What Is SEO?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. According to Market Share Statistics for Internet Technologies, Google, as absolutely leader, is the world’s most popular search engine in the world and Baidu has a big advantage only in China.
What is SEO?
SEO is not an appropriate strategy for every website, and other Internet marketing strategies can be more effective, such as paid advertising through pay per click (PPC) campaigns, depending on the site operator’s goals. Search engine marketing (SEM) is practice of designing, running and optimizing search engine ad campaigns.Its difference from SEO is most simply depicted as the difference between paid and unpaid priority ranking in search results. A successful Internet marketing campaign may also depend upon building high quality web pages to engage and persuade, setting up analytics programs to enable site owners to measure results, and improving a site’s conversion rate.
A SEM tragedy for Baidu
China has launched an investigation into its leading search engine Baidu Inc. Following the death of a university student who used it to look for treatment for his cancer.
Wei Zexi, 21, had turned to Baidu to look for the best place to treat his rare form of cancer and discovered a treatment offered by Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corps, which appeared at the top of his search results. Like other search engines, Baidu gets a large amount of its income from selling advertising, but unlike competitors such as Google, paid-for listings are not clearly marked, reported China Daily.
Xinhua accused Baidu of abusing search engine technology to make money unethically, reported the Wall Street Journal. “Making money by allowing companies to pay for better search placement is to put a good tool in the hands of interest-seekers with bad intentions,” it said. China has launched an investigation into its leading search engine Baidu Inc. Following the death of a university student who used it to look for treatment for his cancer.
What is your opinion about Search engine marketing? Can anything be done about it and is there any way that attacks can be prevented in the future? Please make comments and share your point with me.
TANG XIAOTING 
Hi Emma, I am glad to see your views on SEO and PPC. As you said, Baidu’s search for medical-related knowledge has always been a problem for people to criticize. Coincidentally, I also mentioned this example in my blog. I think this is the result of PPC. As long as the website pays for search engines or uses some improper relationships, they can easily have a top ranking. This requires relevant systems to monitor and manage to improve this phenomenon.
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment. I agree with you that pay-per-click is commonly associated with first-tier search engines (such as Google Ads and Bing Ads). The PPC advertising model is open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and others have implemented automated systems to guard against abusive clicks by competitors or corrupt web developers. As users, we should be more careful about the websites.
LikeLike
Hi Xiaotong, it was sad to hear that the competitiveness on SEO had ended up with a life lost. The line between moral value and profits should be carefully measured. For this issue, Baidu bears the responsibility for reconsidering their assessments on what can or cannot be advertised as we, SE platform users, will be referring to the resources online. Everything has two sides. As users, we can rely on the messages, BUT wisely that we should still evaluate the “safety” of information.
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment. I agree with you that the usage of SEO has two sides. What we should do now is to take action to avoid happening bigger problem after a disaster to occur. We cannot deny its advantages, such as grabbing customers trust and generating targeted traffic. So we should evaluate the “safety” of information.
LikeLike
Hey Emma! It’s sad to know the news that people using Baidu to search for treatment of cancer that cause to death. It is important to make decision between business ethic and profits for the company, yet we should also pay more effort and attention especially when finding medical related information on search engine because of personal health issue may be different to everyone. Baidu should filter and organise the content of advertisement well before approving it to avoid these kind of problems.
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment. The PPC advertising model is open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and others have implemented automated systems to guard against abusive clicks by competitors or corrupt web developers. I think Baidu will take similar action to avoid the disaster.
LikeLike