Search Engine Marketing vs Search Engine Optimization

SEO was the initial language of the web when it came to building an audience for websites and online eCommerce sites. But now we understand that search engine marketing is even more important. Let’s first look at how the terms are defined and then see how they work together to produce results for online websites.

What’s the difference?

SEO is literally the optimization of website content. The goal of SEO is to increase long-term traffic for your websites in a natural way. It does not require paid advertising and does not rely on PPC or other forms of paid ad strategies to get the results you want.

This is done in a number of different ways including creating unique, original content and inserting links that can be used to increase quality traffic to your site. SEM, on the other hand, is search engine marketing and this is the process of getting your content displayed and discovered by the search engines. It is also a broader strategy that seeks to get your content in front of your intended audience through increased search engine visibility.

The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. But actually, they are somewhat complementary instead. The optimization of your web content will, in turn, result in greater search engine marketing results that will provide you with the results you want on a consistent basis.

Search Engine Market Activities Generally Equal Paid Advertising

Remember that a search engine strategy is a paid ad strategy. It involves creating pay-per-click campaigns, customized ads, and native ads that help market your brand through a concerted effort. It is meant to work with natural results that you get from SEO. Remember that SEM requires paid advertising to get the job done. If the goal is to get in front of the target audience, you cannot achieve all of this with natural search engine optimization alone. That’s where SEM steps in. By creating a systematic marketing plan and strategy that will help you market your brand, you will get better results than using the search engine optimizing techniques in isolation.

Integrated Marketing

The best digital marketing strategies involve not just one or the other but a well-planned integrated strategy that starts with marketing your content with high-quality content and adds marketing of paid advertisements to complement the strategy. You actually need both long-term organic traffic as well as immediate, fast traffic of your targeted audience in order to be successful with your online business or websites. Think of every website (including all of the pages) as a garden that you must tend to long after you have planted the seed.

This also means that, as a business owner, you must be on as many channels and platforms as possible and you should create many different types of content to appeal to your intended audience. If you need help doing this, contact us and we’ll talk to you about what you should be doing to increase your potential.

Increasing your ROI and marketing reach is the most important thing you should do to grow your websites and your business to new heights.