Where does search marketing fit in?
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We have seen in the previous chapter a rather simplified example of a user’s experience when looking for a particular type of product. So now let’s dissect what was going on here from the seller’s point of view.
Initially, when I searched for the word “widgets” what came back were the websites that Google™ felt were both authoritative and relevant. These sites were very wordy and described widgets rather than sold them. This is a prime example of search engine optimisation (SEO) done well. These sites had high rankings for these keywords and provided me with insight into what I needed to know. Many of these kinds of sites derive revenue from advertising on their websites rather than selling directly. This is often called 'affiliate marketing' and is a great way to leverage the high rankings these sites enjoy.
I next refined my search and found a number of sponsored links and organic listings. Again this was a mix of sites, some were information only while others were looking to sell the products. This is where Pay-Per-Click marketing really starts.
Finally we refined our search to the specific product we wanted to buy and found that the sponsored links were the most useful. Again Pay-Per-Click provided the vendors with a buying customer.
In conclusion, search marketing comes in three flavours:
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