine marketing (SEM)

What is search engine marketing (SEM) ?

Search engine marketing, also called SEM (Search Engine Marketing), is a strategy companies use to increase their visibility in search engines such as Google. When people search for something on the Internet, they often use a search engine to find information. Search engine marketing is all about making sure your Web site appears high in search results when people search for products or services you offer. The goal is to attract more visitors to your Web site by being highly visible in search engines.

Search engine marketing consists of two main components: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEA (Search Engine Advertising). SEO focuses on optimizing your website so that it ranks better in the organic, or unpaid, search results. You do this, for example, by writing good content that matches what people are looking for, by improving the technical structure of your website, and by getting links from other websites to your website. SEA, on the other hand, is about advertising in search engines. This means you pay to have your ads appear at the top or next to organic search results when people search for specific keywords. SEA is a quick way to get more visibility because you can immediately appear at the top of search results.

In practice, search engine marketing is used to help businesses reach more customers and increase their online visibility. For example, a business can start with SEO by setting up their website so that it is well found by search engines. They ensure that the content is relevant to their target audience's searches and that the website is fast and user-friendly. At the same time, they can use SEA to get quick results by creating ads that target specific keywords their customers use. By combining both SEO and SEA, a business can generate visibility and traffic to the website through ads in the short term, while working to improve their organic search results in the long term. Search engine marketing is thus a powerful way to ensure that people find your business online, exactly when they are looking for what you have to offer.

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