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Search Engine Marketing Versus Search Engine Optimization!© 2007 John H. Dow As soon as someone I'm talking to finds out I do web site design and SEO work, they always want to know about search engine marketing. How this term started I can only guess but to me it's not very accurate. But I learned long ago not to buck the public perception so I just tell people that it's search engine optimization with a buzzword. Just for fun I did a search analysis on the term Search Engine Marketing. Whoa, I was shocked since the software I use showed almost 900,000 searches last month. And it also showed about 8 million web sites with the term. The reason I was shocked is that when you do the same analysis on the term search engine optimization it shows 171,000 searches and 62 million web sites with that term. That's a huge difference on both searches and web sites with the term. Now before I launch into my standard definition on SEO or SEM, this is a perfect example of the importance of Keyword Research. It always amazes me what can turn up in doing Keyword Research, and that's an often overlooked or under worked area. Search engine marketing is used to help the reader understand that there are ways to get the search engine to rank you higher. You want to come up in a high position (if there are 8 million web sites with the same term, they come up according to ranking). Even someone with little exposure to the Internet or web sites would have a better chance understanding this term. Those who are familiar with the search engines and Internet would probably use Search Engine Optimization since the term is used often. So my best guess is that many of the new users search on the term search engine marketing since it may be more recognized. And there are some that would like to include all the marketing buzz with the service. So if you are going to sell a product or service that involves Search Engine Optimization, you should also use Search Engine Marketing to cover all the bases. And that's where good Keyword Research really pays off, finding terms you might not have immediately known about. Back to defining search engine optimization. The lords of search (Google, MSN, and Yahoo) all have different methods of ranking web sites. Google of course is the 800 lb Gorilla but it's always good to cover all three engines. Google claims to have over 200 different aspects they consider when determining what position (most web sites want in the top 10) your web site comes up on any search term. The other guys are a little behind this curve and use far less. But the main aspect that all look at are content, content, and more content. Next is linking, followed closely by content. Are you seeing the path here to more traffic? Just like in Real Estate (which is location, location, and location), content is king in the search engine listings. The quality of your content is judged in several ways. This is where you get some credit for other "Authority" web sites that link to you. If other web sites in the same subject field think you have value, then the search engines will rank you higher on that particular term. Plus the depth and width of your content can also be beneficial as long as it's closely related. The ways you display your content help a lot too. Using header tag options (H1, H2, H3) is a way to show the search engines what you feel is important. Using bold, italic, underlining also brings attention to key elements. Navigation in the form of easy to understand text links (don't name your front page "home", use a descriptive subject context label) is liked by both users and search engines. Putting navigation on each page, using descriptive text links is good (Internal linking). This is a 50,000 foot description of some of the main criteria used to rank web sites according to guidelines provided by the search engines. There is considerable depth and detail to each area that can have an impact. The next question is "If I do all this will my web site rank higher?" Well, yes and no. If you do it better than the other web sites, yes. If you do it and don't do it as well as the other web sites, no. Also keep in mind that the ranking is for web pages (yes, every single page) not a web site as a whole. So yes, you get to do this on every page you have in your web site. Welcome to some of the issues in search engine marketing or optimization. It is not an exact science, more of an applied art. And as with many applied arts, the devil is in the details.
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