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  • SEO
  • |
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
  • paid inclusion

Vested interests appear to use the expression SEM to mean exclusively Pay per click advertising to the extent that the wider advertising and marketing community have accepted this narrow definition. Such usage excludes the wider search marketing community that is engaged in other forms of SEM such as Search Engine Optimization and Search Retargeting.
#sem
  • Profile picture of the author TechBlog
    Well i believe they bring much traffic than increasing serps
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi Jennysmithuk,

    I agree, I see many folks that incorrectly interpret the SEM definition. I have found it a fairly reliable indicator of a person's knowledge and experience in the field.

    I view PPC, SEO, Link Building and other promotional activities as subsets of SEM. I also believe many folks include "link building" as part of SEO, while it is more properly included as its own category within SEM.

    I believe "link building" is more of a promotional activity than an optimization technique. Having said that, there is an element of "link building" that involves optimization as it relates to the choice of links and anchor text. However, the primary role of building links should be to drive relevant traffic to your own pages. Sadly, many folks in this industry use link building purely as a PR manipulation tactic and have become the primary target of the anti-spamdexing teams at the SEs.
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