SEO & SEM – Two Different Things
Yes, as much as you are lead to believe, they are two different things. This is a quick article for clients, pontiental clients, or anyone who is interested in factual information, as opposed to cleverly written sales tactics or personal opinions.
Updated Today as I was graciously corrected by two experts in the field Jill Whalen & Danny Sullivan, who were nice enough to not only correct me, but give me the viable information I was after in the first place.
A quote from Danny Sullivan:
I actually meant to desphinn this because Wikipedia is wrong, in my opinion.
SEO = free listings
PPC = paid listings
SEM = the combination of the two.
Geez, the Wikipedia page even sites me as helping to popularize the term search engine marketing as an umbrella term but then calls SEM all paid? Insane.
They both gave me some great articles on this already existing, you can find them at the links below.
What’s the Difference Between SEO & SEM – HighRankings.com
Some Great Tips from Search Engine Land – SeachEngineLand.com
Search Engine Optimisation
I found this to be the most accurate description:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence. – From Wikipedia
A very critical part of the explanation:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. The New York Times defines SEM as ‘the practice of buying paid search listings’. – From Wikipedia
Both of these are ever-evolving, always changing ways to promote websites. Do not be fooled into the “know all” “be all” tactics or services provided today, as they are usually just doing the same things your original web designer should have done at the beginning.
What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below!
