Search engine marketing also known as SEM is one of the components of internet marketing. The process surrounds the building and marketing of a web site with an aim to improve its position in search engine results. Search engine marketing is vital for the internet marketing and for any form of information that is to be spread through the means of internet or in other words, high visibility and top placement of a website is the key for any online organization and business regardless of its size and the market.

There are number of methods for doing search engine marketing that increase the visibility of a website in result pages of search engines. The three main methods are as follows:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): One of the methods of Search engine marketing is SEO. Eighty five percent of the web traffic generates through searches through keywords where sixty two percent of the searchers just click on the results shown by the first page and rest generally do not go beyond the fifth page of the results. So, it is vital for online business to look as soon as possible for SEM and be visible in all major keyword search results and rank high. Each search engine has its distinctive way of ranking and caching web pages. When the website’s content and overall structure is easily understood by the various search engines’ programs, it is said to be effectively optimized site. The true SEO work entails hundred of diverse variables that are examined and applied in the tactical process. By optimizing the website, it is possible to maximize the site’s ranking for relevant key phases in organic and natural search results.

• PPC: PPC is an acronym for “Pay Per Click” and is very effective method for search engine marketing that takes services and products to target audience. In this technique, when the search is made with a phrase or words that match or are close to the website’s key words, an advertisement is displayed by the site along with the search result. These ads are exhibited either adjacent to or above the organic search results or anywhere a web developer chooses on the content site. These are known as the sponsored ads or sponsored links. The popularity of the keyword influences the cost of ad and advertisers pay their host only when someone clicks on their ad. There are mainly the two models that determine the cost per click: one is flat rate PPC and another is bid based PPC.

• Contextual advertising: It is a method where marketers place ads on other sites that contain information relevant to the product. These ads are in form of text ads or banner ads that generally appears as the pop-up ads. SEM through contextual marketing was first started by Google and now numbers of other search engines have joined the battle.

There are many other methods too for the Search engine marketing that are offered by various search engines such as pay for inclusion (PFI), lead generation, etc.