The only difference between SEO and SEM is that SEO is a component of search engine marketing, or “search marketing,” as it is more commonly known. Both techniques try to improve visibility in search engines.
While SEM extends beyond SEO, SEO focuses on optimizing your website to rank better in organic search results. It incorporates additional strategies like PPC advertising that might increase your search engine traffic.
SEO VS SEM
A typical search engine's results page (SERP) has two different sorts of results, as seen in the SEO vs. SEM diagram above. The first set is the results from paid searches, while the second set is the outcomes from organic searches.
To assist consumers in identifying paid results from organic results, they are often marked with the letters “AD” (and sometimes in a different color). Both the top and bottom of the organic search results display them.
You must use PPC (pay-per-click) ads to bid and get one of the top spots in order for your website to show up on top of the “paid search results.”
You may accomplish this using the many PPC platforms that search engines provide to marketers.
Each search engine offers a unique tool, such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Bing's platform for advertising.
Use sound SEO techniques to get your website to show up above the organic results. In short, this entails creating content that fulfills the user's goal for a certain search phrase and maintaining an SEO-friendly website.
What is often referred to as “search engine marketing,” or “SEM” for short, in digital marketing, is comprised of both procedures (SEO and PPC). Here is a diagram that will help you see how these three words differ from one another.
Let’s examine SEO and SEM in more detail to understand how they work.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Starting with the definition of SEO is important to make it apparent to everyone what the difference between SEO and SEM is when comparing the two.
To obtain free traffic from search engines, SEO involves optimizing your website. Organic traffic is another name for search engine optimization (SEO) traffic.
Because most search engine traffic gravitates toward the top of the organic results, SEO is important. Therefore, your website must be in the top 5 to get search engine traffic without having to pay for it.
The likelihood of ranking higher in SERPS is increased since a website that has been optimized for SEO is simple for search engine crawlers to understand (search engine results pages).
SEO Overview
Technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO are the three basic types of SEO.
The process of preparing your website for the crawling and indexing phase is known as technical SEO. By using technical SEO, you can make sure that search engines can easily crawl and index your website.
The main components of technical SEO are:
- Pagespeed
- Site structure
- XML Sitemaps
- Canonical URLs
- Website security
- Mobile-friendliness
On-site SEO refers to rules you can apply to individual pages and their content so that they are optimized for specific keywords.
The main components of on-page SEO are:
- URL optimization
- H1 Tag Optimization
- Content optimization
- Page title optimization
- Meta-description optimization
- Image optimization (through the use of ALT text)
Off-site SEO To increase your website's trustworthiness with search engines, SEO refers to the process of obtaining references (backlinks) from other websites.
It may be difficult for novices to understand this, but try to think of it as a ranking system where the website with the most references is ranked higher. In this context, references are links to your website from other websites. Off-site SEO is sometimes referred to as “link building” for this reason.
To avoid misunderstandings, it's critical to consider both the number of links coming to your website and the sources of those links (along with a variety of other factors).
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM is a digital marketing process to improve visibility in search engines, either by obtaining organic traffic via SEO or paid traffic through PPC advertising.
Although it goes beyond SEO, search engine marketing is merely a subset of digital marketing.
In addition to SEM and SEO, digital marketing also encompasses channels like social media marketing, email marketing, video marketing, and content marketing that you may use to drive more traffic to your website.
Why is SEM traffic Important?
Because it is targeted, search engine marketing traffic (whether obtained via organic SEO or paid search advertising) is regarded as the most significant source of internet traffic.
It is widely acknowledged that individuals use search engines to discover answers to questions, solutions to problems, or instructions on how to do tasks.
Thus, users are more likely to convert when they click on a website from the search results list or an advertisement. The presented websites and ads are relevant, making SEM traffic more valuable than traffic from other sources.
Facebook and Twitter are working to make their advertising platforms more effective at using targeted traffic, but the ROI of traffic originating from search engines is still higher.
Does SEM help SEO?
Contrary to popular belief, SEM does not aid SEO. It does not affect your SEO efforts if you use PPC to target specific keywords and generate search engine traffic.
SEM or PPC campaigns are NOT among the hundreds of factors that influence SEO rankings.
PPC Overview
You can buy advertising space in search engine results by using sponsored search advertising. Therefore, you pay to appear in front of the search results rather than try to rank in one of the top spots organically via SEO and get free traffic.
Google Ads is the most well-known advertising agency for PSAs (formerly Google Adwords). You may get your ads to show up in Google search results using Google Ads, and you only pay when someone clicks on your ads.
Pay-per-click, or PPC, is the name given to the whole process for this reason as well.
