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Comment by wwwong | Hacker News Reader

I've been doing SEM for five years and worked with the full range of google reps.

Quite simply, don't ask reps for advice on a product they've never actually used (as in, with real money). You're better off investing in a proven SEM expert in your field.

Also, the answers/responses from Google reps are basically read from a training manual.

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I assume it's this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing, i.e. SEM = search engine marketing.

I've just google'd SEM expert and not hits. Google suggests 'SEO expert'. Could you elaborate about SEM? I'm interested.

Although I can't give you any exact answer since I'm not an SEM expert, doing a verbatim search[1] will give you better results[2]. Though you might already be aware of how to do that (but even if so, someone else might not and find it useful). I just add it as a custom browser search[3] using the following URL template to do a verbatim search without having to click on options in google search:

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=%s&sourceid=opera&...

Where %s will be your query.

[1] https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1734130?hl=en

[2] https://encrypted.google.com/search?safe=off&client=oper...

[3] http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-custom-search-engines-go... (for chrome)

[3] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/780073 (firefox)

[3] http://my.opera.com/community/blog/2009/01/16/custom-searche... (opera)

[3] http://operawiki.info/CustomSearches (some premade searches that add just by clicking, may work on other browsers, but not sure)

Happy to elaborate? What would you like to know?

As for finding an SEO/SEM expert, typically best to go by referral. Most SEO/SEM experts that you'll find on google/forums will run you through templated best practices.

Best to work with someone who has been vouched for.

Another good way to find qualified SEM experts is by using this tool: https://www.google.com/partners/

I concur with the above whole heartedly.

SEM Specialists and the tools that they use make your money work very hard - as much as your website will allow it to that is.

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