There has been enough debate over choosing the right digital marketing approach. As online presence appears to be the core need, businesses are now keen on executing online marketing strategies that yield results.
Today, we will discuss some most preferred strategies to drive their online rankings and traffic. (SEO) Search engine optimization and (SEM) search engine marketing are two critical pillars of digital marketing strategy.
SEO and SEM are two terms and acronyms that are often used interchangeably, without a clear conclusion of how they are alike and how they are diverse. They have a corresponding correlation and, when used optimally, can offer excellent marketing results.
SEO is all about optimizing your website to get a rank higher in organic search results, while SEM goes beyond SEO. It includes other techniques that can direct traffic to search engines, such as PPC ads.
What Is SEO And SEM In General?
SEO is the course of improving your website search ability to get free search engine traffic. SEO is vital because an optimized website is easy to understand for the crawlers and can boost the probability of ranking higher on SERPs
SEO needs to evolve to cope with Google’s ever-changing algorithms continually. However, one thing that remains consistent is the foundation of on-page and off-page activities as its foundation stones.
While on the other side,
Search engine marketing goes beyond SEO, but it is only a subset of your overall digital marketing strategy. SEM is a digital marketing process to increase search engines’ visibility, either through obtaining organic traffic through SEO or paid traffic through PPC advertising.
SEM is more emphasized to gain visibility in search results via paid advertising on search engines. These ads are commonly known as pay per click (PPC) ads. Many other terms are used for SEM activities, including cost-per-click (CPC) ads or paid search ads.
In short, SEO follows an organic way of gaining traffic, while SEM strategies are built to target online audiences through organic or inorganic ways.
Multiple Ways Both SEO and SEM Strategies Can Be Executed
As SEO at base follows two core approaches: on-page and off-page, both have distinctive elements that need to be recognized first.
For on-page SEO, Some of the most common yet useful elements include;
- Precisely written copy with strategic keyword research
- Optimizing meta-data comprising image Alt tag, meta description, page title tag, targeted keywords
- Keyword focused and identical page URLs
- Optimized page speed
- Social media sharing and integration in content
Similarly, for off-page SEO, elements such as
- Effective link building
- Social bookmarking on sites such as Reddit
- Social media sharing
- Article submission
- Blog submission
Whereas, in terms of SEM, it includes
- Creating ad campaigns
- Landing page optimization
- Keyword development
- Ad copy development
- Optimizing pre and post-campaign metric
In a nutshell,
SEM strategies are now an integral part of current marketing strategies. Other methods, such as social media, email, have their significance. Investing in SEM is turned out to be the most critical part of online marketing, thanks to the considerable potential for new leads and profits.
Search engine marketing traffic is measured as the primary source for internet traffic, as it is a targeted strategy. It is generally seen that online users typically run a query on search engines to find a specific solution, an answer to their curiosity, or mainly to explore new things.
However, SEO lays the foundation for SEM with well-optimized content that prospects and customers find useful. Without search-optimized blog content, landing pages, web pages, your SEM efforts will fail due to low quality. Obtaining high visibility in SERPs will, therefore, be extremely challenging.
Both SEO and SEM are equally interlaced when it comes to online marketing.
For more comprehensive coverage on the above services, connect with Best1tech. We offer result oriented and traffic guaranteed digital marketing services for all niches.