Search engine marketing- in layman’s term, is the next step of Search Engine Optimisation. SEO takes to time to show results in your favor. In case you start giving up, search engine marketing is your next option. SEO requires a frustrating amount of effort, time, and money to make your website appear in the first three pages of result pages. Search engine marketing, on the other hand, can help you achieve while skipping some steps.
SEO means earning traffic through unpaid or free listings. SEM is basically- buying traffic through paid search listings. Earlier it was just one term- search marketing. Now the search marketing has two branches- search engine optimization and search engine marketing. SEM is used to describe paid traffic-related activities. SEM is done by purchasing ads on search engines. Paid search ads, Paid search advertising, pay-per-click, pay-per-call, cost per click, cost-per-thousand-impressions are some of the terms associated with search engine marketing. Most search ads are sold on a cost per click or pay per click basis. Some advertising options are also available on a cost per thousand impressions basis.
SEO v/s SEM
Search engine optimization means improving your website to increase your organic search engine rankings. SEO primarily revolves around playing with keywords. Second is, placing keywords strategically all over the website. Link building is another crucial aspect of search engine optimization. Establishing site authority, using metadata are other things. SEO is for the organic growth of traffic by using keywords and providing better user experience.
Search engine marketing, on the other hand, needs you to pay to appear on the search engine results pages. Basically, you pay to display your ads to the users who are actively searching for the keywords you’re targeting or the content you are publishing. You don’t need a high site authority to show up on the first page of Google search results; you must be willing to pay for it.
You don’t need both SEO and SEM, but you will end up with a lot more traffic on your website and leads if you use both of them strategically. SEO is free, so it can’t hurt to optimize your website according to search engine optimization’s rule book. More traffic you can attract will be better for your brand. But again, SEO takes time to yield results till then, Search Engine Marketing is your pal. It can speed up your growth rate and build your brand. SEM will help you target the right audience and hence form a client base. People are looking for products or services that your brand is offering will have your ad right on their result page.
<Are keywords important for SEM too?
Keywords are the soul of SEO, but many people that SEM is just about paying for ads and keywords don’t matter. Keywords are just as crucial for SEM as they are for SEO. SEM campaigns mean you have to choose keywords for which your ads will pop up. For the wrong keywords, your ad will be directed to a totally irrelevant audience. You will end up with no sales and the cost of the ads minus from your bank balance. In conclusion, you need to do extensive research to choose the right keywords. It is the only way to target the correct audience for your brand. SEM or SEO, whichever you choose, needs proper research and some efforts.
