What's the difference between SEO and search engine marketing (SEM)?

 SEO is an organic method of creating traffic on the website. Whereas SEM is the inorganic method of creating traffic on the website.

Overview of SEO:

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is a way to improve your site visibility and ranking when users search for products and services related to your business on several search engines generally like Google Search Engine, Bing, and Yahoo Serch Engines. It is an unpaid way of ranking your website on SERPs. It is a way of optimizing your website content by making changes as per google algorithm’s guidelines. It is made up of three parts: on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.

Several On-Page Techniques:

1.    Optimizing Page Speed.

2.    Optimized page URLs.

3.    Optimizing the metadata.

4.    Internal Link Building.

5.    Integrating Social Sharing.

Several Off-Page Techniques:

1.    Building Links

2.    Integrating Social Media Handles.

3.    Guest Posting.

Overview of SEM:

It is a way to increase traffic on your website via paid ads to increase the website's visibility. The ad copy you create shall align with the keywords which users have searched on search engines allowing your ad copy to rank higher on SERPs.It provides an opportunity to increase the visibility of your website, blog posts, or any kind of content which is posted on any of the search Engines. It is also known as paid ads or PPC Services (pay-Per-click) where we target potential buyers and drive traffic to our website.

Several Techniques to Implement SEM:

1.    Launch Ad Campaigns.

2.    Set Budget.

3.    Create Ad Copy.

4.    Monitor relevant Ad copies and make changes accordingly.

Which one to use: SEO Vs SEM?

SEM includes both SEO and PPC(pay-Per-click) which means to have a better SEM you need to have SEO implemented as well.

SEO will lay the foundation for your social presence which means you have a working website or landing pages. Optimizing content for search engines will allow customers to be able to find you for the product and services which your business offers.

SEM includes both SEO and PPC. PPC will allow your customers to find you on the top Search Engine Result Pages. Though it is not reliable for the long term as it involves money to run ads which in turn is not a sustainable option. It allows you to rank higher and eventually it helps you to be able to find via organic search results as well.

Difference between SEO and SEM:

1.    SEM search results appear to the user as an ad but SEO results appear as an organic search result on SERPs.

2.    In the case of SEM, the website owner needs to pay each time a user clicks on their ad, and SEO results are free for every user.

3.    SEO results are long-lasting but SEM results are for a short duration.

4.    Positioning of paid and unpaid results is different.

 Similarities between SEO and SEM:

1.    Both SEO and SEM rely on Keyword research.

2.    To succeed in both of the cases we need to know our audience well in advance and need to target them properly with well-researched keywords.

3.    The purpose of both of them is to bring traffic to your website and provide you with more views.

4.    Both need well-optimized strategies to rank higher on SERPs.

Conclusion:

Both are valuable in their place. SEO is used more while any organization doesn’t want to invest money to get ranked higher on SERPs but it is a time taking process. In case any organization is looking for faster results then they need to use SEM for better results. CafeCodex company offers the best Search Engine Optimization Services at an affordable price.