When it comes to search engine marketing, there are three major players, each with a different purpose. It’s important to understand who these players are and what they can do for you. Understanding the three primary concepts of search engine marketing is the first step to get galore of customers.

Searchers/Researchers: People who type out queries into search engines (Google, Yahoo, Duckduckgo) in order to find an answer.

Search engines: A software system that searchers use to find information on the world wide web.

Internet Marketers: People who promote the products or services of businesses by using tools that help drive traffic, leads, and sales.

Understand what searchers’ need

To understand how search engines work, you need to dive into the mindset of the searchers’. Searchers use search engines to research information. These searchers are motivated when they find the results they’re searching for on a website or web application. If marketers and search engines can satisfy searchers, they can get traffic, leads, and sales.

Know what search engines want

Search engine companies such as Google, Yahoo, just like any other business need revenue to survive. As a result, it’s necessary to understand how these search engine companies generate that revenue. By understanding what motivates these search engines, you can plan your strategies strategically.

Search engines drive sales by developing an affiliate relationship with businesses. So, when a customer visits an affiliate partner’s website and makes a purchase, the search engine makes a commission on that sale.

Black Hats and White Hats

Search engine marketing comes with certain guidelines that marketers need to adhere to if they want to rank. To build a successful search marketing campaign you must follow the terms of service search engines provide. Actions that violate those terms of service are called black-hat while those that follow are called white-hat.

Black-hat search marketing practices are bad for business as sometimes they can even involve doing something illegal. For example, a beauty product owner tries to lure customers by marketing the site’s content ( adding irrelevant keywords to the site. ) as a grocery store.

Sometimes violating the terms of service may create short-term ranks, however, those won’t be sustainable. Google often updates its algorithms in an effort to squash black-hat methods and deliver the best user experience. Marketers who practice white-hat techniques are rewarded with higher rankings,  traffic, leads, and sales.