Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is becoming a vital component of many advertising programs. Without keywords a search campaign cannot function. However, keywords are only one element to think about. In a SEM program keywords are simply the key that opens the door for an ad to appear.

The ads triggered by keywords are the real bait, and what the user actually sees. The ads need to motivate someone to take action. They need to convince the searcher to click on the ad, and hopefully lay the foundation for spending time on the landing page.

Think about how long you spend on search results pages. I bet it is not very long. With that in mind, think about how hard SEM ads like Google’s Adwords must work to convince a searcher that the answer they are searching for is provided on the other side of the click.

Developing effective SEM ads can be a real
---More---

It’s generally true that the more keywords you put on your site, the better it does in organic search. But not always. 

In fact, many business-to-business sites suffer from keyword confusion to the point of keyword cannibalization.

When search engines spider your site, they are looking for more than just a jumble of words. They are looking for logic and consistency about how those words are used.

Say, for instance, that your main product, widgets, is used as a keyword throughout your site. That’s a good thing.

But what if the titles, descriptions, keywords and page content for several different pages all use widgets? And links, inside and outside your site, point to different pages? The simple answer is that the search engines get confused.

And the result is keyword cannibalization, with your pages actually competing against each other for search ranking.
---More---