Are you a digital marketing professional or a student of any digital marketing course? Yes…Do you know how to generate organic and paid traffic for various digital assets like website, social media, blogs, etc.? No…Don’t worry. It is not rocket science to grab the attention of an online audience towards your digital assets & earn handsome revenue. But you must know the two main concepts to experience a gradual success for your digital campaigns and these two terms are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). This blog will explore what is SEO and SEM? Difference between SEO and SEM, and when to use SEO and SEM.

So let’s begin with the introduction of SEO and SEM:

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

The process of increasing the visibility of your website in search engines with a motto of enhancing your brand and traffic by using organic (non-paid) methods is known as Search Engine Optimization. In simple words, it is the technique of passing a number of things of your website through a search engine. Search engine algorithms then rank a website by analyzing hundreds of different factors and produce search engine result pages (SERPs) accordingly. As everyone targets to rank their web pages on the first result page, you should balance the following core SEO techniques:

• On-Page SEO:
  On-page SEO relates to how easily your web page marks the problem of the visitor through various page elements like page title, headings, quality content, meta descriptions, and image alt tags.
• Off-Page SEO:
  Off-page SEO relates to how your website is referred to or how many quality backlinks are generated through other digital assets like social media, blogs, PR, digital influencers, etc., that boost your website authority.
• Technical SEO:
  Technical SEO relates to how you optimized the technical components like CMS, XML sitemaps, schema, site speed, URL structure, etc., of your website.

What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

The process of driving traffic to your website using paid marketing methods is known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM). In this technique, you need to purchase advertisement slots from Google Ads, Bing Ads, Yahoo Ads, or other search engines to enhance the visibility of your brand and drive the visitors to your website. To gain more visibility for your brand, you need to understand or master the art of applying various SEM factors like budget, ad types, ad campaigns, ad copy, and data analysis. To get your web pages at the top rankings, you should know how to implement the following SEM factors:

• Keyword Research:
  It is the way of finding what your potential buyers are searching for and setting or modifying your webpage content and technical things accordingly. This analysis also gives you an idea about the cost you need to pay for targeting your ads around a particular keyword.
• Ad Creation:
  You need to create ad copies that will grab the attention of searchers in a clear way that reflects what your ad is saying and where it will redirect people who click your ads. High-quality score ads are likely to be seen by more people.
• Bid Setting:
  It is the way where you bid Google or other search engines to book your ad slot and outbid your competitors accordingly.
• Audience Targeting:
  This is the technique of targeting an audience who should see your ad. You can categorize your audience groups according to their interests, age group, income, location, etc.

Now, you have a good understanding of SEO and SEM, but you should also know the differences between them to apply the appropriate method to beat your competitors. Let’s dive into the next section to make the picture clearer:

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Difference between SEO and SEM:

Many beginners or even digital marketing professionals get confused when it’s time to apply SEO or SEM techniques as they somehow mix both concepts. The following points will show you the difference between SEO and SEM for the various important factors:

• Cost:
  Both SEO and SEM need you to put money to generate the best results. When you use SEO, your budget consists of the salary of the SEO team, software & hardware costs, management cost, and training cost if you plan for in-house SEO whereas, in the case of outsourcing the same work, you need to pay a monthly fee to the SEO agency. On the other hand, for SEM, your budget consists of in-house or outsourced team expenses plus the cost per click of the ads. So if you are looking for short-term results, SEM can be helpful but if you set a vision of 1 year or 2 years to generate constant results, SEO can be a perfect fit.
• Time:
  Every brand plans to generate results with deadlines, some plan for short goals while others look for long-term goals. If your target is short-term or quick results, SEM is the best choice. But if you plan to keep generating traffic for years and years using evergreen keywords or content, SEO will be the best choice. In short, SEO takes a long time to deliver meaningful output whereas SEM is the best bet to experience instant results.
• Testing:
  In the case of SEO, you need to check multiple things for months to get the insights you expect. Once you start optimizing your web pages using SEO methods, you need to keep a constant watch on positive or negative results generated and update your SEO strategies accordingly.

  In the case of SEM, you need to check a few things like keywords, bidding strategies, and ad copy to generate the results you expect. SEM gives you a chance to improve your landing pages quickly in a shorter time compared to SEO.

• Click-through Rate (CTR)
  SEO proved to reflect higher CTRs as compared to paid ads or SEM strategies. A study conducted by the top digital agencies across the world showed that the average CTR in search engine ads for all industries is close to 3.15%. The same report also revealed that the #1 organic position in Google can result in a CTR of approx 34% and #2 to #5 organic positions translate into a CTR between 7% to 9%.
• SERP:
  SEO offers more spots for your brand to position its web pages in the SERPs. Based on the SEO score of your webpage, it can be shown at map listing, image, video carousels, featured snippets, interesting finds, or more. In the case of SEM, your brand can only be featured in ad positions, site links, and extensions.
• Reliability:
  Google users believe more in the organic results as they know those positions are reflected due to great SEO efforts. In the case of inorganic or paid results, searchers know those positions are booked by paying money. Google signals also give priority to web pages that greatly fulfill user expectations.
• Revenue Generation:
  The ultimate goal of all digital marketing campaigns is to generate great revenue. SEO proved to be the right strategy to remain at the top of search results for years and generate revenue with minimal investment. On the other hand, SEM offers traffic and leads till your ad is active. Once you end your SEM campaign, results directly reach zero.

Hope you got it clear about the differences between SEO and SEM with respect to various factors that decide the output of your digital campaigns. Now let’s check some more points that guide you on when to use SEO and SEM.

When to use SEO and SEM?

It is very important to understand how to make a decision of applying SEO or SEM strategy based on your business goals. The following are some factors that let you determine the perfect strategy for your digital campaigns:

First, let’s understand when to use SEO:

• If you are not in hurry to see the results and plan to spend some time, months, or years to create your niche content hub that will keep growing fruits for years and years, SEO is the best choice for you. In short, you have time and patience to experiment with SEO techniques.
• You are ready to take major steps to create your online reputation beyond your website.
• Your business vision focuses on long-term investment so that you can dominate others in the coming few years and remain in the top position hence there forth.

Now let’s understand when to use SEM:

Conclusion:

SEO and SEM both play a major role in this age of digitalization to bring your brand to the top position and generate more traffic toward your digital assets. Both the strategies help you enhance your digital marketing efforts. SEO is the best choice for brands that believe in long-term investment, quality, and relevance, whereas SEM, is the perfect solution for businesses that experiments with short-term investments. It is your choice to implement any one of these strategies based on your business goals, budget, competitor’s analysis, and current market trends.

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