Search engine marketing 'does not mean paid search'

15:00 9th March 2010

Search engine marketing does not necessarily mean paid search as it also incorporates search engine optimisation (SEO).

That is the view of Danny Sullivan, the editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, who said in an article for the website that he finds it "annoying" when people refer to paid search as search engine marketing.

Mr Sullivan explained that traditionally SEO has been known as the natural way to boost a website's ranking in search engine results pages, by using methods such as keywords.

"Good SEO can't guarantee good search engine coverage any more than good PR can guarantee a favourable newspaper article. But it can increase the odds, if done within acceptable boundaries," he commented.

He added that search engine marketing is a term that encompasses paid search, without excluding the benefits provided by SEO.

However, there are also terms that refer to just paid search, such as pay-per-click (PPC), which is where the industry can get confusing.

Mr Sullivan proposed a new category - Search Engine Advertising - in order to help make it clearer for companies who are unsure how search engine marketing works.

This comes after search engine marketing expert Rachel Andersen told Search Engine Journal that digital marketing professionals should use PPC alongside their SEO campaigns to improve click-through rates.