Today, creating and maintaining a successful website is more than just a one-step process. Many clients believe that once their website has been uploaded to the Internet, it is readily available to their target demographic; however, without a proper promotional strategy, a website can be lost within hundreds of pages of search engine results. In addition, tactile, paper-based directories such as Yellow Pages have fallen behind in our digital age. Search Engine Marketing campaigns such as Google AdWords have demonstrated both proficiency and cost efficiency when compared to Yellow Pages, resulting in measurable, higher quality results. Google AdWords is one example of an SEM strategy, but you are probably still asking yourself: “What is SEM, and why should I care?”

What is Search Engine Marketing?

SEM, also known as Search Engine Marketing, is an umbrella term that is used to describe the different initiatives that a client can take in order to increase the visibility of his or her website on search engines such as Google. The primary goal of an SEM campaign is to direct as much traffic to a website as possible, thus producing as many clients as possible for a specific business. A successful SEM campaign will most often combine Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and online, paid advertising.

SEO is a process that focuses on establishing and implementing keywords in a website’s content that will provide the most visibility for a website in search engine results. The main goal here is content optimization, which will ensure that a website will naturally place higher in search results, thus making your website more available to your target demographic.

Online paid advertising, such as Google AdWords, is another process that is often used in SEM campaigns. Google AdWords campaigns are extremely flexible when compared to paper-based directory services such as Yellow Pages. An entire campaign can be paused, stopped, and started at a moment’s notice, and a specific advertisement can be halted if the priorities of a client’s business or website change. New campaigns can also be created and implemented instantaneously alongside other campaigns, allowing businesses to create multiple optimized keyword lists and a variety of complementary advertisements. This is a huge improvement from paper-based directories like Yellow Pages who force their clients to wait anywhere from a few months to an entire year before any changes to a campaign can be made. In addition, successful Google AdWords campaigns can be run at a fraction of the cost of most paper-based directory services.

As of recently, Virtual Image was upgraded from “Google Qualified” to a full-fledged “Google AdWords Certified Partner.” This means that our staff has had professional Google certified training that will allow us to provide our clients with efficient, industry-standard Google AdWords campaigns that will place their websites at the top of search engine results. More details about Virtual Image’s certification can be found here.