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What Does SEM Mean To You?
Went Hot: August 31, 2007 - 4:19 am
Posted By: vanessafox 328 days ago
Topic Type: Discussion
Category: SEM
What does SEM mean to you?
26 Comments
Comments
I teach it as the combination of the two, and I'm not at all ready to cave into the idea of SEM as meaning the same as paid search.
It makes sense to use SEM as an umbrella term for both, but you're right that some call PPC "SEM" and some just call it PPC. I've done it myself.
What do you think about the shortened, "search marketing" or as many ad/interactive/PR agencies call it, "search"?
I've NEVER equated SEM with paid search (nor do I think I know anyone who does). SEM is an umbrella term that includes SEO, PPC, Social Media + all other related disciplines.
I'm with you guys that SEM is the catchall.
However a lot of clients don't fully grasp PPC or find it pejorative because of an association with banner ads or something of the sort. It doesn't matter what we call it if the people writing us checks don't understand it. So "rebranding" it SEM lets you start fresh as far as definitions and preconceived notions plus it just sounds good when paired with SEO. Personally I usually end up calling the paid side Adwords, kind of the same way just about any carbonated beverage is a Coke.
I've been saying search marketing more and more over the past two years. Shorter, feel it better explains that it's marketing related to search activity (which may not always be on a search engine -- say when you are on a mobile device and you pick through a yellow pages app, for example).
Google Trends likes it too:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=search+marketing%2Csearch+engine+marketing
I view SEO as a piece of SEM. I wrote an article about it something like three years ago, and I suppose it still pretty much represents my views: http://www.raisemyrank.com/articles/seo-sem.htm
And apparently it's still ranking pretty well for [seo and sem].
While I can see that either could be correct, I've associated SEM as PPC and SEO as organic.
I think the segmentation has likely been formed by the term SEM being used in paid search sessions and discussion more than anything else.
Get out of my brain, Vanessa! :) I heard the same thing at SES and had the same reaction you did. I thought the days of SEM = PPC were long gone....
I remember when Danny first wrote about calling it search marketing a few years ago. I agreed and also adopted that terminology. But I hardly notice anyone but us saying it that way! (Besides Yahoo Search Marketing that is :)
SEM is clearly all search engine marketing (and now has expanded into many other forms of online marketing) while PPC and SEO are each specialties within SEM.
While PPC and SEO have some overlapping skills (keyword research, analytics, copywriting) I have long argued that they should be treated as two different specialties. Both change so quickly that no one can truly excel at both.
I would go even further and suggest that those who wish to drive exceptional results would do well to build a team (either in-house or with others) that includes separate specialists in SEO, PPC, linking, affiliate programs, PR, copy-writing, analytics, social networking, product-feeds, newsletter marketing, offline media, and now highly SEO-optimized and custom-programmed blogs.
Each specialist must understand the big picture and how the others fit into it while focusing on their own specialized skill set. And if the systems at Microsoft AdCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing don't improve and/or Google AdWords gets any worse we may need separate PPC specialists for each one plus another for the lesser engines.
Those who embrace the concept of collaboration and abandon the idea of competition will have an enormous advantage. Collaborators learn more and faster by sharing what they learn. They know each other well enough to recognize opportunities and send them to whomever is best suited. And there are only so many exceptional clients so why not all benefit from working with them?
There is no such thing as competition; your "competitors" are a great gift to YOUR business. They spend money on advertising, raise awareness, and if they operate or communicate poorly, they send YOU business. Even if they are well run, some clients will move around and become everyone's client.
Many think there is a limited pie and each must fight for their share (or even want to take everyone else's). I believe we make the pie larger instead. Be grateful for your "competitors" - their efforts and yours increase the size of your niche's "pie".
Due to the "PPC only" usage I prefer search marketing over SEM as umbrella term.
Sorry guys, I think this discussion gets the focus on the wrong issue. Certainly SEM includes SEO. Anyone who thinks SEM = PPC is clearly not understanding. .. and search marketing is a better term than SEM. However Internet Marketing, which includes search marketing, is really where your mind should be. Search is a pretty big slice of that but there are some other important dimensions that must be kept in mind at the same time.
