by MikeSchinkel [1]
*Search Engine Marketing - the New Face of SEO*
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is changing - search engine
marketing is now the face of SEO. While the two terms share many
similarities, it's more aesthetic than actually working the same in
practice. Search engine optimization still has its place and it's an
important one, but for your website or business to really prosper
online you need to combine SEO with search engine marketing.
*What is Search Engine Marketing?*
As the name implies, search engine marketing, or SEM, is simply
marketing for the various search engines. While this may sound
identical to search engine optimization, there's a very big difference
between the two (although both should be used side-by-side to truly
maximize your online presence). Whereas SEO is a combination of
optimizing the web pages you can see as well as behind-the-scenes of a
website (meta tags, meta descriptions, image links, etc), search
engine marketing takes SEO and expands it into numerous different
areas.
While SEO will help you gain the eyes of the search engines as far as
straightforward ranking goes, search engine marketing actually builds
your online presence and enhances any SEO tools that you have in
place. This in turn offers your website and associated offshoots - a
blog, for example - as a far more authoritative source of information,
which then helps you gain the trust of the all-important web users.
Search engine marketing methods include:
*Developing your online brand or name via a dedicated online profile*
- social media networks, blogging, article submission, etc. It's
important not to saturate the market though - choose two or three
respected social networks, article directories and blogging
communities and start developing your profile. Show that you're an
expert in your area and offer useful advice that other people can use.
*External links* back to your site are another important area of
search engine marketing, but only if these links are quality-led and
relevant. Many webmasters make the mistake of buying into "link farms"
- websites set up purely for exchanging links. While this approach may
give you a fast hike in your rankings, Google and the other search
engine providers will soon recognize the links as being false and
ignore them, therefore taking away any benefit you might have imagined
having. Quality links are where other webmasters or Internet users
recommend your website as a source of information - this is where the
value of developing your online brand comes in.
*Being pro-active in making your website or business visible* and
watching trends so that you can act upon them before they become the
norm. For example, Google Alerts is an excellent way of keeping
up-to-date with what's happening around the world regarding key
phrases. Yet there is a way to take this even further - use Google
employees as your Google alerts. Anytime a new update is released from
Google regarding the way rankings work, etc, it's from a named source
at Google. Adding that name to your Google alerts will ensure that
whenever that person posts something, you'll know about it - and that
could lead to some undiscovered gem that offers you an immediate
advantage online.
*Email marketing* is another excellent form of search engine
marketing, as long as you do it professionally and ethically. Place a
newsletter sign-up form on your website for visitors to subscribe to -
this ensures they actually want to hear what you have to say, as
opposed to viewing emails from you as Spam. When you send a newsletter
out, include offers and advice and links back to your site where these
offers/advice can be found. This ensures an instant and interactive
call-to-action where your newsletter reader sees something and acts on
it - for online businesses it offers an excellent method of increasing
sales.
While traditional and proven SEO methods are still an important part
of your online visibility, search engine marketing is where the real
value to your website or business lies. Developing a brand that people
trust and come to will offer much more sustainable success, which will
last far longer than any results the ever-changing rulebook of SEO
might offer. For this reason alone, search engine marketing is the
next logical step for SEO.
Dan Edgar is the owner of online writing specialist company SEO
Content Providers. The team of highly regarded writing professionals
at SEO Content Providers has but one goal - to provide affordable,
high quality SEO content for websites and blogs. Whether you're an
individual, professional or business you can be sure that your SEO
content projects are handled professionally and punctually.
More Search Engine Marketing Articles [2]
Links:
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[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/13838874@N00/1701107069
[2] http://toponlinemarketingtool.com/?cat=7
http://toponlinemarketingtool.com/?p=704
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