SEM, involves marketing a Web site via search engines by using a number of methods. One of these ways is to improve the site’s natural ranking through search engine optimization (SEO).

Another is by buying pay-per-click (PPC) ads with search engines. These ads focus on selected keywords and then are displayed on search engine results pages when the relevant keywords are used in a search. They may also appear on other Web sites whose content includes the keywords specified.

Another important type of search engine marketing involves getting and creating inbound links. Getting and creating inbound links to a website from other relatedsites is a way of increasing exposure of the site and increasing natural rankings in the search engines.