Search engine marketing

When we talk about search engine marketing (SEM), we are talking about so-called pull marketing. Someone enters a search query into a search engine, then ads related to that search query are displayed. Actually, search engine marketing is comparatively a cheap and in addition effective way of marketing. An SEO campaign is always part of this, of the entire SEO and SEA campange.

What is search engine marketing?

But what exactly is search engine marketing? Search engine marketing refers to optimizing for a search engine, such as Google, for example. Within search engine marketing, you can use search engine optimization (such as SEO) or search engine advertising (such as SEA).

Examples of search engine marketing

Actually, search engine marketing is any form of advertising through a search engine. The search engine Google is by far the most widely used search engine. In addition, you can also look at search engines such as Bing. These search engines offer the ability to advertise a website or online store in the search results. You use programs like Google Ads for this.

With search engine marketing, for example, you can create an ad about a book you’ve written, shoes you sell or a service you offer. A core part of this is the online findability of a website.

The importance of search engine marketing

In search engines, paid and free ads are distinguished from each other. A free ad often seems interesting, yet paid ads are also important. In fact, the cost per visitor purchased is usually quite low.

The advantage of search engine marketing is that the visitor is already looking for a particular search term and is therefore interested in it. This makes it more likely that your product or service will actually be sold.

The impact of search engine marketing

By employing search engine marketing, you ensure that your web pages are more findable in search engines. The higher your website ranks in these search engines, the more visitors and awareness you will get. This can ultimately lead to higher conversions. And be honest, who doesn’t want that?

My advice

Our advice is to use a mix of free and paid ads in search engines. In fact, a large proportion of visitors click on the “normal” search results. Ads are additionally useful for attracting more visitors to the website in a short period of time. As an advertiser, you can decide which words you want to be found on.

In addition, you pay per click-through on the ad, so you only pay for the number of people who actually visit the website.

Senior SEO-specialist

Ralf van Veen

Senior SEO-specialist
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I have been working for 10 years as an independent SEO specialist for companies (in the Netherlands and abroad) that want to rank higher in Google in a sustainable manner. During this period I have consulted A-brands, set up large-scale international SEO campaigns and coached global development teams in the field of search engine optimization.

With this broad experience within SEO, I have developed the SEO course and helped hundreds of companies with improved findability in Google in a sustainable and transparent way. For this you can consult my portfolio, references and collaborations.

This article was originally published on 22 March 2024. The last update of this article was on 22 March 2024. The content of this page was written and approved by Ralf van Veen. Learn more about the creation of my articles in my editorial guidelines.