Are you new to the Search Engine Marketing (SEM) versus Search Engine Optimization (SEO) debate? In that case, you are probably asking yourself: “What are the differences, and which technical technique is right for my brand?”
Search optimization is a critical marketing strategy for brands attempting to draw attention, drive website traffic, and increase business knowledge and revenue. However, end-user optimization can be a challenge if you do not correctly utilize SEM and SEO.
Learning About SEM
Consider SEM as the part of search marketing that uses paid campaigns to achieve visibility. SEM is a paid marketing method that involves optimizing ads and establishing a prepped budget that pays for the placement of ads. You can also refer to this strategy as paid search or pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.
Learning About SEO
SEO marketing uses organic campaigns to gain SERP visibility. With SEO, you do not pay for placement. Instead, you can use a variety of tactics that prompt search engines to show your content near the top of search engines because the result is practical and derivative.
SEO includes many tactics that can help you boost search rankings. You can group these SEO techniques into three categories: on-page SEO, Technical SEO, and off-page SEO.
Similarities
SEM and SEO both drive more traffic to a website; these methods use goals to gain visibility on SERPs and drive traffic to your website. Each strategy uses campaigns to increase click-through rates (CTR) and bring users to click on the search results.
They both also use keyword studies to find trending search terms. This research involves examining keyword popularity to determine the highest or bought keywords that your qualified audience searches for. It also contains looking at keyword competition to see what others are targeting.
Differences
SEM placements include an advertisement designation where SEO does not since it does not consist of paid search. And search results that appear due to SEM or SEO do not look similar on SERPs: you can identify paid ads that receive placement through SEM as an ad icon. In contrast, search results from SEO will appear the same since it is organic traffic. SEM results also display selected targeted audiences, and because SEO results are based on organic traffic, they do not. While successful SEO and SEM methods are driven by connecting with an intended audience, you can only specify an audience through SEM tactics.
Dedicate time to understand the importance of search technologies- SEO & SEM- and become prepared for marketing yourself digitally. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our team at Apartment SEO and get your Free Marketing Analysis or Reputation Report Card.
