Are you wondering what SEO or SEM is? Do you know what this is and what purpose it serves for your business? Both SEO and SEM are important to your online marketing efforts, but SEO is clearly the more popular of the two. Here are some tips to help you decide which one is best for your business.
SEO is an on-page, natural search strategy. SEM is a sponsored search strategy. Yes, both of these are separate (although very closely connected) strategies, but both should always be included in your business’s digital marketing arsenal. In other words, you must have SEO on-page to effectively do SEM. The ultimate goal of Search Engine Optimization is to increase the number of website visitors by elevated the sites ranking within the results returned by a search program.
SEO works with on-page optimization. Basically, SEO helps you to get more of the good keywords to rank for your keywords. The key is to make sure your keywords are the most used in searches. This will drive quality traffic to your site.
SEM provides a method for optimizing your web pages. In order to receive rankings from Google and other major search engines, you must optimize your web pages. SEO includes on-page optimization such as creating content and links using definition of SEO. It also includes off-page optimization such as link building and pay-per-click advertising using SEO friendly keywords.
So how do you decide which is better SEO or SEM? It is best to compare the results from both on a comparative analysis. SEO can be effective and yield good results faster. SEM can help you reach your goal sooner and can help you convert visitors into customers.
SEM offers instant traffic results. SEO takes time and effort. SEM offers immediate traffic results. SEO gets immediate traffic results but it may not be as effective as seo when it comes to large volume of traffic. Also, SEO is limited to certain types of links and pay-per-click advertising.
SEM can provide great visibility for your business. SEO can only provide a small amount of visibility and you will not reach the goals you set for your marketing campaigns if you use SEO on a large scale. SEM tends to utilize popular keywords and keyword phrases to draw attention to your ads.
SEO cost per impression is another common term that SEO and SEM employ. Cost per impression or CPM is the cost you pay per visitor. In short, SEM campaigns tend to draw more traffic since SEM tends to have longer ads. However, in a long run SEO may be more cost effective since you will have lesser ads for the same amount of impressions. Therefore, SEO may be more appropriate for your marketing budget in the long run.
SEM or Search Engine Optimization allows you to rank high in the major search engines for specific keywords. This is an excellent way to draw attention to your website. SEM tends to work well when used with SEO. SEO can help you gain organic website traffic, but SEM allows you to rank high for keywords that aren’t very competitive. Both can be used together to achieve better results in your efforts to boost your business’s search engine rankings.
With SEO you get more bang for your buck. You get more free marketing and advertising since SEM tends to work more towards organic search results. SEO has the potential to give you a significant boost in your rankings in SERPs. However, in comparison seo is less expensive to implement compared to organic search marketing.
SEO works by using specific keywords in ads alongside your website content. It should be noted that while SEO works to boost your listings in SERPs it can actually drive visitors away from your site if used in conjunction with other marketing campaigns. For example, if your ad campaign is all about location you’ll want to limit it to only your location. Other SEM types such as pay per click advertising work to achieve the best ROI, but SEO can have a higher CTR (click through rate). Also, since most search engine ads show up on web pages where your site is hosted, SEO will likely work better with your local SEO efforts since these ads are designed to be seen by your website visitors.
Whether you decide to go with SEO for your website, your SEM efforts, or both, you must be cognizant of the difference between the two. SEO can help you climb the search engines in the short term. In addition, SEO tends to have more long-term benefits such as better website rankings, more organic traffic, and increased conversions. On the other hand, SEM is typically used to attract and convert traffic to your sales or business. You need to carefully consider your marketing mix and whether one or the other would be more beneficial in your particular circumstances.
