The goal of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) for most businesses is to generate website traffic. That is, however, an incorrect objective. The goal should be to generate specific kinds of traffic. If you are building awareness, then the net cast for attracting viewers can be very broad, and the sources of traffic can cover any number of search engines, social media sites and various PPC alternatives. If you are selling a product, though, generating traffic is not the goal. Generating qualified traffic, or finding interested viewers, is the objective.

IP Communications is the central focus of this blog because it allows me to discuss any aspect of the IP ecosystem. I can address government regulations, political positions, applications, hardware technology (such as servers, phones, tablets and laptops), or I can promote the “as a Service” solutions. However, my blog’s SEM goal is to generate traffic that has an interest in Unified Communications, long distance services and tandem access. These three items are not related. They solve the needs of three different target markets. Therefore, I do not have a single SEM strategy. If you have multiple target markets, neither should you.

According to SEMPRO, 97% of digital marketing professionals use Google AdWords as part of their SEM campaigns. The Bing/Yahoo alliance is second at 65%, with Facebook coming in third with 56%. With a focus on B2B sales, ANPI leverages Google AdWords with little to no spend anywhere else. Yet, our SEM strategy does include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn – not to generate business, but to address other specific goals. LinkedIn is used to support our recruiting efforts, YouTube to educate, Twitter to connect to our users and customers, and Facebook is, well, because we think we should.

The point is that SEM is not just about getting traffic, but getting targeted and desired traffic. Of course, after your site attracts traffic comes the hard part – converting that traffic into leads and, ultimately, sales. SEM goals will vary by market, product and purpose. But to summarize, the four objectives required are attention, strategy, design and content:

• Attracting desirable traffic
• Generating qualified leads
• Closing sales (although, in B2B, this typically requires a sales person)
• Building brand awareness

The next step is to measure and track your results.