SEM is a synergy of Pay per Click Advertising (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) resulting in an online marketing strategy greater than any other form of online marketing.

With search engines the user tells you what they are interested in allowing advertising networks to capitalize on this knowledge. This has not been possible with traditional forms of advertising.

Some of the major players with SEM are Google with its pay per click advertising network 'AdWords' and Yahoo! with 'Yahoo! Search Marketing'. They are very similar in structure and pricing, using both is the best way to capture the market.

Alternate forms of SEM include Search Engine Optimization which instead of ranking via sponsored results, your listings rank organically. SEO is free to perform and renders no cost when your websites listing is clicked. Other benefits include larger listings in the search results and the ability to rank for large amounts of long tail keywords.

The best way to capitalize in search engines is to perform both PPC and SEO in a joint strategy which enables you to flood the results pages and allow your website to get the exposure it needs.