SEO and SEM: What's the Difference & Which One Is the Best?

SEO and SEM are two digital marketing tactics to boost online visibility on search results. However, despite having the same goal, SEO and SEM have significant differences in how they work. To figure out more information about SEO and SEM, read the explanation below!

The Ins and Outs of SEO and SEM

Both SEO and SEM target higher rankings on search results, but they work slightly differently. SEO is a part of SEM in which SEM employs organic (SEO) and paid (PPC) strategies to get more traffic. For more details, below is the overview of both strategies:

What Is SEM?

Search engine marketing or SEM is a digital marketing tactic to elevate a website’s online visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). SEM includes search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC), like paid ads and online campaigns. 

When you type a certain query on the search bar, you usually will get two kinds of results, the organic one and the ads one. 

The ads will have a “Sponsored” or “Ad” label above the site URL, indicating that it is a PPC. On the other hand, some results below the labelled ones are the organic results from SEO practices. 

How SEM Works?

Technically, SEM starts with keyword research for the campaign. You can make sure your advertisements are seen by the proper people by concentrating on the appropriate keywords and targeting parameters.

Aside from that, SEM also has these key components:

• Bidding: PPC allows you to bid on a certain term and your ad will appear when someone searches for that keyword. The goal of bid management is to optimize your return on investment (ROI) by carefully determining this amount. 
• Audience Targeting: Specify the characteristics of audiences who want to be targeted. With that, you will not waste money on ads for someone who is not interested in your brand. 
• Ad Creation: You must create compelling ads containing relevant descriptions, convincing headlines, and clear calls to action. 
• Ad Asset: Adding other elements to PPC search ads for deeper information about your brand, such as a business address, clickable call option, or series of links. 

Benefits of SEM

There are many benefits you can get by doing search engine marketing, such as:

• Paid ads ensure that your site appears in the most prominent place in the search results; therefore, it is suitable for gaining new prospects. 
• Controllable usage, which you can arrange based on the desired budget and duration. 
• You can accomplish positive results easily because you focus on marketing strategy. 
• You can customise your ads based on the desired ad types and keywords. Thus, the promotions are more optimal. 
• Paid ads have more targeted audiences so you can get a higher conversion rate. 

What Is SEO?

Search engine optimisation or SEO is the process of improving a website to increase organic visibility on search results. Different from PPC, SEO works organically by doing some primary techniques, such as on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. 

The primary goal of SEO is to obtain more organic traffic to your website. To do so, you can create content that satisfies the user’s search needs. 

The top few organic search outcomes are more likely to be pages with the most useful and pertinent material. These are the initial results that users see.

However, beneficial content is unsustainable on its own. The bots used by search engines to crawl websites must be able to grasp it.

How SEO Works?

Primarily, SEO has four strategies that must be implemented in your website, such as:

• On-page SEO: Optimise internal elements on your site, including the content. The goal is to make it easier for search engines to understand the content. Some strategies you can do are title tag, meta description, image, and header optimisation. 
• Off-page SEO: Build the authority and reputation of your website by doing link building, influencer marketing, guest blogging, email marketing, and many more. 
• Technical SEO: Ensure that your site performance is good and accessible by both users and search engines (crawling and indexing the content). The strategies include page load optimisation, mobile-friendliness, security, indexation, and many more. 
• Content Optimisation: One of the things Google looks at to rank your website highly is content. Poor quality content will be more difficult to rank well in search engines, and vice versa.

Benefits of SEO

Working organically, SEO may give you some advantages, including:

• Positive Traffic: Your website will be better optimised with SEO, making it easier for search engines like Google to find and search for and increasing website traffic. Naturally, the website will attract more potential consumers the more people view it. 
• Free Consumer Data: It will be simpler for you to obtain customer data for free when you use SEO. Later, you can use the data to match their preference with your brand and promotion strategies. 
• Increasing Brand Awareness: The intensity of a product's sales increases with its level of popularity. Customers will want to buy a product from a brand that is easy to recall and recognize, which will also assist spread the word about it.

The Differences between SEO and SEM

SEO and SEM have several differences that you should know before determining whether to use search engine optimisation or paid ads. Below are some of the differences:

1. Cost

By doing SEO, you do not need to spend a cost to make the audience visit your website. What you must do is optimise your website for search results and watch it appear in prominent places.

On the other hand, paid ads need you to pay for the advertisement every time visitors click it, meaning that you must spend more to get clicked. 

2. Target Audience

The audiences targeted by SEO are wider than SEM, although you already determined your business niche. This means that your content reaches a wider range of audiences. On the contrary, you can target audiences specifically based on their age, location, and other segmentation. 

3. Duration

SEM offers you a fast traffic result since you can pay for the ads to air and get clicked by users. Conversely, SEO takes time to give traffic results because it is a gradual process to gain leads and sales.

4. Click-Through Rate (CTR) Potential

Compared to SEM, SEO can yield a greater CTR. According to a study by Advanced Web Ranking, SEO may outperform SEM if your website's page ranking appears in the top three SERPs.

SEM can still increase CTR, though, if your website page is still on the second page of the search engine or lower than the third position.

5. Audience Trust

Because some audience already knows that a fee will undoubtedly be associated with a company's advertising, they will have greater trust in SEO rather than SEM. Moreover, Google has provided a “Sponsored” or “Ad” marker icon on every website page that can differentiate SEO from SEM.

6. Sustainability

For long-term use, SEO has a big advantage in that your website pages can stay on the first page of search engines for years. This will allow you to keep making money with little outlay of funds.

In contrast, by using SEM, traffic and leads will cease when an advertising campaign is discontinued, meaning that the business will no longer engage in transactional operations.

Which Is Better, SEO or SEM?

Now that you already know how both strategies work and the differences, you may wonder which is better. Regarding this, it is all based on your preferences and needs. 

SEM is the solution if you need to see leads, traffic, or leads fast. Additionally, you can employ SEM if you want to improve your internet visibility right away in the fiercely competitive search results. 

However, when you use sponsored ads in SEM, you have to spend money on normal ads. If you have significant operational requirements or are just starting out, this could be a problem for your brand.

Thus, you can utilize SEO first and SEM later if you want to avoid depending entirely on advertisements and choose a more cost-effective approach. In addition, since SEO takes about three to six months to be successful, you can utilize it if you want to produce traffic, sales, or leads naturally and have the time to keep an eye on it.

Conclusion

Those are the things you can learn about SEO and SEM. Ultimately, the decision between SEO and SEM will depend on your goals and timeframe. Although SEM does produce faster results, it is not a viable business strategy because it will end when funding is stopped.

On another note, even though you have to wait months to see noticeable effects, SEO can be your best bet if you want a long-lasting and sustainable outcome. Nonetheless, having the right resources—budget, staff, and planning—is essential to achieving both.

In this case, seeking assistance from SEO services is a smart choice if you require resources for SEO practices. SEO Service by cmlabs is one service you can trust! So, Schedule a meeting with us now and tell us your SEO needs for free!