In my experience working for a large agency that dealt with clients big and small, it was universal that SEM = PPC. I don't like that because one term is enough for me, but it's not nearly as bad as one of the people that frequents Sphinn who is throwing out the term SEO 2.0 and lumping all activities into that - now that's just ridiculous!!!
Back to PPC, I also frequently hear the terms paid search and sponsored search used to describe it as well.
As far as the umbrella term, in my opinion 'Internet Marketing' is the only one phrase that can describe all activities like SEO, SEM, Social Networking, Link Building, adjusting CTAs on web sites, etc. etc. All of these things are marketing activities and they're focused on the Internet, what makes more sense than Internet Marketing?
It's up to us (the industry) to come up with terms for what we do, but unfortunately every once in a while people like to 're-label' things to try to create a buzz and we end up with 10 terms for each discipline... :( I still like PPC...
SEM
Search Engine Marketing = Marketing via Search Engines.
As such the following fall under the SEM tag.
SEO
Pay Per Click
Pay For Inclusion
Pay Per Call
Banner Advertising
Display Advertising
Contextual Advertising
Rich Media Advertising
Any other form of advertising a search engine offers.
My two cents....and hence my firm name Sem-Advance
SEM-illustrated
http://www.seoish.com/search-illustrated.JPG
I think the term you use has a lot to do with when you came to the party and where/how you received your training and experience. Then throw in your own perception the work that you are doing. We're all basically in marketing, just not in the old-style marketing that dealt only with television, radio and print ads. We get to use this entity called the Internet to get our point across.
Since most people find what they are looking for on the web using one of the search engines, we could call it SEM to cover all that we do to draw in the customers, be it organic or some type of paid inclusion.
When you get to the bottom line, though, we're dealing with Internet Marketing in all it's forms.
I agree with OldDog, as I'm very new to reporting on the search space and have been following my editors and fellow writers in using SEM/paid search interchangeably (and the same with SEO/organic search.) Making that distinction gave me a clear view when I was just trying to understand the business of search as a whole.
That being said -- I like the term search marketing, as I'm learning that search encompasses so much more than buying keywords or optimizing sites. I even get excited when I speak w/ in-house agency search directors and managers, and they talk about their how off- and online divisions are starting to using search data and insights.
Using the label preferred by the audience you wish to reach is the most productive method of deciding. Use your favorite keyword research tool and find out what the public calls it and use that. Since we are in the SEARCH business we ought to know this.
A search using Ad Words Analyzer today shows these totals:
Internet Advertising 37,916
Online Advertising 18,920
Pay Per Click Advertising 16,182
SEM 14,772
Web Advertising 9,439
PPC Advertising 8,548
Search Engine Advertising 2,049
Search Advertising 282
The public has spoken and they prefer Internet Advertising or Online Advertising overwhelmingly to Search Engine Advertising and few call it Search Advertising.
Using Industry jargon, acronyms, and abbreviations and assuming our target audience will know them belongs on the Top Ten lists for foolish assumptions, bad Web Design, and poor marketing.
Want a real life example of why that makes more sense? Do you know what a CTF is? IBM insisted that employees refer to a particular type of machine as a CTF and I bet you never heard of one - and you probably used one in the past few days.
IBM called them a Consumer Transaction Facility. The public calls them ATMs (Automatic Teller Machines). See who won? And they weren't trying to make sure the public could FIND one back then.
P.S. I did not put line spaces between those search words. I'd love to know why CSS (or whatever it is) insists on adding and removing what is not there. If you know, drop me a line?
Here are some results from Wordtracker:
PPC search engine internet marketing - 108,914
Internet Marketing - 16,957
SEO - 11,294
Search Engine Optimization - 9,877
Search Engine Marketing - 7,899
Search Marketing - 670
As you can see, we all need to refer to our industry as PPC Search Engine Internet Marketing!!! :) Just combine all the terms together into one run-on sentence... Or maybe Wordtracker is a little screwy and search engine marketing is the top term.
