Search Engine Marketing: How It Differs from SEO

Search engine marketing or SEM and search engine optimization may seem to have similar goals. This may be true in some aspects, however they differ in the methods that are being used and they also differ a lot more in the results expected to achieve. Search engine marketing is a broad term, while search engine optimization is more specific, so it is like a brainchild of SEM. Here are some pointers on the differences between the two methods of internet marketing:

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the method of promoting websites by increasing their presence in search engines results pages or SERPs by purchasing Adwords, using paid placements, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the method of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic from search engines by using un-paid or the algorithms of search results. This method considers how search engines work and what people are searching for.

This means that search engine marketing relies more on controllable factors. You can decide how much you want to spend, which words or phrases you want to purchase and choose which page you want your ads to be lined to.

SEO is more concerned as to what is your website content is, researching and identifying which content is relevant for search engines and improving key elements of your website’s content (such as keywords, keyword phrases, browser title, etc) so that the search engines can index them.

Search engine marketing’s most notable methods are traditional ads and Pay Per Click advertising. Traditional ads appear based on the keywords entered into search engines. Here, you are charged here by the number of impressions it makes so you get charged whether or not the ad sends anyone to your site or not. Pay per click ads are pulled up depending on the keywords you specify. As the name indicates, you pay for the ad when someone clicks through and is brought to your site.

Search engine optimization’s techniques include getting your website indexed, cross linking or back linking (social bookmarking directories, article directories), putting in keyword or keyword phrases (meta tags, meta descriptions), and URL normalization. Search engines use crawlers to look for sites that to their algorithmic search results. Cross linking or back linking is submitting your web page or its certain contents to different website directories, social bookmarking sites, or article directories. URL normalization is basically modifying and standardizing multiple URLs in order to avoid indexing duplicate pages.

Search engine marketing utilizes premade keywords and keyword phrases that you will choose and bid on from search engines. While search engine optimization is more concerned with its own content and what people are actually searching for.

Whatever method you choose between the two for your online marketing campaign, just remember that you have to know more about the specifics of both methods and apply a certain level of expectation and align it with your goals. Because if you expect to bear results from an SEM standpoint but you are using SEO methods, and vice versa, then you are surely bound to become disappointed.