In the simplest terms, search marketing is the act of increasing traffic and visibility for your website from search engines. This can be done through both paid and unpaid efforts.
For instance, if you were a bakery that specialized in red velvet cake balls, you would want to show up when someone searched for “cake balls”, “red velvet cupcakes”, “bakery cake balls”, or any relevant combination of words that relate to your business.
The key here is to be seen as relevant to potential consumers as often as possible for as little cost as a possible.