I still cast my vote on Internet Marketing, and I'm sticking with it! ;)
Ohh you keyword researchers do great work!!
However lets see what we forgot.
BRAND
InternetAdvertising.com
or
Sem-Advance.com
I like the second.... though I am biased.
Lets try another
PPCsearchengineinternetmarketing.com
or
PPCGuru.com
Let's not forget as a new industry, we are also educators of our target market.
The webmaster who does not understand what PPC or SEO are, has no greater knowledge, because you use the term internet advertising or online marketing.
I think I have used all of the various terms listed on the different responses to a varied assortment of people from all walks of life and most have no clue what I am speaking of and I often find myself explaining as below:
"You know the ads you see on Google or Yahoo?
Yes
"I help companies advertise there"
Oh ok.
;->
While we all may know,
many people have no clue!
I have to say that SEO is a strategic and mostly technical discipline, paying attention to minutia even though the implementations of various tactics that support SEO are not themselves SEO. I mean "technical" not as in programming but as in specializing in applications of techniques. Copywriting is not SEO, but SEO will dictate the need for copywriting, and copywriters may specialize in SEO copywriting. Social Media is not SEO, but SEO can call in Social Media Marketing to achieve goals. A social media marketer may specialize in SEO (getting links to rank for terms) or promotion (traffic, awareness) etc. It's not all SEO and it's not all SEM.
SEM is by definition "marketing". That's quite different than SEO.
So no, I don't see SEO as under an SEM umbrella any more than copywriting or design are under an SEM umbrella. They are tools for the SEM to use.
I'm gonna second Barry.
Since SEO/SEM is also largely about marketing, as SEM and search marketing imply, it makes sense to call what we do Internet marketing, because it is not only about the search engines, but also about the marketing approach and the people.
As Internet marketing can absorb any related field, I think it makes sense to call it thus :)
I agree with "Internet Marketing" - I've always called this thing we do "Internet Marketing" or back in the really early days I said "Online Marketing" often. But Internet-Marketing is best as an umbrella term.
SEM, when used to define the PPC aspect of Internet Marketing is basically wrong since that is truly SEA - the A for advertising.
If we want to get picky, SEO and SEM are both bad to start with. As Search Engine Marketing or Search Engine Optimization are both bad grammar for marketing TO search engines (MSE) and optimization FOR search engines (OSE). (Search engine marketing is what G/Y/M/A do when promoting themselves.)
I truly prefer Internet marketing (since hardly any of us really concentrate on only one aspect of SEO or PPC or usability or analytics or KW research or etc).
The term "Search Marketing" ultimately may be the best term, though, for what most of us here at Sphinn do since it excludes the email/display-ad aspects of marketing that might otherwise fall under the Internet-Marketing umbrella.
I recently wrote an article on YOUmoz discussing the fact that someone always tried to come up with a new term, or a new version for SEO/SEM. I also mentioned that I feel we should adopt standards, as the SEM industry has grown to where it was when I started (back in 1999).
I believe that it is SMM (Social Media Marketing) which has tended to cloud the lines between SEO (optimization of a web site to rank well in search engines) and SEM (The A to Z's of promoting a web site including SEO, Paid Search, and SMM, which is often equated with link building, which is a part of SEO). Did I confuse you?
FYI, here is a link to my related YOUmoz article:
http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/search-marketing-industry-standards-and-best-practices-seo-20-2701
- Anthony
Anthony
the only person confused is you.
SEM - Search ENGINE marketing - This means marketing through search engines.
It does not mean marketing through social media sites (SMM)
Hopefully you're no longer confused,
Peace!
Internet marketing to me is an umbrella term that covers a variety fo things, such as:
internet advertising (banners, email advertising, search ads, affiliate marketing)
internet promotion (blogging, social media marketing, SEO, etc).
Internet marketing is NOT search marketing. Search marketing is a part of internet marketing. Many people are internet marketers who also do search marketing. But I absolutely do not agree the two terms are the same.
In particular, if you do only search marketing, you're not an internet marketer fully if you're ignoring other important venues such as email marketing and so on. Doesn't mean you're not successful -- just that you're specialized.