Great Primer on Setting up Your SEM Program

Search Engine Marketing Article: SEM: In-House vs. Outsourced - Courtesy of SEMPO


If you have run up against the ceiling of plain vanilla Search Engine Optimization (SEO), or if you've heard about SEO but haven't yet given it a try, you'll find this article invaluable in helping you craft your strategy, and make decisions regarding outsourcing relationships.


Search Engine Management is the next generation of SEO, the progeny of Search Engine Optimization and Customer Relationship Management. One of the evolutions in the thought processes of SEO v. SEM is the strategy of looking at search engine traffic with the goal of creating more types of actions by the customer.


Traditionally, SEO looks for purchases, site registration and activation of permission-based subscriptions as key success metrics in terms of conversions from SEO click-thrus. Other goals that are addressed by SEM relate to different stages of the purchasing process. Recognizing that customers use search engine information as part of a research process, SEM seeks to integrate relevant messaging into the search results for terms used at different stages of the purchasing process and to serve appropriate content to customer's stage in the purchase life cycle.



One of the most valuable tools in the article is a series of questions that you use to identify the key requirements of the role and evaluate your options in filling it. Another metric that I found interesting, was that, according to the article:
"Contrary to what many SEM firms say, 95% or SEO (not including Paid Placement) is done once and needs little ongoing tweaking, if it is done right and if--big if here--nobody screws up the SEO after it is implemented."

The promise of SEM is much like the promise of event-triggered communications. When relevant business rules are created, monitored, and used, these programs create a perpetual pipeline of sales leads and direct sales results.