The Difference Between SEO and SEM

If you are wanting to grow your online presence, chances are you’ve considered SEO and SEM before. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are both digital marketing tactics aimed to grow your online reputation. Both SEO and SEM help you get traffic from search engines.

The difference between SEO and SEM is how they grow your website. They are essentially two sides of the same coin, and it takes a knowledgeable digital marketer to understand how to capitalize on both. This post will give you a clear understanding of each and how they complement each other.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the performance and experience of your website to gain visibility to search engines. The purpose is to drive free, organic traffic to your website to bring in more business revenue.

SEO is important for search visibility and bringing in new traffic, customers, and revenue. An SEO-optimized website makes it easier for search engine crawlers to register the importance of your site, putting it at the top of the search list. It makes your brand seem the most credible, making it a very valuable marketing tactic.

What is SEM?

Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to the process of increasing online visibility by either getting organic traffic through SEO or paid traffic through PPC advertising. SEM is a paid market tactic and commonly uses Google as a tool for paid ad results.

SEM traffic is valuable because you are paying for a targeted audience. It extends to the conversion rate on your website because the traffic is most susceptible to buying. People use search engines like Google and YouTube to find the answer to their problems or to know how to do something. With SEM, you are directing them to the best possible source for their answer.

SEO vs SEM

The biggest difference between SEO vs SEM is that SEO is organic traffic while SEM is paid. SEO focuses on optimizing your website so that you can capture more organic results, while SEM focuses on using both SEO and paid strategies to bring more traffic overall to your website.

SEO vs SEM: How They Work Together

Both SEO and SEM utilize keywords to drive traffic to websites. Though SEO vs SEM are just different approaches to advertising, each focuses on traffic flow and how users are looking up content. Using both tactics in tandem can boosts visibility in the long run.

SEO is the foundation of good SEM, so when you have both set up properly, chances are your efforts will be more successful. To compliment both, make sure your website is SEO optimized first, and then invest in SEM. That way, you have a better chance of getting high-quality traffic through both efforts.

Key Thoughts

SEM has two components, SEO and PPC advertising. SEO is organic traffic, and PPC is paid traffic. Overall, search engine marketing of any sort is critical to your digital efforts. Utilizing both SEO and SEM will help enhance the visibility and credibility of your website, leading to more revenue for your business.

To read more about the SEO, check out What is Search Engine Optimization SEO? article.