Search Engine
Marketing and Search Engine Optimization: Any difference?
by: Mikhail Tuknov
For many casual internet users, the terms SEM and SEO rarely enter their minds
when they are busy jumping from one website to another. However, it is these
terms that determine much of what comes out on the results page whenever we
type in a word in the search tab of any accessible search engine. These terms
are also responsible for all those advertisements and pop-ups that link us to
even more websites, whether they may be connected to our original search or
not. So just what are SEM and SEO?
In the simplest way possible, SEM and SEO are tools which website creators,
especially those who are promoting and selling a certain service or product,
use in order to gain a lot of exposure and better ranking for their website.
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the simplicity ends there.
To make it a tad bit complex, SEM and SEO are not the same. As suggested by the
names, SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, deals more with how a website is
marketed to gain exposure in the different search engines available on the
internet, while SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, deals with how the web
creators develop and re-develop the content, quality and structure of their
entire websites so that whenever an internet user types in a particular word in
the search tab, their websites have a better chance of appearing on the first
few search engine results pages (SERPS).
Now, to make it even more complex, although the functions of SEM and SEO seem
different, they are more effective when used together. Since the main function
of SEM is to gain more exposure for a website, the more common means for
attraction are online advertisements, blogs, internet articles, partner and
sponsored websites, and anything that can catch the eye of the internet user.
SEM also makes use of PPC (pay-per-click) and paid inclusion to further push a
website’s visibility. Lastly, it is also an important process in SEM to submit
the name and URL of a website to different search engines and web directories
if only to inform them of the website’s existence. All this is carried out to
ensure the popularity of a website.
So how does SEO come together with SEM? Well, despite having all the
advertisements provided by SEM, it is truly the SEO that allows the internet
user to easily and conveniently find what he is looking for. Since the function
of SEO is to gain a better ranking in the SERPS, the web creator has to
constantly optimize his website in order to cater to the needs of the internet
user and to make it easier for spiders or web crawlers to judge whether the
website’s content is relevant to the word/s being searched. Optimization is not
a simple and easy task. It involves having to restructure the website regularly
(by editing the html code and meta tags, changing content, reorganizing the
site map, developing an easier navigational structure, etc.) so as to adapt to
the rapidly changing demands of the internet user. Still, when done properly,
not only does SEO help a website become more useful and therefore, more often
visited by the internet user, it also helps gain more exposure since it
increases the website’s chances of gaining a better rank in the SERPS.
Both SEM and SEO success rely heavily on the words or context which Internet users type in whenever they search for something on the
internet. Take PPC under SEM, for example. PPC is an ad that is triggered by a
particular word or context used by an internet user. Once a particular word or
context is searched, a corresponding PPC ad for a website comes out. SEO works
in the same way. The web creator inputs a particular
Although all of these processes involving SEM and SEO are tedious and
time-consuming, it all boils down to knowing and serving the target audience. A
web creator must be discerning enough to know what the internet users need and
want, and at the same time he must have the real passion to inform and provide
the internet users with the right service and product.
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About The Author Mikhail Tuknov, search engine
optimization specialist and a founder of Infatex
(Search Engine Marketing Company). With an extensive background in Internet
marketing, Mikhail Tuknov offers SEO, PPC, SEM
services. |
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