Increasing the visibility of the website through search engine is known as Search engine marketing. The promotion of website through this marketing tool is by making the website appear in the search engine result pages or SERPs . For achieving the aim of this marketing, some of the tools applied include search engine optimization or Seo, paid placement and paid inclusion. It is also argued that online companies are pursuing these tools in their internet marketing strategies because it is the cheapest marketing strategy as compare to banners, pop up ads etc.
Because of the benefits of the search engine marketing its popularity has increased among the online businesses and companies. Companies spend billions of dollars on search engine marketing. Furthermore, search engine marketing is also appearing as one of the most common type of internet marketing. Some of the providers of the search engine marketing include Yahoo search marketing, Google Adwords, and Microsoft adCentre. Hence, we can say as compare to the traditional marketing and other internet marketing tools, search engine marketing is more advantageous. Various variables can be evaluated to determine the effectiveness of serach engine marketing like growth in the sales and increase in the users traffic.
The history of search engine marketing is dated back to late 90s because in the mid to late 90s Ecommerce emerged and a number of online businesses were started. During the same period the number of the internet users also increased. In order to increase the users traffic on their websites the online websites started to develop their business models. In 2000, Google introduced its search engine marketing program. Danny Sullivan introduced the term search engine marketing in the year 2001 and these services include paid placement, development of online strategies and search engine optimization services. The popularity of search engine marketing can be estimated from the fact that in 2007 it emerged as the primary money maker tool for search engines.
The online businesses which are applying search engine marketing as a major internet tool argue that it is the cheapest marketing strategy and it is more effective as well. Some companies are specifically providing consultancy services to the online businesses regarding the application of the tools of the search engine marketing. Along with the various benefits of the search engine marketing there are some problems related with the paid search advertising.
Most of the people argue that such practices are unethical because internet users cannot get the benefit of the quality content because of such techniques. In order to avoid such unethical practice, proper rules and regulations have been introduced.
Hence, in conclusion it can be suggested that the benefits of search engine marketing are higher than the costs incurred on it therefore, it is the best marketing strategy for the online websites and the businesses.