Google has once again revolutionized the way search engines work with Google Universal. By incorporating news, images, blogs and video along with general web site content, Google has not only changed the face of its own search engine, but all search campaigns.
By tailoring search to the user, search results are even more targeted to potential customers than previous search results. Google modified the format of its results page for general searches to incorporate news, images, blogs and video along with general web site content, making it a “universal” search.
Not having to click on the individual tables for maps, images and news offers a greater range of information for the general user. This also allows Google an additional way to monetize ads while retaining users on the Google site. For example, if a video pops up during a search, it can be played without leaving Google/YouTube. This means that while more people may see and click on your link/ad, they may not make it to your actual site. This is a triple advantage for Google, as ads are continuously displayed while the video plays. Additional opportunities to click on the ads will increase the Google cash flow. The extended time users spend on Google increases the "time on site" stats; this metric influences how much advertisers are charged.
By incorporating all the search results into one main search page, great SEM results now require video, optimized images, news, maps and blogs. SEM campaigns must incorporate multiple techniques to build out a comprehensive web presence. The increased variations of how information is pooled into general searches gives press releases, announcements, listings on Google Maps and tagged items on sites exposure. The “universal search” has created an increasingly mutually advantageous way for advertisers and users to use search as a marketing and research tool.
How is targeting accomplished in Search Marketing? The beauty of Search Marketing is that it is “pull based”. The user sees the advertisements when they search for a particular keyword. Relevancy is built into Search Marketing. Additionally, targeting is achieved by research and study into what kind of keywords different people use based on their intent.
From a campaign perspective precise placement, monitoring of thousands of keywords, and web-analytics are involved to target customers more effectively.
I want to start a site related to politics. Will SEM help generate traffic to my site? Yes. SEM can raise the rankings of any kind of site through ads, the association of thousands of keywords to your site and ads, as well as general web site optimization.
Which are the best Search Engines to advertise on? There are three main search engines used in SEM: Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. Then, there are new ones like Ask. There are also meta-search engines that pull from results from other search engines. The choice of search engines is very customer specific and we recommend trying out all or at least the 3 main search engines
How do I raise my Search Engine ranking? Your ranking depends on a variety of factors including: content, use of keywords, meta-tags in your code, links to your site from other websites. Search engines have their own algorithms to rank sites. You can read more about our processes here (link to
SEO section)
Can I do SEM myself?While there are aspects of SEM you can implement on your own, in depth, successful campaigns are complex and detailed. The do-it-yourself automated services offer low results with premium costs. A profitable SEM campaign requires web analytics, thousands of keywords, 24 hour a day manual monitoring of bids, and much more.
Keywords… how important, and how many, should there be?
The words a user types when looking for a product, person or company are “keywords”. These function like the listing in a telephone directory. With keywords, a product can be listed under the varied keywords that may be used to look up the item; this includes common misspellings, local slang, abbreviations, brands etc. It depends on product category and can range from a few hundreds to thousands.
How long does it take for the search engines to list my site?
It varies by each search engine or directory. A few search engines index a site almost immediately. Some engines can take 6-12 weeks or longer and some may fail to list your site.
