Search Engine Marketing or SEM is a type of Internet Marketing that increases your overall exposure in the search engines. Search Engine Marketing includes strategies such as Search Engine Optimisation, Fresh Content Marketing, Online campaign management and Paid Advertising. SEM can be better described as the parent of SEO as it does cover a broader spectrum of marketing services. The SEM is responsible for the promotion of your site and can sometimes use different media platforms to create an overall awareness of your site which will increase your traffic and it turn increase your search engine ranking.

Search Engine Marketing is most commonly used in reference to Pay-Per-Click or more specifically Google Adwords which allows you to directly target your visitors by location and relevance so it is a very effective form of SEM due to its high ROI.