6 Benefits of Search Engine Marketing

Working in digital marketing naturally means encountering many acronyms and other industry jargon. It’s crucial to understand jargon like SEM, SEO and PPC and how they work. Let’s uncover SEM and understand what are the benefits of search engine marketing (SEM). Research shows that 68% of traceable website traffic comes from organic and paid sources. This solidifies how crucial your online presence is.

What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Don’t feel ashamed if you’ve found yourself questioning ‘what is search engine marketing (SEM) in the past.

SEM is a digital marketing strategy commonly referred to as search engine marketing. SEM can be described as an umbrella or blanket term consisting of both paid and organic strategies. These tactics aim to increase the online visibility of a business website on the search engine results page (SERP). These digital marketing channels are PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO (search engine optimisation).

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a form of paid advertising through Google Ads and other search engine advertising platforms. It works exactly how it sounds! Every time a user clicks on the ad, the advertiser pays a fee. This can vary depending on the cost-per-click (CPC) of the specific keywords that trigger the advertisement.

On the other hand, PPC aims to deliver those results every marketer dreams of QUICK. SEO is an organic strategy aiming to improve a website’s ranking on SERPs over a longer period. Search Engine Optimisation is a long-term approach that can take anything from 3 months to 6+ months to really see and understand the benefit. This is why most marketers develop an SEO strategy to tackle issues across the site head-on

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The Benefits of Search Engine Marketing

So, now that we have defined SEM and you understand what marketing channels are within the umbrella term, let’s delve into the benefits of search engine marketing.

Boosted Visibility

As mentioned earlier, building your website’s visibility on search engines through SEO will naturally take a long time. However, as SEM utilises PPC, you can expect to see results much quicker. Although your competitors may outrank you organically, your paid ad will take you above the organic search results. This makes it the ideal short-term strategy for boosting your online visibility.

Increased Website Traffic 

Driving website traffic through SEO can be challenging and take a long time. However, when SEO is done correctly on of the biggest advantages is ranking highly in organic search engine results.

Running paid ads can help bridge the gap and increase traffic to your website within a much quicker time scale. This can increase the number of leads generated and, therefore, sales and revenue.

Targeted Traffic

In both the organic and paid branches of SEM, you can efficiently target the right audience and traffic by reviewing search intent, utilising effective keywords and providing high-quality content.

For PPC, there are a plethora of ways to target, especially in Google Ads, from location targeting to ensuring you’re using relevant keywords within your search ads. Keywords that are relevant to both your product/service and your users will support the user experience.

For SEO, keyword selection is crucial for optimising your content to reach the right audience. The quickest way to ensure you’re on the right track with both your content and your keywords is to do a Google search of your keyword in incognito mode and review which competitor content is already ranking.

Analytics and Tracking

Let’s talk analytics! Before you scream and close your laptop, analytics and tracking are not as scary as they initially seem.

The top benefit of SEM is that tracking and measuring the success of your campaigns can be straightforward; all you need is the right setup!

Tools like Google Analytics gather data from your website based on user activity. The data collected shows page views, click-through rates, conversions and more.

This allows you to see the direct effect of your SEO efforts and PPC campaigns on the site, among many other areas.

Remarketing 

Search engine marketing (SEM) allows you to leverage remarketing. This strategy targets users who have previously interacted with your website or brand. It will display ads to these potential customers as they browse the web. Remarketing to users that have previously interacted with your business can increase your conversion rates.

Local Business Visibility

If you’re an SME or small business operating only locally, search engine marketing will also work for you, but in a different way.

By concentrating any paid ads on your local area or service areas, you’re targeting the potential customers most likely to buy.

This increases your chances of driving local customers to your business, which is especially beneficial for brick-and-mortar stores or businesses that offer services within a specific geographic location.

Local SEO is slightly different from traditional SEO in terms of what search engines deem ranking factors. To support your local rankings, there are a few things you need to consider:

Localised Keywords – Including location within keywords, e.g. search engine marketing agency Newcastle.

Business Listing – It is crucial to fully optimise and boost your business listing on your Google and Bing profiles. When people search for ‘Near me’ or ‘in Newcastle,’ search results often return a map pack. With businesses in the local area, your business listing supports these searches.

The Importance of Search Engine Marketing

According to SmartInsights, nearly 60% of search engine users aged 16-64 have purchased a product or service online. With an increasing number of consumers using search engines to research products and services, SEM is crucial in marketing strategy. It helps marketers worldwide to capitalise on increased traffic by allowing them to reach their target audience!

Do you want to learn more about SEM and how hiring a professional SEM agency can help you dominate the competition? Check out our free resource ‘Why Hire A SEM Agency | The Ultimate Guide‘ where we define SEM and provide all the benefits of working with a SEM Agency.