Search engine marketing

                                                   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,contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.^[1] Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings.^[2][3]

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.^[1] As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditionaladvertising and even other channels of online marketing.^[2]

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^[4] in 1996 and then Goto.com^[5] in 1998. Goto.com later changed its name^[6] 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^[7] 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^[8] 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^[9][10][11] by Consumer Reports WebWatch. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also issued a letter^[12] 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.

References

1. ^ ^a b "The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006". Search Engine Land. February 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-07.
2. ^ ^a b "More Agencies Investing in Marketing With a Click". New York Times. March 14, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-06-07.
3. ^ "SEO Isn’t SEM". dmnews.com. December 5, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-06-07.
4. ^ "Engine sells results, draws fire". news.com.com. June 21, 1996. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
5. ^ "GoTo Sells Positions". searchenginewatch.com. March 3, 1998. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
6. ^ "GoTo gambles with new name". news.com.com. September 10, 2001. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
7. ^ Jansen, B. J. (May 2007). "The Comparative Effectiveness of Sponsored and Nonsponsored Links for Web E-commerce Queries"(PDF). ACM Transactions on the Web,. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
8. ^ "Congratulations! You're A Search Engine Marketer!". searchenginewatch.com. November 5, 2001. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
9. ^ "False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work (Abstract)". consumerwebwatch.org.June 30, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
10. ^ "Searching for Disclosure: How Search Engines Alert Consumers to the Presence of Advertising in Search Results". consumerwebwatch.org. November 8, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
11. ^ "Still in Search of Disclosure: Re-evaluating How Search Engines Explain the Presence of Advertising in Search Results". consumerwebwatch.org. June 9, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
12. ^ "Re: Complaint Requesting Investigation of Various Internet Search Engine Companies for Paid Placement or (Pay per click)". ftc.gov. June 22, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.