Search Marketing: When applied to SEO, search marketing is the act of marketing and optimizing a website so it will perform better in a search engine's rankings. Some examples of search marketing strategies include pay-per-click advertising and paid inclusion.
While search marketing can use elements of SEO, the two are not mutually exclusive. Search marketing campaigns tend to have a broader scope than SEO. Generally, SEO focuses almost exclusively on organic search rankings, while search marketing takes both paid and organic search into account.
Currently, search engine marketing is one of the most rapidly-growing advertising methods available. In 2012, advertisers across North America spent $19.51 billion to market their clients on search engines.
Search marketers have four key tools at their disposal to boost a site's search-engine rankings. These include content marketing, social media, paid advertisements like pay-per-click ads and keyword analysis.
The need for brands to adopt search marketing practices is clear: 93% of all experiences that take place on the web start with a search engine query, meaning the search engine has become people's gateway to the Internet and the best way for them to discover new brands. In addition, some estimates have stated that the entire search engine industry is worth more than $16 billion today.