How Search Engine Marketing has Evolved: Tips to Keep in Mind

Search engines, something businesses cannot live without, have a deep and rich history of evolution. Let us look at how it started from a paid debut to something like search engine marketing (SEM).

A little white after the advent of the internet, the stage was set for the introductory search engines of back then. A corporate named OpenText Corporation launched its first pay-per-click ads paving the way for an early form of SEM, however, it wasn’t technically named that.

Then came the year 2001 when Danny Sullivan coined the term search engine marketing in an article on Search Engine Land, and after that, it was popularized to cover the spectrum of activities involved in search engine optimization (SEO), such as managing paid listings at the search engines, developing digital marketing strategies for businesses, and submitting sites to directories.

Search engine marketing (SEM) has come a long way since its early days in the 1990s. Originally, SEM involved purchasing ads on search engines such as Google and Yahoo. However, over the years, SEM has become increasingly sophisticated, with new technologies and strategies emerging to help businesses succeed.

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Here are some of the ways in which SEM has evolved:

1. The rise of mobile devices:

With the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets, mobile search has become a critical component of SEM. It has led to the development of new mobile-specific strategies, such as mobile-friendly website design and mobile-targeted ads.

2. The importance of local search:

For businesses that rely on local customers, local search has become essential. This involves optimizing for location-based keywords and using tools such as Google My Business to improve local search rankings.

3. The emergence of voice search:

With the rise of virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa, voice search has become a growing trend in SEM. It has paved way for new optimization strategies, such as optimizing for long-tail keywords and creating conversational content.

If you are looking forward to investing in search engine marketing in 2023, here are some tips you must follow.

1. Take Advantage of the Ad Extensions

With SEM, the ad extensions will be your best friends. Ad extensions are all those extra information such as location details, call buttons, app links, lead forms, images, and so on. You can choose to display these extensions within your PPC ad.

Unfortunately, these extensions have been overlooked, but they increase your likelihood of attracting search traffic directly to the website.

So, if you are already running PPC ads, it is time to opt for all the Google’s available extensions, and you will be doing much better with your paid ads.

2. It is time for a custom budget-pacing script

When it comes to PPC ads, it is easy to splurge on these ads. However, to extract the most out of these paid ads, you must create a budget-pacing script and set clear limits.

You might wonder why is this important.

What will happen is Google will automatically increase your budget by 50% during the first 15 days. The only way you can avoid this is by creating a custom-pacing script. Take help from your coding team, and you will be fine.

Pro Tip: To make sure that your ads show up high in the search results, pause them for the first 15 days of a month and raise your bids in the latter half of the month.

3. Build a Landing Page That Converts

Irrespective of how captivating your ad is, you will not convert leads unless you create a landing page worth paying attention to. To make your landing page optimized for conversions, you must look at factors such as a powerful headline, strong call-to-actions, a lead form, SEO-friendly and interesting content, and more.

4. Spend more time on Targeting

It is one of the most important steps in creating a successful advertising campaign – picking the right audience. Unfortunately, most of the business owners do not invest enough time or effort into building a strong customer-targeting strategy.

So, how do you pick the right words for the right audience?

You start by choosing the right keywords – the words that relate most to the search intent of your audience. You can use Google Trends to Identify the popular search terms for your industry.

Wrapping Up

Overall, the key to success in search engine marketing is to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and strategies and to continually refine your approach based on data and metrics. Search engine marketing has evolved and it will keep evolving, so the key is to stay on top of the latest trends. By following these tips, you can improve your search engine rankings, attract more traffic to your website, and grow your business over time.

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