Introduction to SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Search engines have become an integral part of our lives. In today's world, "online" is not an option. In the U.S. alone is around 7 billion searches made each month. Travel, finance, entertainment, education, health and e-commerce, search engines are used to find information, products and services.
Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the process of marketing a website via search engines. SEM strategies primarily consist of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC).
SEO is the process of improving natural or organic rankings on search engines. Search engines rank websites based on different parameters and each search engine has its own algorithm to rank different swebites. However, a location parameter common and most important is the credibility of a site, which is determined by the quality and quantity of other linked sites. PPC is a type of Internet advertising where the advertiser pays an agreed amount to a search engine for every click a visitor makes on the ad. It is also called cost per click (CPC), paid placement and advertising on search engines.
SEM Industry
According to the study of SEMPO, Search Engine Marketing industry was $ 9450000000 in North America in 2006. It is expected that more than $ 18 billion industry by 2011. SEM has grown significantly in 2006 compared to 2005, when it was less than $ 6 billion a year. The same study, when SEO is the most popular form of SEM, was about 10% of total expenditure. advertisements, however, paid, which was over 85% of the total SEM spending in 2006.
In recent years the importance and adoption of SEM has grown significantly. According to a study by SEMPO, of all respondents over 50% said that senior management of their companies are "very involved" in their SEM program. The sales and brand awareness were the two main objectives behind all SEM programs.
SEM images of work
The growth of the SEM industry has created a strong demand for experienced professionals and talented Search Engine Marketing. This demand should grow even faster in coming years with many new opportunities for existing and emerging search engine marketing.
The SEM industry offers various types of work roles of its staff. Since the industry is still evolving, these job roles are changing and new functions are creating new initiatives. For example, online PR (Public Relations) has gained significant growth over last year and therefore the need for writers of public relations and marketing.
A professional SEM can be used to work in the company or by an agency. For example, e-commerce companies like eBay, Google, Yahoo SEM hire professionals to its own products and promotional services. However, agencies like iProspect hire people to serve their customers for various missions SEM. You can also work as a freelancer. Since all activities of an SEM job can be done online, there are many opportunities for freelance work for independent professionals SEM. Below is a list of some of the key job roles in the SEM industry. Note that, depending on the size of the organization, some of the above functions can be combined into a single function.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• VP / Director, SEO
• SEO Manager
• Lead SEO team
• Executive SEO (Link Building, Keyword Research, etc)
Writer and content editor •
• Account Manager (for organizations that serve multiple clients)
PPC (Pay Per Click)
• Campaign Executive
• Campaign Manager
• Ad Writer or Editor
• Account Manager (as above)
In addition to the above functions, organizations also hire technical professionals and graphic designers to create tools and technologies for effective implementation and service SEM.
SEM Salaries
Although there is no official data on wages earned by professionals in the SEM, the annual salary of a professional SEM in the U.S. typically ranges from $ 30,000 for a $ 250,000 exeuctive SEM level position for a vice-president in office for many years of experience and location. The salary offered for similar roles in India between Rs 120,000 (about $ 2500) to Rs 30,00,000 (about 65,000 U.S. dollars) per year.
professional in-house wage higher than the professions working in an SEM agency. The main reason for this difference in salary is that in-house professionals possess stronger domain knowledge compared to a professional body and therefore the role played by a professional in-house is more critical.
Required Skills
Being a professional SEM success requires a broad range of skills. In addition, the requirement of knowledge change over time according to the changing needs of the SEM industry dynamics. Here is information on the basic skills required by a professional SEM.
General Skills
• Great ability to analyze quantitative and
• excellent communication skills (especially written)
• feeling constantly learning (industry is dynamic and must be at the forefront of best practice)
Technical Skills
• Good understanding of Computer, Internet, email and HTML knowledge
• SEO techniques - both do's and don'ts "
• Techniques of PPC, including specific information about programs like Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN Advertising
• Good understanding of tools such as Wordtracker, Google Keyword Suggestion and Traffic Estimator, Google Toolbar, Google Analytics, HTML editors and FTP Software
• Good understanding of relevant programming and scripting languages such as PHP, ASP, XML and CSS (for technical positions)
