Search engine marketing can be a highly effective method for small businesses to advance their brand. Companies are increasing their SEM marketing budget worldwide and in 2009 small businesses spent twice as much on SEM as online display / banner ads.* For those new to SEM the process can be intimidating if not overwhelming. As the technology behind search engines advances, effective strategies to get and keep your business at the "top-of-the-list" become increasingly complicated. In this issue I'll try to de-mystify some of it. First I'll address the two forms of SEM, pay-per-click (PPC) and optimization (SEO)

PPC campaigns work off a fixed monthly budget where companies purchase ad-space in search results. Any time you run a search on google or yahoo you will notice there are "sponsored" listings at the top of the page and on the side column. In simple terms you tell google or yahoo what your search terms are, how much you are willing to spend monthly, they put you at the top of the list, and you pay a set fee (up to a cap) per click-through.

SEO is an organic approach where a company takes various steps to get their site to show up higher in search results naturally.

Each approach has it's own advantages. SEO requires an ongoing time investment and it usually takes at least 2-3 months to begin to see results. The majority (85%) of all search result click-throughs are SEO based. In contrast PPC gives immediate results with minimal time investment. While only 15% of click through action is PPC based, PPC click throughs have much higher conversion rates. Consumers who click on ads or sponsored links are generally ready to buy / commit. Ideally your SEM efforts should leverage both approaches.