What Is SEM / Search Engine Marketing?

What Is SEM / Search Engine Marketing?

SEM stands for “search engine marketing.” It is the process of gaining traffic from or visibility on search engines. The phrase is also sometimes shortened to “search marketing.”

SEM is an umbrella term that covers two broad areas:

Gaining traffic through free SEO efforts
Gaining traffic through paid search advertising
Some people consider SEM to mean gaining traffic solely through paid ads. Our article, Does SEM = SEO + CPC Still Add Up?, explains this split in more depth. Here at Search Engine Land, we stick with the broader definition.

For those who want to learn more about either SEO or paid search, see our guides below:

What Is PPC, CPC & Paid Search Marketing
What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
For more about the broader medium of search marketing, read on!

Search Marketing Advice At Search Engine Land

Here at Search Engine Land, we provide search marketing advice and information in a variety of ways:

How To: SEM is our section devoted to practical tips and tactics about search marketing in general.

Search Engine Land Columns are where we publish a number of regular columns on various aspects of search marketing, including:

Brand Aid
Conversion Science
In House
In The Trenches
Just Behave
Small Is Beautiful
Strictly Business
SEM Library Archives is an area of Search Engine Land that provides a collection of all stories we’ve written on the topic of SEM. We also have subcategories, including:

Search Marketing: Branding
Search Marketing: General
Search Marketing: Landing Pages
Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing
Search Marketing: Mobile
Search Marketing: Public Relations
Search Marketing: Search Term Research
Search Marketing: Shopping Search Marketing
SEM Tools is another area of Search Engine Land with a collection of stories we’ve written about search marketing tools. It includes these subtopics:

SEM Tools: Keyword Research
SEM Tools: Links
SEM Tools: URL Shorteners
SEM Tools: Web Analytics
SEM Industry is a section of Search Engine Land that focuses not on search marketing advice but rather the search marketing industry (which even has an industry group, SEMPO). Within our SEM Industry section are these subsections:

SEM Industry: Acquisitions
SEM Industry: Awards
SEM Industry: Blogs & Forums
SEM Industry: Community
SEM Industry: Conferences
SEM Industry: General
SEM Industry: In House
SEM Industry: Organizations
SEM Industry: Outsourcing
SEM Industry: Pubcon
SEM Industry: Search Engine Strategies – SES
SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo – SMX
SEM Industry: Stats
Remember, those with Search Engine Land memberships also have access to a wide-range of video content about SEM recorded at our SMX: Search Marketing Expo conferences. Our Search Marketing Now webinar site also has SEM presentations available on demand, to anyone, for free.

Search Marketing Resources

Those seeking easy-to-scan compilations of search marketing news from across the web should check out Alltop, SEOmash and Search Brains. For compilations of the best articles in search marketing in a given year, visit The Semmys. Over at Search Engine Roundtable, you’ll find a regular compilation of important discussions happening on a variety of search marketing forums.