Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion.cite web|title=The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006|url=http://searchengineland.com/070208-095009.php|accessdate=2007-06-07|date=February 8, 2007|publisher=Search Engine Land] Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings.cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/14/business/media/14adco.html?ex=1299992400&en=6fcd30b948dd1312&ei=5088|title=More Agencies Investing in Marketing With a Click|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2007-06-07|date=March 14, 2006 ] [cite web|url=http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/search-marketing/34955.html|title=SEO Isn’t SEM|date=December 5, 2005|accessdate=2007-06-07|publisher=dmnews.com]

Market structure

In 2006, North American advertisers spent US$9.4 billion on search engine marketing, a 62% increase over the prior year and a 750% increase over the 2002 year. The largest SEM vendors are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising and even other channels of online marketing.

History

As the number of sites on the Web increased in the mid-to-late 90s, search engines started appearing to help people find information quickly. Search engines developed business models to finance their services, such as pay per click programs offered by Open Text [cite web|url=http://news.com.com/2100-1023-215491.html|title=Engine sells results, draws fire|date=June 21, 1996|accessdate=2007-06-09|publisher=news.com.com] in 1996 and then Goto.com [cite web|url=http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2165971|title=GoTo Sells Positions |date=March 3, 1998|accessdate=2007-06-09|publisher=searchenginewatch.com] in 1998. Goto.com later changed its name [cite web|url=http://news.com.com/GoTo+gambles+with+new+name/2100-1023_3-272795.html|title=GoTo gambles with new name|date=September 10, 2001|accessdate=2007-06-09|publisher=news.com.com] to Overture in 2001, and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, and now offers paid search opportunities for advertisers through Yahoo! Search Marketing. Google also began to offer advertisements on search results pages in 2000 through the Google AdWords program. By 2007, pay-per-click programs proved to be primary money-makers [cite web |url=http://ist.psu.edu/faculty_pages/jjansen/academic/pubs/jansen_tweb_sponsored_links.pdf|title=The Comparative Effectiveness of Sponsored and Nonsponsored Links for Web E-commerce Queries|month=May | year=2007|publisher=ACM Transactions on the Web,|accessdate=2007-06-09|author=Jansen, B. J.|format=PDF] for search engines.

Search engine optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunities offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged. The term "Search Engine Marketing" was proposed by Danny Sullivan in 2001 [cite web|url=http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2164351|title=Congratulations! You're A Search Engine Marketer!|date=November 5, 2001|accessdate=2007-06-09|publisher=searchenginewatch.com] to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals.

Ethical questions

Paid search advertising has not been without controversy, and the issue of how search engines present advertising on their search result pages has been the target of a series of studies and reports [cite web|url=http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/dynamic/search-report-false-oracles-abstract.cfm|title=False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work (Abstract)|date=June 30, 2003|accessdate=2007-06-09|publisher=consumerwebwatch.org] [cite web|url=http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/dynamic/search-report-disclosure-abstract.cfm|title=Searching for Disclosure: How Search Engines Alert Consumers to the Presence of Advertising in Search Results|date=November 8, 2004|accessdate=2007-06-09|publisher=consumerwebwatch.org] [cite web|url=http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/dynamic/search-report-disclosure-update-abstract.cfm|title=Still in Search of Disclosure: Re-evaluating How Search Engines Explain the Presence of Advertising in Search Results|date=June 9, 2005|accessdate=2007-06-09|publisher=consumerwebwatch.org] by Consumer Reports WebWatch. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also issued a letter [cite web|url=http://www.ftc.gov/os/closings/staff/commercialalertletter.shtm|title=Re: Complaint Requesting Investigation of Various Internet Search Engine Companies for Paid Placement or (Pay per click)|date=June 22, 2002|accessdate=2007-06-09|publisher=ftc.gov] in 2002 about the importance of disclosure of paid advertising on search engines, in response to a complaint from Commercial Alert, a consumer advocacy group with ties to Ralph Nader.

See also

*Enterprise Search Marketing

;Search engines with SEM programs
*Google - global
*Yahoo! - global
*Microsoft Live - global
*Ask.com - global
*Baidu - China
*Yandex - Russia
*Rambler - Russia
*Timway - Hong Kong

References