Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

SEM has a few main areas - Sponsored Links, Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). All are based around your listing showing up when someone searches on a term of interest to you.

Sponsored Links is where you pay for a fixed listing (Google puts them above the search results and shades them). I believe you pay a fixed amount for this.

PPC are listings where you pay when someone clicks your link. In Google's case, these are the listings that show up on the right side of the screen (also labelled sponsored link). The ones towards the top are ones that pay more per click.

SEO is about trying to get listed closer to the top in the search results when someone searches on a relavent term. In this area, you are not paying Google or the other search engine companies, but are doing this by improving your site's relavence for the search terms.

I have used the last two. PPC hasn't been great, but at a cost of about $.10 per click (a couple of dolalrs a month), I figure it is worth continuing to do.

SEO is well worth considering when you design a site and your marketing programs, but it takes a lot to do it. There are some simple steps to take, like having the right meta tags, alt tags for pictures, and using good text in your site. But there is also a lot you have less control over, such as who links to you.

hi,

i just got an email from double.click.com that talks about what you are asking.

email me if you would like a copy:

sweetasman01@yahoo.com

hope this helps. oh put "doubleclick report" in the subject line so i can easliy see it.

Sweetasman01

Thanks everybody for your responses. I think this at least points me in the right direction but I'm sure I'll have further questions as I proceed.

I just found this board the other day. I run a marketing company and don't have a whole lot of people to call on for advice (clients think I'm supposed to know everything). It's nice to have a place to go for input for other marketing professionals.
Thanks
Max