As more companies, as well as individuals, set up their online presence, more people will see the need to get more visitors to their sites. One of the most cost-effective, and most used, means of targeting web site visitors is search engine marketing. It's a relatively simple idea. Pretend that you have a website which specializes in real estate, and this website is the very first result that comes up when someone types 'Real Estate' into a search engine. This website will surely attract a large amount of traffic because of their high ranking in their keyword.

When it comes to search engine marketing the real key is using the best words or phrases you can think of the make sure your site will rank high in the major engines, and bring you kind of visitors you want. Though this may seem simple, it is wise to keep in mind that there are no guarantees when it comes to search engine rankings and if a company promises you that they can get you to a specific rank they might only be telling you one part of the story.

No one can guarantee you a specific ranking because no one, other than the operators of the search engine, knows the specific algorithms that the search engines use to create the rankings. But there are a number of things that they can do to optimize the rankings for your site, including paying to have your site come up in a text-only ad that is places on top of the search results list concerning specific words or key phrases. Even if you follow all the rules, however, there are still no guarantees.

There are still some strategies to get a better ranking that you can have implemented. The content, title, and tags on the websites pages can be altered slightly to enhance rankings. These are the three important aspects of any website as they serve as major factor for ranking algorithms for the majority of the search engines. A majority of search engines also make a paid inclusion service available, but this still does not make any guarantees about your website's ranking. The pay for inclusion service only guarantees that the search engine will spider and index your page sooner than it would have normally.

You still need to learn how to target your keywords and optimize your site content if you want to get listed well in the traditional engines that spider your site and rank sites based upon pre-set algorithms, but you can still pay to buy a banner or text ad on those sites if that option is made available. These listings are usually blatantly labeled as paid or sponsored listings, but you will be able to choose where your ad shows up.

Certain search engines actually do enable you to buy your way to the top ranked pages in their results. These sites determine their rankings by how much a person is willing to pay for the top spots. They are called Pay Per Click search engines, or PPC's. One thing to remember with search engine marketing is that if someone is promising you instant top rankings, chances are it's a scam and you will lose the money you invest and possibly get blacklisted by the engines in the process for cheating.