Let’s start with the toughest part: learning a whole new language.

One of the biggest challenges to embarking on a web marketing strategy is figuring out what all the acronyms mean. SEM, SEO, PPC, ROI, LPO, CPA… it’s an alphabet soup of new terms to learn.

But don’t let learning a few new terms and concepts deter you from undertaking what could be a very profitable way for you to move your business forward. Search engine marketing (SEM) is helping businesses of all sizes to achieve their core sales objectives, often at a much lower overall cost and with better results than alternative marketing strategies.

So let’s start with SEM: what does it mean and how does it work?

According to Wikipedia, SEM is defined as:

…a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages. According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement (also called pay-per-click or PPC ads), contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.

The largest players in the SEM space are Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, with Google owning the largest market share by far.

A visual representation will be helpful here. In this screen shot from a Google search result page (for diesel cars… I’m looking into buying a biodiesel-fueled

Google Search Result Page (biodiesel cars)

car), you’ll see two different kinds of results. First, there are “Sponsored Links” on the top and in the right-hand column. Second, in the main part of the page, you see what are called natural or organic search results. And, at the bottom (which isn’t in this screen shot), you would typically see that this page is one of many, many pages of results.

Increasingly, businesses, periodicals, blogs, and a whole variety of information and entertainment sites receive the bulk of their traffic from clicks on the links from these search engine results pages.

When someone clicks on a link in one of the sponsored links sections, Google (in this case) is paid by the company or person who advertised that link. The price that is paid is determined by a bidding process. What Google gets paid can range from just a few cents per click to, in rare cases, hundreds of dollars.

Clicks on links in the natural search results section of the page are different. When someone clicks on a link within that section, no one pays the search enigne anything. And it means that the traffic that goes to the owners of those links is acquired for free.

These are the two most core and key concepts in SEM: paid placement within search results and natural placement within search results. Every practice within SEM has to do with how it is you can optimize your listing or placement in both kinds of results and how efficiently you can convert clicks on those links into paying (or monetize-able) customers.

These practices are broken into three major areas:

First: The process and practice of getting very high in natural search engine listings is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Second: The process and practice of getting optimally positioned in paid search engine listings is called Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign management.
And third: The process and practice of improving the rate of converting clicks on those links into customers and sales is called Landing Page Optimization (LPO).

Each of these practices can be undertaken separately, but SEM works at its best when all three are leveraged simultaneously. For novices, undertaking any one of these can feel difficult. But it doesn’t have to be.  Small Plug: this is where Yield Software is able to be a real help to you. We’ve automated all three processes, making web marketing simple, fast and profitable for you. We’ve got a free thirty-day trial that helps you get your feet wet and to see how easy leveraging all pieces of the web marketing puzzle can be.

To see more blog posts in our Introduction to Web Marketing Series, go here.