SEM or Search Engine Marketing is not a very often used term but nevertheless it has to be mentioned and explained. More often, we use terms that are a part of SEM such as PPC (pay per click), paid inclusion, SEO, and a best example industry’s leading Google Adwords and other.
SEM is a part of a bigger picture called online marketing. It is a set of marketing methods to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). Don’t mistake SEO with SEM, SEO is only a part of SEM. Maybe we could divide SEM into two parts, free and paid. Where SEO is free and PPC and paid inclusions are off course paid. Note that Google does not offer paid inclusion, but Yahoo does. Also, note that Yahoo has Yahoo search marketing (former Overture). Other search engines may offer paid inclusion, and there are many other pay per click programs, but Google’s and Yahoo’s are the biggest, cheapest, highest quality and best. Although there are some rumors that people that come from MSN search (Live search) are good buyers.
