SEO & SEM.. if you’re a marketer or you’ve spoken to digital marketers, you’ll probably have heard these terms before. What is the difference and how can it help you on your path to better understanding how to market your business.
Well the answer is basic, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization while SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. SEO relates to the organic part of the search results (everything except the Google Ads, also known as Pay Per Click (PPC)). However, Search Engine Marketing relates strategies behind to both SEO and PPC. If you’re looking to find out more about SEO specifically, then check out this SEO Agentur agency here.
It’s important to understand the key differences between both of these terms, so that you can better understand what areas you need to focus on. Understanding this can also give you a clearer view of what any agencies or freelancers might be doing for you.
So, let’s break this down further. There are 2 sides of the coin when it comes to search engines, Organic Results and Paid Results.
The organic results are unpaid listings that Google shows to its users in order to best serve them with results for their queries. Google uses a range of unknown ranking factors in order to select the best results, but if you’re able to manipulate these results then SEO can be a very profitable marketing strategy for your business due to the long term growth opportunities that it includes.
Paid advertising, otherwise known as Google AdWords or Pay Per Click is the act of advertising your website through the Google Search Engine. This is how Google makes their money, you as a marketer can come onto the search engine and target specific search phrases relating to your niche and bid on specific clicks in order to drive traffic and sales to your business.
If you’ve got an agency doing work for you and they’re calling themselves a SEM company, then chances are they’re doing both styles of marketing for you. It’s important to understand that if this is the case, you may
However, if you’ve got an SEO company or freelancer working on your site, then they will be totally focussed on the organic growth side of your business. This style of marketing poses many risks but it can be super beneficial if it’s carried out properly. It may be worth considering shorter term strategies such as Pay Per Click advertising into your search engine marketing strategy as these can be great for producing initial revenue.
Hopefully this article has given you a stronger insight into both sides of the coin when it comes to SEO vs SEM. You should now know what each term means and you should know where and when this term should and shouldn’t be used when carrying out your online marketing campaigns.
