Difference between SEO & SEM

SEO vs. SEM – not sure what they are or how it differs?

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the art of designing websites that are search engine friendly, following the standards set by W3C, and making your website relevant to what your business is about (with emphasis on keywords related to your products & service).

SEM or Search Engine Marketing is a form of internet marketing, to increase website visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).  SEM is a combination of paid search marketing (Cost Per Click or CPC, Pay Per Click, PPC, also known as Sponsor Listings on search engines) and SEO (organically increasing your website ranking to the top pages of search engines to help drive free traffic to websites).

How is it different to each other?

SEO has often been confused with SEM, although they are two different terms but yet relate to each Save other. SEO is one of the components of SEM.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the act of increasing your website ranking for relevant keywords for organic or natural search engine listings. Search Engine Optimisation may arguably be one of the most cost-effective ways of internet marketing, however it can be quite time consuming. It’s basically convincing search engines to rank you to the top, or giving the search engine a reason to list your site amongst the top results for relevant keywords.  SEO fundamentals would normally include optimisation factors on the web pages to help search engine spiders understand the contents on the web page. On the web page SEO would include factors like text, meta tags, file names, and source code information. Search engines are much more advanced then what they use to be, so they can now even understand what your website is about by your in-bound & out-bound links on your site. Hence, SEO also include off the web page factors such as link popularity.

Whereas,

SEM or Search Engine Marketing  is the process of marketing a website through the Internet via search engines, through paid placement or paid inclusion, or by improving ranking in organic or natural listings.

A combination of Search Engine Marketing to run an internet marketing campaign may include:

• Search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Search engine and directory submission management
• Paid inclusion or Paid Placement
• Link popularity
• Articles submission
• ROI
• Performance Monitoring and Reporting (eg. Google Analytics Tool)

So in a nutshell, Search Engine Optimisation is basically a component of Search Engine Marketing.

How much does it cost?

It depends on the keyword you’re considering to have optimised, the competition, demographic areas, current website technology, structure, contents & links, etc.

Is SEO more costly then SEM?
Again it depends and can vary, however businesses may often find SEO a cost-effective option over SEM. The main reason being that each time you pay an SEO Consultant to organically improve your website ranking, its money well spent – since the investment goes into your own website.

On the other hand, paying for SEM, may although prove successful results, but its money spent on search engines and not on your own website.

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