What is Search Engine Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing, commonly abbreviated as SEM within the internet industry, is the term used to describe the range of marketing strategies required to make a website visible on search engines and directories in order to attract and increase visitors from its target audience. There are various techniques through which SEM can be accomplished, including:  free, left hand side, organic, and natural results (collectively known as the search engine optimization) of a site; the submission to directories; and the use of paid placement (pay-per-click) campaigns.

What Is Our SEM Strategy?

PalmettoSoft seeks to reverse-engineer the traditional approach to a SEM campaign by focusing on the client instead of the search engine. By creating custom-tailored plans based upon the client’s revenue and branding goals, as well as analyzing the client’s website for maximum sales conversion possibilities, our Charleston Search Engine Marketing company not only creates a SEM package that is perfectly suited to the clients’ needs, but also takes the initiative in educating the client with SEM strategies and techniques, making them an integral part of their marketing process.

Most SEM firms offer pre-packaged marketing. We offer individual solutions.

For example: XYZ Corp. offers their client the optimization of three keyword phrases per month for $1800.00/month. At first glance, the possibility of top rankings on industry-related keyword appears very promising. However, there is something fundamentally wrong with this narrow approach. The public’s general notion of search engine marketing is simply taking a visitor from their original keyword search on a search engine to the website linked to this keyword. For the most part, a lot of SEM firms believe this, as well. The intrinsic problem with this approach, however, lies in that there are no self-contained client goals for revenue generation, quantifiable ROI (return-on-investment) tracking mechanisms, or individual web page call-to-action analysis procedures. In essence, hurling large numbers of visitors to websites is not really the answer. In this model, over time, the client receives only a few emails and telephone calls from the website with sales actually occurring in only a handful of cases. In the end, the client never really knows the true ROI on their money spent with Search Engine Marketing.

We work with the client to specifically identify revenue goals. SEM is not for undecided.

Our Charleston Search Engine Marketing company understands the importance of both identifying and meeting needs and expectations. In rare cases, some potential clients have no real financial goals, they just want to “test the waters” with SEM. While taking the time to completely understand SEM before fully undertaking an extensive search engine marketing campaign is certainly important, PalmettoSoft has found that in order for SEM to truly be a productive addition to a corporations revenue and marketing, the client must have clear financial goals and be committed to the process of long term success to fully benefit from SEM implementation. It is for this reason that PalmettoSoft restricts itself to only to clients who are ready and willing to implement the most complete and comprehensive of SEM campaigns.

Realistic SEM expectations are the answer to internet marketing frustrations.

For example, if the client’s goal is to generate over $1,000,000.00 in the next 24 months through SEM, 10 hours a month of SEM labor is not going to do it. Many more resources and time will be needed to acquire a goal such as this. It is important for clients to understand the be prepared to both accept the time needed and be wiling to devote the resources necessary to acquire their SEM ROI goals, whatever they may prove to be.

In many instances, the most popular keyword phrases are not the best to initially go after.

Every industry on the Internet has different levels of competition and, many times, some terms can take up to 24 months or more to achieve a top page ranking. If a particular keyword phrase is typed into the search engine and over 5,000,000 web pages are displayed for that term, the optimized web page must outrank 5 million pages to display itself near the beginning of the list. This process can take a lot of time and money. By focusing on more unique, specific terms, the client will experience a faster rise to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) which can lead to quicker sales conversions in the short term.

Amateur-constructed websites have very low sales conversions.

When websites have amateur construction features and poor usability, they will have very low traffic conversion or, in many cases, will not convert the Internet traffic sent to it. This is very important to understand as it is an unwritten proverb in the SEM community. Many SEM firms will not talk about the subject since they neither are nor employ talented graphic designers. Our Charleston Search Engine Marketing company works with the client to ensure that Internet traffic is being sent to aesthetically pleasing, professional destination website. Our talented team of designers and copywriters possess the ability to create a powerful, compelling image for your business.