Yes, of course there is a difference between the two techniques. People often get confused by search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) as, these terms are frequently used interchangeably. In this article, you will find out how each method is different?
SEM is a form of Internet marketing technique that is employed to promote web sites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages. On the other hand, SEO is the first step in SEM that allows for broad reaching site promotion. SEM not only includes SEO strategies, but also various other methods to increase the web site’s targeted traffic and exposure. Some other SEM methods consist of: paid inclusion, paid advertising, and pay-per-click.
SEM refers mainly to the text advertisements that are published at the top or on the right hand side of the search engine results pages. These ad links are purchased mainly from the major search engines like Google and Yahoo.
SEM also includes any banner ads or ad placement advertising at authority related sites. With SEM, you can have full control over your budget, keywords, and web sites you wish to target.
As above mentioned SEO is the foremost step in SEM and is aimed to increase a site’s organic and natural ranking in the search engine results pages. Furthermore, SEO involves On-page optimisation and Off-page optimisation.
On-page optimisation elements are: keyword density, keywords in the content, title tag optimisation, keywords in hyperlinks and URL, meta tags, sitemap, and link structure. And Off-page optimisation elements include: back links, link exchanges, traffic, keywords in the anchor text, and much more.
Therefore, SEO focuses on increasing the volume as well as quality of the traffic to your web site from the search engines. As the Internet marketing method, SEO considers how the search engines work and what people look for.
Optimising your web site would involve editing its content and HTML coding to improve its relevance to definite keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of the search engines.
Thus, both the techniques-SEM and SEO are important to help you promote your web site through better visibility in the search engine results pages.
