Search engines have become an integrated part of our lives. In today's world, 'being online' is not an option. In US alone, around 7 billion searches are being made every month. Travel, finance, entertainment, education, health or ecommerce, search engines are being used to find information, products and services.
Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the process of marketing a website via search engines. SEM strategies primarily consist of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
SEO is the process of improving natural or organic rankings on search engines. Search engines rank websites based on variety of parameters and each search engine has its own algorithm to rank different swebites. However, one common and most important ranking parameter is a site's credibility which is determined by the quality and quantity of other sites which link to it. PPC is a type of internet advertising in which the advertiser pays an agreed amount to a search engine for every click a visitor makes on the advertisement. It is also referred to as Cost Per Click (CPC), Paid Placement and Search Engine Advertising.
SEM Industry
According to a research by SEMPO, Search Engine Marketing industry was at $9.45 billion in North America in 2006. It is expected to be over $18 billion industry by the year 2011. The SEM industry grew significantly in 2006 as compared to 2005 when it was less than $6 billion in size. According to the same research, while SEO is the most popular form of SEM, it accounted for around 10% of the total spending. However, Paid Advertising accounted for over 85% of the total SEM spending in 2006.
Over the last few years, the importance and the acceptance of SEM has grown significantly. According to a survey by SEMPO, of all the respondents, more than 50% said that Senior Management at their companies are 'very involved' in their SEM program. Sales and Brand awareness were the two major objectives behind all SEM programs.
SEM Job Profiles
Growth in the SEM industry has created a strong demand for experienced and talented Search Engine Marketing professionals. This demand is expected to grow even faster in the coming years with lots of new opportunities for existing and budding Search Engine Marketers.
The SEM industry offers various kinds of job roles for its professionals. Given that the industry is still evolving, these job roles are also changing and new roles are being created with new initiatives. For instance, online PR (Public Relations) has gained significant growth over the last year and so is the need for PR writers and marketers.
An SEM professional may be employed for an in-house work or by an agency. For instance, ecommerce companies like eBay, Google, Yahoo hire SEM professionals for their own products and services promotion. However, agencies like iProspect hire people to serve their clients for various SEM assignments. One may also work as a freelancer. Since every activity of an SEM job can be done online, lots of freelancing opportunities exist for independent SEM professionals. Find below the list of some of the key job roles in the SEM industry. Please note that depending upon the size of the organization, some of the mentioned roles may be combined into a single role.
