Are SEO and SEM Digital Marketing The Same Thing?
SEO and SEM can be very complex terms if you do not have a deep understanding of exactly what each of them consists of. Both terms are used interchangeably amongst the Marketing industry, creating great confusion.
Well, at New Online Road we make it as simple as possible and answer your question; Search Engine Optimisation is an organic search strategy and Search Engine Marketing on the other hand is a paid search strategy.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of gaining more authority on search engines by ranking higher on the results page. For example if you are in the building industry and a customer searches “best builder near me”, if you have a quality SEO strategy in place, you would rank high and potential customers would land on your website, generating more sales. This is FREE organic traffic towards your site, unlike PPC Marketing.
What is SEM?
Although Search Engine Marketing (SEM) contains SEO tactics, they are very different to each other. SEM is combination of marketing strategies such as PPC Advertising or Google Adwords. They achieve immediate results as your website appears in the top 3 Ads on the results page, however every click made on your ad is paid for.
Which one is better?
Should you implement SEO or SEM? Which one works best? What will get me more results? As the internet is extremely powerful and customers do research before purchasing a product/service, SEO is crucial for a business to be found on search engines. However SEM can achieve instant results as SEO takes time to improve. Both tactics are very important and if done properly very useful in terms of ROI and when SEO and SEM are used together they compliment each other and you are guaranteed to see massive results… If applied correctly!
SEM & SEO need to be applied in accordance to your industry, business and goals. If you have any questions or require assistance in regards to which you should choose in order to maximise your business’s potential, reach out to New Online Road and we can help you grow.
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