What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
Each industry has its fair share of acronyms, the web industry is no different but today, we will deal with the lesser known such as SEO and SEM.
What does SEM mean?
SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing and for some people, it’s their full time job believe it or not. In the 1990′s, just having a website was all the marketing you needed but in today’s terms, that is but the beginning. You have a site, great, welcome to the overflowing pond filled with sharks called Yahoo, Google and Live Search… you are but a bacteria compared to these monsters. Well, a Search Engine Marketer (SEM) is going, through various means including paid listings and inclusions to tell these big fish that you not only exist but to also send you a few scraps. You begin as a single celled bacteria and a SEM’s job is to turn you into a multi-cellular organism that can gather the attention of the sharks way above, usually by any means necessary.
Alright, what about a SEO?
Well, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which basically optimizes your site to gain a higher organic listing in key search engines. The process involves website optimization so search engines see more of “you” with each visit and adding meta tags, keywords… the process takes time but the results are equally long lasting (until the next search engine recalibration).
So what is the difference between SEM and SEO?
The end result of SEO is the same as for SEM, the difference is you aren’t paying for growth. You may be paying somebody to do SEO services for you but they aren’t paying others to promote your site through banner listings, paid links etc. as that would make them a SEM.
Why would somebody go SEM vs SEO route?
Well, if you have a short marketing campaign and don’t have time to allow traffic to build itself up organically. Put another way, let’s say you want to become a bodybuilder, you can either spend years in the gym to build up your muscles (SEO) or take some steroids to speed up the process (SEM). SEM costs money, SEO is free… SEM can get you in trouble with search engines (kicked out), SEO is safe. It all depends on budget, timeline and what you are comfortable doing to get the word out on your site. Of course, a SEM will also employ SEO methods, remember, whether you take steroids or not, you still need to workout to be seen by the big sharks swimming above you.
The Bottom Line
Build it and they will come… eventually.
