SEO and SEM…It’s easy enough to get these two internet marketing terms mixed up. After all, they’re both three letter acronyms beginning with “SE” that the experts seem to toss out there left and right in conversation like it’s just not big deal at all. And yes, we’re guilty as charged of doing this too!
So now it’s time to clear things up when it comes to SEO and SEM, how they’re both alike in some ways, and how they’re totally different in other ways. Starting at the very beginning, let’s define the acronyms and what they stand for first:
• SEO – Stands for “Search Engine Optimization”
• SEM – Means “Search Engine Marketing”
Similar enough, right? I mean, they do both pertain to internet marketing using the search engines to get traffic to your website.
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
SEO is the practice of improving and organizing a website and the information it contains to rank well within organic search engines’ results for certain keyword terms and topics and hopefully attract targeted traffic to a website through the practice. Organic search is simply the portion of the search engine results page that is comprised of free listings as opposed to paid for listings or sponsored ads. In most cases, these organic search listings are the regular primary listings displayed down the middle of the page (as opposed to the paid-for listings often shown down the side column and sometimes in a shaded box at the very top or bottom of the listings too).
What Is Search Engine Marketing?
Search engine marketing (SEM) is more about the practice of using the paid and sponsored listings and online advertising to bring in lots of optimized traffic to a website. It’s highly effective because it can be expertly dialed in to produce the exact demographic of visitors required—plus it can be implemented and begin delivering premium traffic almost instantly. While it does cost to market a website online this way, usually a small “per-click” or per visitor amount at a time, the conversions and sales generated will outweigh the expenses in a successful SEM campaign.
About WSpider Search Engine Marketing
At WSpider.com, we specialize in producing successful and profitable campaigns for our customers using both SEO and SEM. In fact, in many instances, experience tells us that it’s best to combine the two practices for high-energy online marketing campaigns that are driven to deliver real results. So if you’re in San Jose, or anywhere in the world for that matter, we’d love to talk to you about our unique brand of SEM and how it could work out for your website. Please give us a call—after all, answers are free!
