If you are on this page, it is because you need to understand what SEO and SEM are.
If you are reading this article you have probably typed one of these keywords into Google:
- seo and sem consultant
- agency seo sem serp
- seo and sem campaigns
- online marketing seo sem
- b2b search engine marketing
If we wanted to just explain the acronyms, we would tell you that they are (respectively) search engine optimization and search engine marketing.
We might add that they serve to improve Google rankings, which is why companies invest in SEO and SEM for their site.
But we think we can give you a lot more explanation, because that’s probably what you’re looking for. So, happy reading!
SEM and SEO: Differences
The first thing is to understand that SEO is a part of SEM.
Search engine optimization of a website is one of the actions that can be deployed in a search engine marketing strategy.
The first and substantial difference, then, is that SEM is a branch of digital marketing, while SEO is an internal process of SEM (perhaps the best known).
Can we be clearer? Yes, by giving you the definitions of both right away.
SEM, or search engine marketing. What it is.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) Strategies indicate all those web marketing activities that aim to make a website visible and findable through search engines.
SEM is sometimes called search marketing.
It is sometimes equated with SEA (search engine advertising) which, just like SEO, is just an internal process of search engine marketing.
As we mentioned, this is an area of digital marketing that is aimed at attracting new users to the website by improving its ranking among search engine results.
These are processes related to search marketing:
- Keyword research
- On-page and off-page SEO (we’ll talk about that next!).
- The pay per click (ppc) advertising
SEM Strategies
Search engine marketing activities are critical to maintaining, increasing and implementing a site’s visibility on the Web.
Today we depend on the world of the Internet. If we are not present online, we do not exist in the real world.
This statement may seem out of proportion, but it is real and concrete, at least for 99 percent of businesses and companies.
Even if we do not want to use our website to do Business, it is still essential to be there and to be there well.
For this reason, you need to contact a search engine marketing consultant to implement an ad hoc strategy that will enable you to climb the Google rankings.
Often some Clients told us that they were forced to attend a Fair. Not because it generated Business, but because “not being there” meant giving a bad signal to the Market.
So let’s not give a bad signal to the Market.
Let’s not present ourselves to our Clients, Leads, Partners and Suppliers with an old, outdated and non-responsive site.
The credibility of our Company, our image, our web positioning and our Web Reputation.
In addition to the technical and visual development aspect of the site, it is crucial to plan a proper SEM strategy.
Thanks to search engine marketing, it is possible to implement various strategies of Web Marketing to achieve the visibility goals we have set for ourselves, in terms of finding the website on search engines.
In addition, Search Engine Marketing also includes all reporting and analysis activities.
Fundamental to understanding the success of our strategies, points of improvement, and associated economic returns.
SEO: definition
SEO (search engine optimization) requires a strategy that gives results in the long run.
The goal is to place a website among the top positions in Google’s SERP (results page) through organic search (i.e., without the use of paid campaigns).
It is divided into on-page or off-page SEO.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is concerned with the engine optimization activities of the pages and internal metadata of the website.
By curating these aspects, Google’s crawler is able to read the content, index it and score it in the ranking.
A higher score corresponds to better placement among search results: being among the top results gives you more visibility than your competitors.
Each piece of content should be optimized for one keyword (or more).
But it’s not just the text that needs to be taken care of: also the urls, the metadata that ends up in the html code, and the internal link building (the network of internal links within the site, which allows cross-references between one page and another).
On-page (or rather, on-site) SEO is also part of all technical improvements to the site.
Among the most important: build the sitemap that guides Google through the structure of the site; check that all links work and there is no duplicate content; include the privacy and cookie policy.
Off page SEO
Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is optimization that takes place from outside the site. Google believes that if other sites link to us and give us references, we are more authoritative.
If we are more authoritative, our content is more in line with the demands of users typing in the keywords on which we want to rank.
To do this, you have to try to get backlinks from external industrysites, or from social networks.
SEO SEA SEM
A brief mention also of SEA, now mistakenly equated with SEM tout court.
SEA or Search Engine Advertising includes all paid campaign actions on search engines. In this area, Google is once again leading the way, with the Google Ads (formerly Adwords) system.
Google Ads has recently been enriched with new features for marketers, such as Performance Max which manages budgets and auctions in an automated way, helping the campaign reach sales goals.
When to do SEO and SEM Strategies?
Let’s see when to do SEO and when to resort to Google Ads to attract new potential customers
Hopefully, we have clarified the differences between SEO and SEM, and also SEA.
That leaves just one last thing that we think is worth exploring: when it pays to use SEO Strategy and when it is better to use SEM / SEA with Google Ads.
Organic SEO: pros and cons
SEO has many advantages and one disadvantage. Organic research is free. Therefore, by creating valuable and optimized content, you gain significant visibility without investing a penny of budget in advertising.
Depending on your industry, you can rank on keywords with high search volume and thus be easily found by many people.
Conversely, you can choose niche keywords and intercept only the people really in line with your offer. This depends on your
Conversely, you will see Search Engine Optimization results in the long run (typically, no less than three months).
Google Ads: pros and cons
Google Ads campaigns are easy to manage. They too are based on keywords used by users during search engines.
If you sponsor a piece of content, it may appear among the very first results on Google, before the “organic” ones, i.e., not sponsored with a campaign.
The cons? The results are proportionate to the budget, and the benefits in driving traffic to your website end as soon as you stop the campaign.
Only an SEO SEM consultant can tell you when to use SEO and when to use ADVs
Only an SEM SEO Specialist can define a goal-driven web marketing strategy that accurately predicts when to use SEO and when to use Ads campaigns
If you restrict your evaluation to the functional aspects of SEO and Ads campaigns, choosing is difficult.
But there is one rule to always follow: you can only attract new customers if you have a solid, goal-oriented digital marketing strategy.
A marketing strategy, supported by an SEO and SEM analysis, allows you to understand which digital tools are beneficial for you, depending on some relevant aspects:
- Goals
- Sector
- Target (buyer person)
- Market positioning
- Budget
- Internal expertise
- Ability to contract agencies or freelancers to support etc.
This will make it much easier for you to understand when to prefer organic SEO and when to prefer a good paid campaign on Google Ads.
Factory Communication is an SEO Agency and SEM specialist.
We offer you dedicated SEO consulting from A to Z for all stages of strategy, from planning to implementation of individual actions.
Our services include:
- SEO and SEM techniques
- SEO and SEM optimization
- SEO and SEM Marketing
- SEO SEM Google
- Dedicated SEM SEO Consultant
Do you want to know more about Marketing SEM SEO?