First things first, what exactly is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)? In a nutshell, it refers to the paid ads that appear on Google search results. These listings feature above (and sometimes beside) the list of organic search results when you Google something. For this reason alone, SEM is super important to a business, since the first thing a user sees is the paid listing. But why else is SEM important for your business? Google is getting smarter Over the years, Google has gotten a lot smarter. Gone are the days where you can implement sneaky SEO tricks across your entire site to improve your rankings in the search results. Nowadays, if you try any of these "black hat" SEO techniques, such as keyword stuffing your H2s and content, your site will likely be penalised and no longer rank. Additionally, Google doesn't just let any site rank in the search engine results pages (SERPs). It now ranks sites based on things like domain authority, the number of backlinks to the site from reputable sources, the expertise of writers, and the overall trustworthiness of the website and articles. Google's algorithm updates have also made the search engine smarter, which has ultimately made it harder for some businesses to rank organically, which is where SEM can really help. There's nothing wrong with paying for ad space, in fact, it's almost a necessity if you don't have a stellar content and SEO team. More competition Depending on your core business, you may have noticed that over the years, online competition has increased. If you don't have an online presence, it's almost business suicide. Since there's more competition, it's getting harder to rank on Google, and it's ultimately harder to get your name in front of your audience. With SEM, you can almost guarantee that your site will be promoted to thousands of potential customers, even if it isn't ranking on the first page of Google organically. Google is volatile and unpredictable With Google becoming smarter every day and experimenting on how to improve its algorithm, it's difficult to know when something is going to change and massively affect how your site ranks in the search results. For example, in 2019, Google started limiting the number of times a single domain could show up on page one of the search engine results pages (SERPs). So if your site had five different pages ranking on page one of the SERPs, suddenly just one was ranking. Changes like this can affect the overall traffic to your site, and ultimately your sales, especially if you rely heavily on Google. SEM helps you mitigate the risks associated with organic search. SEM is becoming more and more important to businesses, especially those who have a lot of competition, aren't well known, don't have a lot of resources (e.g., to build out content), and want a competitive edge. To find out more, contact us at Mark 2 Creative today.