Search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are two different concepts and it is important to understand the difference between them.
These two strategies are very useful if you own a website (a blog, online shop, youtube channel, a social network profile…) and you need some help to throw your project out there and get views.
SEO, search engine optimization: we can quickly define it as organic positioning. Part of the SEO takes place within our own website, using an optimization of the web itself through keywords. Another very important part is done outside of our website through social networks, blogs and more. When these two things come together they make our organic positioning, in a natural way, better than it was before.
SEM, search engine marketing: marketing actions that are made to be better positioned in the search engines such as Google or Bing. These actions are carried out by paying.
So, which one is better?
One of the advantages of SEO is that it is lasting in time. You will always have the same positioning. But SEO techniques do not allow you to divide into segments your target audience. That means your content will reach everyone equally. It is also very important to keep in mind that the code have to be clean and easy in order for the search engine to decipher. Lastly, the SEO positioning is a long process. Most search engines reward websites that are updated periodically and that create original content.
This is probably the reason why some companies prefer to opt for the SEM technique.
One of the advantages of the SEM technique is segmentability. This means that we can choose who to send our content to. We can also choose when to launch our content and where. The SEM technique is profit-earning in a short amount of time. The moment we pay we start popping in the firsts positions. But we have to keep in mind that we have to follow up to keep it going.
For this system to work it is important to be informed and know how it works, because if it is not put to good use, it can be more complicated to get a benefit. In this way it is recommendable to work with a professional.
Another difference between SEO and SEM is that in the first one we position ourselves in front of a single product. In the second one we can pay for a large range of different products.
One of the disadvantages of the SEM technique is the fact that the moment we stop paying, the position we leave is used by another company.
In little words, SEO will always be useful at all times and will always be present, and SEM is a very good way to start.
I personally think that SEO and SEM go hand in hand. When we start a new project it is important to receive a benefit as soon as possible, and for this we use SEM. But it is important to keep working behind our website if atI hope this has helped and cleared the differences between search engine optimization and search engine marketing!
Thank you and until next time!
Sarah Julie De Rossi