Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing

• Search engines are Web-based programs that index the Web and allow people to find what they are looking for.

• Search engine optimization is the practice of improving the visibility of a Web site on search engines.

• Google is the leading player in the search engine market, with 67% of the global market share.

• When we talk “search,” we refer to two different kinds of results: organic search results and paid search results.

• Organic search results are the primary product of a search engine, while paid search results are influenced by financial payment.

• Search engine visibility promotes brand recognition and research has shown that search engine listings can stimulate brand recall by a three-to-one margin.

• People trust organic search results more than paid search results.

• Search engines use keywords to help users find the information they are looking for.

• People use search engines to lead them to Web sites.

• Search engines must list their results according to relevance and importance in order to attract and keep users.

• Web site owners, Webmasters, and online marketers want search engines to send traffic their way.

• Search engine marketing (SEM) has two parts: search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search (PPC).

• SEO aims to improve a Web site’s ranking in the natural search results.

• PPC advertising involves bidding for placement in the paid search results section of the SERP.

• Both SEO and PPC advertising are based around the same fundamental concept: keywords.

• Keywords are the key to making sense of all that we have learned about search engines.

• Google owns the largest share of the search market.

• Organic search results typically appear on the left-hand side, while the paid placement typically appears on the right.

• Search is important for a variety of reasons, including goal orientation and the three-way relationship among search engines, Webmasters, and users.

• SEO and PPC are two divisions of search engine marketing. PPC advertising involves bidding on desired keywords to achieve rankings in the paid results, while SEO aims to have a Web site rank in the natural results for its target keywords.

• Search engines are the doorway to the Internet and people trust organic search.

• Many users have a search engine as their browser home page.

• There is a three-way relationship among search engines, Webmasters, and users.

• Users want to find what they are looking for on the Internet.

• Search engines want to make money from selling advertising.

• Webmasters and online marketers want search engines to send traffic to their site.

• There are four main functions of a search engine: crawling the Web, indexing documents and pages, processing user queries, and returning ranked results.

• SEO + PPC = SEM.

• ticle/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization (accessed April 3, 2008).

“Technology Overview,” Google, http://www.google.com/technology(accessed April 3, 2008).

Test your knowledge of search engines, search engine optimization (SEO), and search engine marketing (SEM) with this quiz. Explore the key concepts and functions of search engines, the importance of organic search results, the roles of SEO and PPC advertising, and the impact of search engine visibility on brand recognition.