SEO and SEM are two strategies that reference similar sets of activities. Any digital marketing professional should understand the differences between these two terms and how they serve online campaigns. If you’re considering a custom digital marketing plan for the first time, we have you covered; here are the basics of SEO and SEM to help you begin!
What to know about SEO
Search Engine Optimization or SEO involves producing content fit for search engines “crawling” or finding articles online that fulfill specific criteria. For search engines, websites are relevant when they have high volumes of organic traffic. Crawlers gauge impact through keywords, tags, and link titles, and a positive rating means a more prominent position in search engine pages.
Search engines look for quality content, which indicates that your business delivers legitimate goods and services. Link building and keywords are essential in determining quality. Another thing that crawlers consider is UX or user experience. Ease of navigation and transactions and website loading times are part of UX. Finally, link patterns are also a factor, including where you get both inbound and backlinks.
What to know about SEM
Digital marketing services also include SEM or search engine marketing. If SEO is about building organic traffic, SEM focuses on paid search advertising. SEM uses targeted ad campaigns, applying selective keywords that appeal to a small segment of your audience. To gauge the success of SEM, marketers use key performance indicators like click-through-rates and ad cost-per-click.
This strategy is excellent for businesses looking to create brand recognition in a short amount of time. Targeted ads bring traffic to your website, and you know that these are users who are already interested in what you have to offer. Search engine optimization is about letting an audience build around your business over time, and search engine marketing is about getting the word out about a company.
Should I focus on SEO or SEM for my business?
SEO and SEM rely on traffic to boost online presence. People use search engines to look up answers to all sorts of questions, and they’ll click on either organic or paid results.
If you’re building a business, treat SEO and SEM as two types of materials, where the first provides a foundation for the second. If you do search engine optimization correctly, you will have a better chance of getting traffic to your site from sponsored ads in your social media campaigns. As such, both of these techniques are necessary for growth.
What is the future of SEO and SEM?
User experience and AI are among the most promising developments that could affect the trajectory of digital marketing. UX remains important to SEO since Google rewards websites with high rankings if they are user-friendly. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence will also make an impact on search. Many appliances and electronics used at home connect through the Internet of Things, which holds a lot of potential for SEM campaigns.
Conclusion
Anyone offering digital marketing services must have a good grasp of both SEM and SEO. They should also be aware of the changes occurring in both as society becomes ever more reliant on technology. A skilled marketer will know how to use these developments in novel, exciting ways that serve their clients’ business goals.
Work with The SEO Queen for custom digital marketing solutions in Long Beach, CA. We help businesses create visible, credible brands through both paid and organic growth strategies. Get in touch with us today to learn more!
