SEO vs SEM

If you have no idea what is SEO and SEM, please take a look at this 3 min video below to get you started!

In simpler terms:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Uses ORGANIC strategies to appear in the search results

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Uses PAID strategies to appear in the search results

Search optimization is an essential marketing strategy that can help companies to draw attention, drive more traffic to their website and grow their business. Despite having two major categories (SEO & SEM) within the search marketing, some marketers consider SEM to be an umbrella term which includes both paid and organic strategies.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

According to Kritzinger & Weideman (2013), SEO is deemed to be a process of improving the number of traffic to a website from engines via "natural" search results for targeted keywords. SEO have its ability in targeting different searched such as image , local and industry-specific vertical search and increase chances of higher ranking in SERPS [search engine results page].

Vitality of SEO for businesses:

• Web traffic - Helps to increase the company's organic search engine traffic and lead to growth in sales as the more relevant visitors visits your site, the more likely you are able to generate sales to them.

• Brand growth - With the high rank on the search engine, the more organic web-traffic your website will receive. Those people will share your brand across other social platforms once they've came across your website through a search engine.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM):

SEM purpose is to promote sales by increasing the specific keyword exposure and incorporates different types of paid search advertising. Basically targeted ads that your company pay for. One example that you can see will be the Google ads located at the top of a page list on Google (as you can see from the picture below) and you pay only for the clicks on your ads.

Vitality of SEM for businesses:

• Web traffic - It is an important source as it is specifically targeted. So, when searches click on a website from the search results or click on an ad, they are more likely to convert.

• Competitive advantage - Your competitor may be at the top but your company can appear above them with having paid ads. Having strong SEM strategy, your company have the advantage over the less savvy competition.

In conclusion, the difference between SEO and SEM is really just talking about different approaches to advertising. So tell me, do you think SEO and SEM are complementary or incompatible with one another?

References:

Kritzinger, W.T & Weideman, M 2013, 'Search Engine Optimization and Pay-per-Click Marketing Strategies', Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, vol. 23, pp. 273-286.