Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are linked as they leverage search engines like Google to drive traffic and enhance visibility. Sometimes the terms are used together to reference a similar set of activities which can be confusing for those of us who aren’t as familiar with this world.
But while they have the same
purpose there are differences. Marketers ne to understand what these are to leverage SEO and SEM in marketing activities and to feinto search intent.
It’s worth mentioning the recent Google API documentation leak which gave marketers a rare glimpse into what factors the search engine really uses to rank content.
In this article we look at the key differences between SEO and SEM to use them successfully to boost the visibility of any product serviceor company middle east mobile number list and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on search marketing.
- What’s the difference between SEO and SEM?
- How does SEO work?
- How does SEM work?
- How can you use SEO and SEM together?
- How much do SEO and SEM cost?
- SEO and SEM: future directions
What’s the difference between SEO and SEM?
So what’s the difference? While SEO optimizes a website to drive organic traffic. SEM uses both organic and paid search such as Pay-Per-Click or programmatic advertising to boost web traffic.
This means that SEM covers organic and paid channels while SEO focuses on organic traffic. making it a subset of SEM.
It’s worth noting that SEO experts are debating the value of paid search due to changes in search behavior and the rise of AI-power search such as Google’s AI Overviews (SGE). More on that later…
Now you know the difference. let’s look at SEO and SEM in more detail.
How does SEO work?
So what is SEO? SEO involves continuously optimizing a website to rank in organic search engine results pages. known as SERPs.
Search engines like Google or Bing work by ‘crawling’ content to see how effective it will be to attract traffic and provide information. Search au cell numbers engines will assess a website bas on many factors (explainbelow) and rank it.
According to Statcounter Global Stats. Google claims 91% of the global search engine market compar to only 3.74% on Bing and 1.26% on Yahoo. This means that when we talk about search engines the main focus for SEO is on Google, but we still neto remember that others are still in the running (but barely).
SEO categories
There are four main categories of SEO to consider in your marketing activities – technical SEO, on-page SEO. off-page SEO and local SEO.
Technical SEO – This means looking after the health of your website. It involves improving the architecture and backend elements of a site to improve its visibility and performance on search engines. Elements to consider are broken links, metadata errors or site architecture.
On-page SEO – This focuses on optimizing the content and elements of a website. Keyword research is crucial here so you tap into what your audience is looking for and create content that provides information or solutions. Elements to consider are page titles, headings, URLs, and internal linking.
