SEM vs SEO
Making a clear distinction between Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is hardly done without some atom of ambiguity.
Before now both SEM and SEO were collectively known as search engine marketing. Currently, they refer to significantly different industry terms despite that most marketers still see SEO as part of SEM.
The more consumers resorted to making online purchases and enquiries, business and brand owners gave birth to employing online marketing strategies to improve their visibility.
SEO and SEM are effective strategies online marketers and business owners use to promote their businesses.
(Source: Data reportal)
According to data reportal, 98% of internet users now use search engines to enquire about a product or service before buying as opposed to social media marketing.
Pushing your website to the front of the search engine results page (SERPs) becomes a top priority for you as a business owner. However, whether you would employ search engine marketing or SEO would depend solely on your marketing objectives.
In this article, we would tell you what you need to know about search engine marketing as it relates to SEO.
What is SEM?
Search engine marketing is a term that refers to the marketing strategy used to improve the visibility of a brand’s website. As initially mentioned SEM initially referred to both organic search marketing( e.g SEO) and paid search marketing.
But now it exclusively refers to paid search marketing campaigns and is alternatively called PPC.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is an online marketing strategy that aims at improving a website’s visibility organically or naturally. This includes the use of relevant keywords, inbound and outbound links, etc. to generate traffic.
How SEM Differs From SEO
In search engine marketing, an online marketer specifically bids for keywords or phrases and for the search engine platform to show their ad whenever that keyword is typed in a search query.
However, the online marketer only pays for clicks not how many times the ad appears. This is also dependent on the ad company and keyword involved. Search engines include Google, Bing, Safari, and Yahoo.
On the flip side, SEO includes the various processes which help the website rank naturally. These processes include some technical and content optimisation strategies.
SEO marketing can be worthwhile in the long term, unlike SEM. SEM and SEO have the same goal which is for the website to appear on the front page of search engines. But the difference is that for SEO the online marketer does not pay for it, i.e he achieves it naturally or organically. Whereas he pays and jumps the process for search engine marketing.
SEM vs SEO–Which Is Better?
Deciding which is better for your business between SEO and SEM depends largely on your online marketing objectives and the resources you have at hand.
Search engine optimisation takes a long time to produce results. It could take months and even years etc. However, how long it takes also has to do with the age of the website, how effective your SEO strategy is and how competitive the market is.
Search engine marketing on the other hand takes faster time to bring results. If you paid for an ad you should see immediate results. That is to say, traffic to your website should receive a boost straightaway. The major risk here is that this boost is not sustained. Anyday your adverts stop, your traffic crashes.
You would need to continue spending so much money to sustain traffic to your website. SEO does not face this risk. Once you have successfully grown over the years sustainably with organic strategies, your results are not short-lived. You would still always have your loyal customers clicking and opening your websites because they already know, like and trust you.
Another beneficial part of SEO marketing is that you can know exactly how good your website is. If all you did were paid ads on your site, you would not know if your website is good or what activities should be promoted on the site.
Nevertheless, it still does not take away the numerous benefits, SEM can provide for your website. One of the major benefits of search engine marketing is that it is highly intent-driven.
When you place ads on any search engine ads platform, your ad can not be shown to a user who may buy your product or service. It is shown to users who are actively searching for your product type or services. That is to say, the user intends to buy from your product niche, and if they happen to see your ad, then you are likely on your way to converting a potential customer.
Conclusion
Whether you have decided to do search engine marketing or pay per click (PPC) as it is alternatively called SEO marketing you must remember that both require professionalism to produce results.
As easy as paid marketing seems, if you do not effectively target your ads, it may turn out to be just another wasted budget. This is why you should ensure that you employ experts who effectively use keywords and target your ads to give you maximum ROI. At Oparawhite global, we have a team of professionals ready to help you make the most of your marketing budget.
