What’s the Difference Between SEO and SEM?

Recently, we looked at the difference between landing pages and homepages, as well as onpage SEO vs. offpage SEO.

Today, we’re unravelling another acronym traffic jam: the difference between SEO and SEM.

What is SEO?

Simply put, SEO – which stands for Search Engine Optimization – involves using strategically selected keywords to boost a website’s rankings on Google, Bing and Yahoo. These keywords are added to HTML code, web copy, and (sometimes) URLs as well, in order to essentially tell the search engines what a specific page – and ultimately, what a whole website – is about. This is called onpage SEO.

There is also the matter of offpage SEO, which primarily involves creating quality, shareable content that earns backlinks from various websites. It also involves setting up various social media accounts, populating them with good content on a regular basis, and pointing “back” to the business website. As noted above, we crafted an entire blog post to the difference between onpage and offpage SEO, and we encourage you to check it out.

Don’t Overlook the O in SEO

Before moving onto SEM campaigns, it’s important to note that the operative – and yet often overlooked – part of SEO is the O: optimization.

In other words, SEO is an ongoing process that must be continuously refined to reflect shifting variables, including competition (i.e. how many businesses are trying to rank for various keywords), volume (i.e. how many prospective customers are searching for various keywords), and overall deployment (i.e. how the keywords are used on various web pages).

What’s more, Google and the other search engines routinely adjust – and sometimes overhaul – their algorithm, which is an insanely complex, multi-billion dollar engine that reads and ranks websites. When the rules change, web pages and websites have to change with them or risk falling in the ranks.

And on top of this, Google and the gang deliberately withhold their secret ranking formulas – because they don’t want anyone “gaming the system”. They are kind of like the Federal Reserve System in this regard. They will send out advisories and pointers, and sometimes you have to read between the lines to find out what they’ll do next. Take that, Janet Yellen!

What is SEM?

So now that you know the basics, we can look at the difference between SEO and SEM. Here’s where things can get a little confusing (sorry, it’s not our fault!).

The easiest way to understand SEM vs. SEO is to think of SEM as the “big program” and SEO as the “important project in the big program”.

That is, SEM includes but is bigger and broader than SEO, because it also covers various forms of online advertising, such as PPC ads, banners, and even tools like press releases and advertorials. Inbound marketing also generally falls under the SEM umbrella as well. Typically, SEO and SEM campaigns run concurrently and support each other.

What’s more, data from one can be used to improve the other. For example, keyword research for onpage SEO can be used to help determine the keywords that should trigger online ads – since the goal is to reach the same target customer.

SEM vs. SEO?

So based on the above, should you allocate more of your marketing dollars to SEM or SEO? The right answer depends on a number of factors that are specific to your business, your marketplace, and what your competitors are or aren’t doing. For some businesses, investing 70% of their budget on SEM and 30% on SEO (which as mentioned is a part of SEM) is the right ratio. For others, it may be the opposite.

Our best advice is to connect with a proven online and inbound marketing partner, who will build your respective campaigns and ensure that you take the shortest, most sustainable, and most profitable path to ROI.

Learn More About SEO & SEM

To learn more about the difference between SEO and SEM, or another other aspect of the online and inbound marketing landscape, contact Leap Clixx today. Your consultation is free, and we’ll empower you with clear information to make SEO and SEM marketing work for your business. It’s what we do!