What Is the Difference Between SEM and SEO?

When you are looking to position your business online you will be coming across a number of methods. Two of the most popular are search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). These two techniques are both designed to take advantage of massive influx of web traffic that search engines (most notably Google) can provide. While both techniques take advantages of the search engines, they are different. The first thing to remember is that there is a lot of disagreement even amongst experts on the differences between SEO and SEM. For the purposes of this article, the differences are as follows:

Some people feel that search engine marketing includes SEO, but usually when people refer to SEM it means they are talking about paid inclusion into sites like Google. When you do a search on Google, you will notice text based ads that look like kind of look like search results. The two main areas they are found are right above the results, and to the right of them. These are called pay per click (PPC) ads. You bid on what you are willing to pay per click, and that will determine (along with other factors) where your ad shows up. You will only pay if your ad gets clicked. So in general SEM is paid inclusion into search engines. You are basically paying for advertising on Google, the busiest website on the internet.

SEO also takes advantage of the massive Google traffic. The difference is you don't worry about the PPC ads.Your end goal is to get to the top of the normal (or organic) search results, not the sponsored ads section.While SEM makes it quicker to get your link on Google (you just have to pay), organic results are actually more likely to be clicked. SEO is a much longer process, because you have to optimize your site for the search engines. On a very basic level this is just making sure your site is set up properly, and you build backlinks to your site so that a lot of other sites are linking to yours. Those steps will drive your site up the Google rankings. It can be a long process, but if you reach the top spot of Google for an organic search term it can be very lucrative.

While not even experts agree on the exact differences between SEO and SEM in general the above explanation still holds true to everyone. SEM is basically paying to get your link on Google, while SEO is trying to get your site to the top of Google organically. There is value to the business owners in both pursuits, and it is smart to combine both strategies. Use both of these techniques to tap into massive traffic from the search engines.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jordan_D._Kovats

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