SEO & SEM marketing – what’s the difference?
Do you know the difference between SEO & SEM marketing?
SEO-SEM marketing. Is there even a difference between the two?
SEO is short for search engine optimisation, whilst SEM is search engine marketing. With both terms prevalent in digital and online marketing, it can be unclear for those starting in these channels.
Worse, both terms are often used interchangeably! It is imperative to understand the difference because they are different.
I will explain the differences between SEO and SEM marketing in this article.
What is search engine optimisation (SEO)?
SEO is essentially a component of a more significant channel, SEM. According to Google's Knowledge Graph, search engine optimisation is "the process of maximising the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine." These results are called search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google constantly amends and updates its algorithm and assigns relevance to various factors. What was acceptable previously could be damaging today. Nevertheless, there remains one constant in SEO: On-Page and Off-Page activities.
What components does SEO marketing include?
As stated above, SEO comprises two different activities.
On-Page SEO includes:
Incorporating targeted keywords into title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, and alt text.
Blog posts and page copy that is written and optimised with quality (inserting keywords into the page copy without keyword stuffing)
Clean and formatting page URLS – so-called semantic URLs
Optimised page load speed – slow loading pages are penalised by Google
Google authorship incorporated
Social sharing integration within your content (how easily can others share the content). And hundreds more!
Off-Page SEO includes:
Creating a high-quality, natural backlink profile ( having other high-quality/authoritative sites link to your site naturally. Specifically those with higher domain authority and are relevant to your website)
Social sharing signals (how often others share your content has been shown to increase the page authority's strength)
Social bookmarking (Quora, Reddit)
What is search engine marketing (SEM)?
According to Wikipedia, "Search engine marketing is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPS) through optimisation and advertising." Simply put, SEM includes SEO and several other search marketing tactics.
What does SEM include then?
I have already discussed that it includes SEO (search engine optimisation), but SEM utilises paid search, like pay-per-click advertising (PPC) listings, social media and advertisements. Typically, SEM includes PPC campaigns and attempts to rank your website highest in SERPS, but if you combine SEO and paid search, this is known as search engine marketing.
What are the main differences between SEO and SEM marketing?
The main difference between these two terms is that search engine optimisation is simply a component of search engine marketing. As mentioned above, SEM includes paid search components, like PPC and SMM (social media marketing).
It is important to note that you should never use the terms SEO and SEM interchangeably because although they work hand in hand, they are not the same term.
Why is SEM, search engine marketing, important?
SEM is important because it is a data-driven approach to targeting your audience across all online channels and touchpoints.
Search marketing is an effort on any search engine. This means you should care about "other" search engines, from YouTube to TikTok to Amazon to Apple to Yelp.
Anything that can be searched for can be optimised. If it is a platform that lets users search, and there is advertising on it – that is SEM.
When marketers combine SEO and PPC, it creates an all-inclusive integrated approach to internet marketing that drives results.
What are the main differences between SEO and SEM marketing?
The main difference between these two terms is that search engine optimisation is simply a component of search engine marketing. As mentioned above, SEM includes paid search components, like PPC and SMM (social media marketing).
You should never use the terms SEO and SEM interchangeably because although they work hand in hand, they are not the same term.
What is the difference between SEM vs SEO vs PPC?
If we consider the original description of SEM, SEM is an internet marketing strategy combining paid and organic tactics to increase your website's visibility in search engines.
SEO is the 'organic' component of SEM. SEO is sometimes called 'free' traffic driven by relevant content and healthy website performance.
PPC is the 'paid' part of SEM.
The key differences between SEO and SEM are:
SEM requires both SEO and PPC to be called SEM. PPC is transparent and must state it is paid advertising. PPC is shown displaying the word "Ad" at the top.
PPC requires payment for every click (CPC, cost-per-click) or impression (CPM, cost-per-thousand impressions).
PPC can immediately show ROI, whereas SEO is a long game.
PPC is faster to test than SEO.
Are there any similarities between SEM vs SEO vs PPC?
There is much crossover between SEM, PPC, and SEO.
Both SEO and PPC share these common similarities in creating an SEM strategy:
Increase the visibility of a website across search engines by optimising a target audience and search queries.
Drive higher-quality traffic to a website by encouraging searchers to click on a site through paid ads or organic search results.
Deep knowledge and expertise in keywords and target audience to better understand the intent behind the search query and how the competition looks at the search term.
Requires A/B testing and experimentation to support a long-term strategy and ROI.
Which marketing tactic is better?
Marketers debate as to whether one tactic is better than the other. As a Digital Marketer, I would argue that it depends on how quickly you want to get results but that organic SEO is the best approach.
PPC can get you at the top of SERPS instantly, with SMM supporting your website's URL strength by getting the URLs shared. Nevertheless, consider this: proper SEM cannot succeed without organic SEO.
Longer-term I advise this is the best strategy.
As mentioned above, there are many situations where PPC (a component of SEM) makes more sense than SEO. For example, if you are first launching a site and you want immediate visibility, it is a good idea to launch a PPC campaign because it takes less time than SEO to get your site ranking in the top 4 results. However, a note of caution, limiting yourself to only PPC and not even beginning search engine optimisation would be unwise.
Although organic SEO takes longer to show results, ultimately, it will be less costly, and you will establish a search credibility that you may not establish with PPC. There are various SEO tools that can help establish your search credibility.
The future of marketing is SEM
SEM can revolutionise every part of marketing. With AI and automation at the forefront of daily topics, PPC and SEO professionals will have fewer levers to pull to control where money is being spent.
Moreover, with first-party data, SEM professionals will become less dependent on data to back up decisions. Now, companies will need to rely more on the individual's expertise and the understanding of how SEM fits into the bigger picture. SEM is the future of marketing.
When choosing the best tactic for your business, evaluating your specific circumstances and needs is crucial. Still, fully understanding the differences between SEO and SEM marketing gives you a better strategy for maintaining your efforts.
Should you still be puzzled about whether to consider SEO and SEM marketing, speak to the Blu Mint team, and we will be happy to discuss your needs.