Conceptual labyrinth in search engine marketing
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2025 5:27 am
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a term that has become indispensable in online marketing and is of vital importance to website operators . But what exactly does it mean? What do the many abbreviations we constantly come across stand for? To help you keep track of this confusion, we want to explain the most important terms.
Search engine marketing (SEM) simply explained
Anyone searching for information, offers, products, or similar today primarily obtains it through search engines – in other words, they Google. Of course, there are other search engines besides Google, such as Bing or Yahoo. However, since Google's market share in Germany is almost 95%, we'll limit ourselves to this.
The importance of search engines has steadily increased since the advent of the internet, self employed data making them an increasingly attractive marketing channel over the years. Today, search engine marketing is one of the most important disciplines in online marketing . Search engine marketing is often mistakenly equated with search engine advertising. But whether online or offline, marketing is NOT the same as advertising, so a distinction must be made. SEM, or search engine marketing, is the umbrella term that refers to marketing within search engines . This area is divided into search engine advertising (SEA) and search engine optimization (SEO).
SEA – the sprint of search engine marketing
SEA, or search engine advertising , is concerned – as the name suggests – with advertising within search engines. Users who enter a search term into Google generally see advertisements (Google AdWords ads, since July 2018 Google Ads ads) in addition to the natural search results . These are displayed at the top and/or bottom and are labeled "Ad."
Get found on Google with SEM
Top of Google through search engine marketing
With Google AdWords or Google Ads, advertisers enter the terms they want to be found under, and they have full control over the text and numerous other settings . Once the first AdWords/Google Ads ad is created, it can be activated, and the advertiser becomes "visible" in the search engine. Due to its speed and immediate discoverability, search engine advertising is often referred to as the sprint of search engine marketing .
Search engine marketing (SEM) simply explained
Anyone searching for information, offers, products, or similar today primarily obtains it through search engines – in other words, they Google. Of course, there are other search engines besides Google, such as Bing or Yahoo. However, since Google's market share in Germany is almost 95%, we'll limit ourselves to this.
The importance of search engines has steadily increased since the advent of the internet, self employed data making them an increasingly attractive marketing channel over the years. Today, search engine marketing is one of the most important disciplines in online marketing . Search engine marketing is often mistakenly equated with search engine advertising. But whether online or offline, marketing is NOT the same as advertising, so a distinction must be made. SEM, or search engine marketing, is the umbrella term that refers to marketing within search engines . This area is divided into search engine advertising (SEA) and search engine optimization (SEO).
SEA – the sprint of search engine marketing
SEA, or search engine advertising , is concerned – as the name suggests – with advertising within search engines. Users who enter a search term into Google generally see advertisements (Google AdWords ads, since July 2018 Google Ads ads) in addition to the natural search results . These are displayed at the top and/or bottom and are labeled "Ad."
Get found on Google with SEM
Top of Google through search engine marketing
With Google AdWords or Google Ads, advertisers enter the terms they want to be found under, and they have full control over the text and numerous other settings . Once the first AdWords/Google Ads ad is created, it can be activated, and the advertiser becomes "visible" in the search engine. Due to its speed and immediate discoverability, search engine advertising is often referred to as the sprint of search engine marketing .