SEO and SEM are two different but related terms for digital marketing outreach. SEO refers to internal organic website optimization while SEM involves paid advertising on search engines. By implementing best practices, SEO can help your website gain organic traffic, while SEM earns traffic through paid advertisements. In the image below, the first four results are organic (those with the most natural content). The fourth and last result are paid ads, which are displayed on Google’s search results.
PPC stands for pay-per-click advertising, which allows companies with enough money to bid on certain keywords to secure prime ad placement. Google’s Ads platform, previously known as Adwords, is the standard for SEM everywhere. However, PPC is only one part of SEO, and it’s not the only component of digital marketing. Both SEO and SEM are important to your overall strategy.
While both methods are important, they are not the same. SEO is an essential tactic to grow online visibility, but SEM is a more holistic marketing strategy. SEM is like the CEO of a business, overseeing Pay-Per-Click advertising, Social Media Marketing, and Content Marketing. Both tactics can work together to get you the results you’re after. SEO is an essential tactic, but SEM is the one that helps you get noticed by potential customers.
Getting your website ranked for a keyword is difficult, and SEM is expensive. Search engine optimization (SEO) involves using well-researched keywords that are used in search engines to get your website ranked higher. SEO also involves using original content and visuals to reach a wider audience and support link building tactics. So, the key is to optimize the content to attract customers and boost your website’s visibility.