Here is an overview of the PPC process:
- Create a PPC platform account (for example, Google Ads).
- Indicate the keywords for which you want your ads to show up in the search results.
- Create your ads. (At the moment, search engines only show text ads in their results.)
- Set a daily budget and the maximum CPC (the maximum amount of money you want to pay for clicks on your ads).
- Run your campaigns and keep an eye on the results.
Once your budget is depleted, your ads will no longer run. It's crucial to remember that even when you pay to have your ads show in search results, there is no guarantee that they will appear in the top ad positions.
How much you are willing to pay per click to get one of the top ad locations will depend on the level of competition.
SEO Vs SEM: Which is better, SEO or SEM?
Despite the fact that SEO is one of the two elements of search engine marketing, PPC advertising is often meant when the term “search engine marketing” is used by marketers.
In essence, they see paid search advertising as the only element of SEM. In this instance, we are able to compare the two.
Cost
For sustained results, organic SEO is often the best marketing strategy. Websites that do well in the organic search results for their target keywords may profit from free traffic round-the-clock, industry recognition, and other SEO advantages.
PPC-enabled websites are still able to get targeted traffic from search engines, but they must pay for it. The traffic disappears after they discontinue the paid campaigns.
Although SEO traffic is often thought of as being free, it takes a lot of time, work, and money to rank at the top of organic search results for popular keywords.
All sectors face considerable competition in the search arena, and you must invest heavily to take one of the top positions.
You will need to consistently create high-quality content (a very expensive process), hire an SEO specialist to assist with the SEO process, and optimize your website using hundreds of SEO rules.
Which is thus more cost-effective, SEO or SEM? Certainly SEO. It could require an initial investment, but if you reach a point where you rank highly for the keywords that are important to your company, you can enjoy and take advantage of the “free traffic” around the clock without worrying about advertising budgets.
Time
Another significant distinction between SEO and SEM is the length of time it takes for SEO to work and provide results as opposed to how quickly PPC does so.
Which is best thus depends on your overall digital marketing goals. Start with SEM (paid search advertising) if you want traffic quickly, and work on SEO at the same time. SEO is the solution if you want to create a successful online business without depending on paid traffic.
Ease of learning
There will be a learning curve for novices to learn SEO and PPC, but in my experience, you may become a PPC expert more quickly than an SEO expert.
PPC has fewer rules than SEO, which is the cause. You may start experimenting with PPC campaigns as soon as you learn how to use a PPC platform. You may create a few test campaigns with a small budget, evaluate the results, then increase your budget and add additional campaigns.
Additionally, the development of artificial intelligence in SEM platforms has made your work easier because the AI algorithm is now capable of carrying out many of the difficult tasks we previously performed (such as manual ad placement bidding).
If you want to learn SEO, you must first understand how search engines work in general and ranking in particular. Search engines use hundreds of rules to determine the order in which the results will display for a given search query, so you can see that it's a lot of work.
The good news is that you can learn quickly and develop your SEO skills using online courses.
Risk
When your business relies on SEM, you need to take into account the risks associated with SEO and PPC.
Google algorithm changes pose the biggest danger to SEO strategies. The largest search engine and a key driver of traffic to websites worldwide are Google. They make changes that impact the organic results a few times a year. It is possible to earn or lose rankings and traffic during these changes.
It's fantastic if you get more traffic, but if you lose it, it could take a while to find out what went wrong and how to fix it (if it can be fixed).
The biggest risk with PPC is the cost of advertising. Every year, the cost per click rises, and if you just use paid traffic, you can reach a point where the cost of advertising exceeds what is reasonable. This implies that to continue in business, you could have to raise your rates, which would hurt your sales and profit.
In my 20 years of expertise in the sector, using both SEO and PPC as part of your SEM campaigns is the best strategy to manage these risks. Depending on your business model, you may begin with PPC since it can provide results more quickly. However, you must also work on your SEO at the same time.
The ideal situation is to be able to reach targeted traffic from both channels, ensuring that your business will not be completely impacted if something goes wrong with SEO or PPC.
Key Learnings
PPC marketing and SEO marketing are the two components of SEM marketing. Although SEO is technically a component of SEM, many people mean the practice of employing PPC ads to gain traffic from search engines when they refer to SEM.
Search engine marketing is, in general, a crucial digital marketing channel. Both are necessary if you want to create a successful internet business.
SEO takes longer to produce results and demands a higher initial investment, whereas PPC may help you obtain results more quickly, but you will have to maintain paying for the traffic.
For the objective of attracting highly targeted traffic, both techniques strive to increase a website's visibility in search engines.
