I have come across many people who are confused about the terms SEO and SEM and especially about the differences between the two processes. While there maybe differing opinions even within the Internet Marketing industry, here’s my take on it:
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a collection of the different Internet marketing strategies to promote The SE rankings of websites (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, Paid placement, and contextual advertising. Usage of the term has been inconsistent and it is often narrowly used to exclusively refer to Pay per Click or PPC.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is defined as the process improving a website’s organic ( non-sponsored) results on the Search Engines. When a user types in a Search Phrase or Query , the Search Engine pulls up a list of sites, these results are independently determined by the search engine’s own mathematical algorithm, and are based on relevance to the search phrase.
The algorithms are said to use a large number of criteria in the calculation of their results. Some of the criteria include Title Tag optimization, Quality of original content , Keywords in hyperlinks / URL, Link structure , amount and quality of Incoming links, Site Speed , Accessibility and User-friendliness of the site and so on.
SEO is a slow, long-term process, it involves several stages of work including competitor analysis, keyword research. On page optimization such as HTML code implementation, regular content / media addition and Off page optimization which involves adding inbound links, targeting local search, verifying the site with the Search engine play a large role in achieving successful results.
Since results from Search Engines are dynamic and constantly changing, there are no guarantees of first page results and especially instant first page results. SEO is an on-going, steady process where the optimizer works relentlessly to prove and maintain the authority and relevance of his site to the SE.
Pay per click advertising refers to the short text advertisements often labelled as “sponsored Links” or “sponsored results”. These advertisements are generally purchased from GoogleTM (the Google AdwordsTM product), or Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM – formerly Overture)TM Or Bing ( MSN paid search). In response to a search phrase, the PPC advertisements which have bid on that phrase are displayed, and if the viewer clicks on a text advertisement they are taken to the advertiser’s website. At that point, the advertiser’s account is charged for the ‘click through’ by the search engine’s advertising partner.
The advantage of SEM is the fact that you can get instant qualified traffic to your site , the amount of traffic mainly depends on your budget. However this is also potential hazard - if you do not properly optimize your ads, you run the risk of using up your marketing budget very fast and having a low conversion rate to show for it. Click fraud is another serious problem.
Contextual advertising refers to targeted advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as mobile browsers. The advertisements are selected by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user and may be displayed on the webpage or as pop-up ads. Google AdSense was the first major contextual advertising network, Yahoo! Publisher Network, Microsoft adCenter, AOL Sponsored Listings area and others have been gearing up to make similar offerings.
