What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

     What is the difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM)? SEO optimization focuses on achieving top rankings in search results using strategies including writing good content, identifying keywords, building links to your site, adding meta tags, removing page errors, and optimizing images.

     While SEO applies to organic or natural results typically found on search engines, SEM is a paid placement strategy. SEM focuses on increasing visibility through the use of ads in search engine results pages (SERPs), including paid advertising services like Google Adwords.

     Now that we've defined two terms crucial to digital marketing, let's look at why these strategies need to work together. SEO and SEM both focus on increasing visibility, but they use different ways of doing so.

     Think of search engine optimization as the organic strategy focusing on achieving high ranking through content and keywords. While SEO is great for creating long-term visibility, it takes time to see results. This is why using paid ads in addition to your SEO efforts is important.

     For fast visibility, search engine marketing (SEM) can be used to purchase ads that appear directly in the search engine results. While both strategies prove valuable, it's important to note that SEM is short-term visibility for immediate results.

     So what does this mean for your business? Implementing both organic and paid search services will create a long and short-term strategy to gain top visibility in search engine results. It's important to note that digital marketing requires an ongoing commitment, especially when using both SEO and SEM strategies.

     With increased competition comes increased costs - just like with SEO, it may require more than one attempt at purchasing ads through the search engines before your business finds success.

     The bottom line is this: search engine optimization and search engine marketing both have valuable roles in digital marketing strategies. By using organic search, you can gain long-term visibility for your business. And by using paid ads through SEM, you can experience more immediate results with less commitment.

     As the search engines continue to improve their algorithms, the distinction between organic versus paid results continues to blur. Search engines have been working on ways to improve their algorithms to provide more relevant, high-quality results for their users. This has resulted in the blurred lines between organic and sponsored search results. It seems that both paid and organic search are equally important for providing relevant content online today.  As Google's Hummingbird algorithm continues to make changes in how it ranks webpages, many SEO professionals are beginning to shift strategies from focusing on SEO alone to a combination of SEO and SEM.  With these two strategies working together, you can offer the best user experience possible through your website by always considering the needs of both your search engine users and potential customers.

As you can see, SEO and SEM both have a valuable role in digital marketing. Organic search will provide long-term visibility for your business while paid ads through SEM will offer more immediate results with less commitment. With the line between organic versus paid search continuing to blur, it's important that these strategies work together to provide relevant content online today. To do this successfully, though, an ongoing commitment is necessary from both marketers and businesses which includes adapting when Google changes their algorithm or adding new services like Facebook Ads into the mix.

     If all of this sounds daunting and you want help enacting these principles - let us know! Our team of experts is ready and waiting to partner with you on creating a stellar SEO or marketing plan that drives sales by increasing visibility. We can help you choose a service or offer both - or any other package needed to suit the needs of your business! Just fill out our contact form and we'll get back to you as soon as possible with a quote.

We can help get your business found by more customers on Google and other search engines. Request a free consultation today at www.digigrowthmarketing.com.