The Internet has become a ubiquitous entity, a tool we all acknowledge even if it’s something we don’t necessarily understand. As traditional media shifts more and more toward web-concentrated formats, marketers and businesspeople increasingly need to understand the Internet and all it offers, especially search engines. We’ve all entered a search term into Google, crossed our fingers as we hit the search button, and hoped that what we need appears in the results. We don’t have to understand how it works. But we do need to know what it can do for us.

"Developed correctly, SEM should be an ongoing process, not a one-time project. It’s critical to continually monitor the impact that SEM tactics have on your visibility, and then refine those tactics."

To start with, let’s go over a few search engine marketing basics…

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a set of marketing methods used to increase the visibility of a website on search engine results pages. There are essentially two methods of SEM:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): In search results. Improving the natural rankings for relevant keywords by altering a website’s structure and content in such a way that both can be easily read and understood by the search engine’s software programs. Results are not guaranteed.

Search Engine Advertising: Paying a search engine company for a guaranteed high ranking or an ad displayed aside search results. Commonly known as pay per click advertising, these results can also be determined by pay per call, pay per acquisition, or many other options. Results are guaranteed.

Now that we’re all on the same page, we have a suggestion: if you haven’t jumped on the SEM bandwagon yet, you should. And if you already have an SEM campaign in place, your work still might not be complete. Developed correctly, SEM should be an ongoing process, not a one-time project. It’s critical to continually monitor the impact that SEM tactics have on your visibility, and then refine those tactics. Companies that fail to do this lose an average of 81 percent of their visibility within those first six months of SEM implementation.

SEM tactics need to be continually evaluated for a number of important reasons. First of all, search engines continually make adjustments to their algorithms, formulas used to naturally rank the relevance of queries for any given word (SEO). For example, while algorithms may currently rely heavily on the quality and quantity of links pointing to your site, what happens when other factors gain more importance? Unless you monitor these changes and adjust accordingly, you could see a major decrease in visibility and traffic.

Like algorithms, relationships between major search companies may change at random. These companies acquire other companies, and partnerships shift. Natural or paid search results may be provided by one company one day and a different company the next. As the importance of visibility with certain companies changes, your SEM tactics must change as well.

But reasons to evaluate your SEM efforts go beyond the constant changing of search engines. Your own company’s site receives periodic updates as well. Perhaps you have seasonal products that need more visibility during certain times of the year. Perhaps you must add new products. Without concurrently changing your SEM strategies, your new content will most likely just sit on your site and look pretty. Sadly, no one will see it.

Perhaps the most important reason to continually evaluate your SEM efforts is the simple fact that your competitors are practicing SEM. No matter how your competition is using SEM, their efforts make it more difficult for your site to rank high in search results for competing keywords. When someone does a search for your product, there are only two outcomes—your site or a competitor’s site. The results come down to whichever company is working harder to continually appear at the top of the list. Where will you rank?

To get better search results, contact Eric Karlovic, Director of Channel Technology, at ekarlovic@hughes-stl.com.