Per the request of fellow forumite, I am starting this thread. It is meant to be a living document so everyone is encouraged to contribute. Also, what I say isn't golden. If I make a mistake, someone please keep me honest.

Here it goes:

Search Engine Marketing (SEM), in lay-man's tems is what you do on your site, in order to promote it, to ensure that it ranks highly in search engines (google, yahoo, etc). The goal is here to reach certain metrics (converting visitors to buyers, getting people to spend more time on your site, etc).

It comprises PPC (Pay Per click, the ads you see at the top and to the right side on google for example. More on this is another post) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is what you do, that doesn't cost you a thing, on your actual site to ensure high rankings (content on your site, layout of your site, load time of your pages, etc)

This is pretty much it for a first post. make sense? I would rather a majority say it does before moving forward. Again, others are free to chime in.

make sense. ride on

go on

yes yawa ride on

@ yawa-ti-de, nice job !!! This is a very important post and we all been to share ideas on SEO, Online marketing, PPC, PPI etc. Most web masters don't pay attention to this area in their design and delivery of a website, maybe due to the non competitiveness of ecommerce site in Nigeria, pls ride on

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A lot of sense is there carry on.

sem is simply paying money for your ads to be listed in the search engine. Now the master, talk about how someone can be successfully with SEM. I believe that it is very risky doing ppc, because you may bid without any sales conversion. Now let the cat out of the bag.

no need to make sense as it is sense itself , carry on bro

its nice to finally see this. um, yawa, i wanted you to check this site: www.mountainviewcyprus.com that's the site that brought up ma debate about SEO the other day

To Me, SEM is simply the art of generating massive traffic using the search engines as a leverage. Regardless ofit being free or not.
Cheers.

No yawa, I disagree with your definition of SEM! SEO is totally distinct from SEM itself. SEM is just marketing your site via SEs while SEO is the art and science of seeking top place in SERP!

You are right, that is what Search Engine Marketing means.

NIce one, without good SEM and SEO fixes, your site will just be there with no one getting to know about it. My blogger blog is ranking high on google, with most of my articles in the top 10 all just because of the series of stuffs have done with it and still doing,

ur head is there carry go man.

Search engine optimization is the art of placing your website in the first few pages of a search engine for a strategically defined set of keywords. In simple words SEO helps your website appear on the first page of a search engine like Google, when someone searches for your product or services.

Yawa, ride on o!

The definitions and explanations given about Search Engine Marketing (SEM) on this discussion are all valid. One thing to note is that there is a fee to be paid in order for a website to be included in the search results.

However there is a better alternative to SEM. Its called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO also helps in improving the volume of traffic to a website directed from search engines. The catch here is that it can guarantee results without paying any money. SEO is one of the major tools today that give websites a "web presence"in the world of internet marketing.

The criteria people use to search in search engines are considered by SEOs and based on this certain relevant keywords are included in the html code which in turn increases boosts the web presence of the web site.

Remember, i'm not downplaying the use of Search Engine Marketing, i'm only informing everyone about viable alternatives.

Feel free to ask more questions on the issue.

Fenno!

@adminlo
I have reservations over your contributions. It seems you
want to sell some affiliate products. Looking at their prices,
I wonder how many of them you have actually bought and
tested? No hard feelings.

@ Yawatide
That’s a good one and it makes sense.

But I will like to take it one step further by starting from the basics.

What is search engine?
A search ebgine is simply any website that allows visitors
to conduct searches on the world wide web based on specific
keywords.

What is a keyword?
A keyword is the most important and meaningful word in
your search phrase which enables you the search engine to
feed you results that are closest to what you are looking for.

Does location enhance search result?
Yes! It does.

You must understand that every information and website are
Hosted in different computers and servers around the world.
So, are people and businesses. Therefore, the more location
specific your search phrase, the closer and better will be your
search result. Now, let’s assume you are looking for a forum.

Go to google.com and type under-listed phrases, and for each
of them list the total number of websites found.

Here we go

No Search Phrase Total Sites Found
1. Forums
2. Forums in Africa
3. Forums in Nigeria
4. Forums in Lagos
5. Internet marketing forum in Lagos
6. Online forums
7. Online forums in Africa
8. Online forums in Nigeria
9. Online forum in Lagos
10. Nairaland forum
11. Nairaland forum ONLY lagos
12. Nairaland forum ONLY Lagos Niageria

How do one get his or her website to this search engine and what is the payment like and the payment mode. I just got e newly well designed and very comprehensive website to promote and market, Pls more answers

SEM is a hot cake in the internet world. I am one of the few Nigerians who do it as properly as a business . I would be launching my site by next week, but as an easter bonus I am ready to promote 2 websites only free of charge.
Well I do 100% manual submissions and I will send your website to 50 high PR indexes and 20 top search engines world wide absolutely free of charge.

It obviously makes sence. SEM benefits you than SEO as you pay for SEM services

For cheap SEM benefits, check www.tregeocreatives.com

Am listening