Search engine optimization(SEO) is one of the best digital marketing strategies that you can utilize for your website. It can help your website rank a lot better on the search engine for the keywords of your industry or niche.
On the other hand, search engine marketing(SEM) focuses on not just the organic search strategies but the paid ones as well. In this way, a lot more traffic is obtained and even better rankings as compared to just doubling down on the SEO efforts.
Are you looking to know about the major differences between these digital marketing mediums in the iconic battle of SEO vs. SEM? If yes, then you’re at the right place. In this insightful blog post, you’ll learn about each aspect of SEM vs. SEO. So, let’s begin!
Major Differences Between SEO vs. SEM
One of the biggest differences between SEO and SEM is that SEO majorly optimizes your website to get higher rankings. Moreover, with the help of SEO, you can gain a lot more organic traffic in your search engine results. If you compare that with SEM, then you’ll find out that it’s a lot more focused on organic and paid search optimizations. Alongside this, it also utilizes different types of strategies to get better search engine rankings and even more visibility.
To know about the major difference, you need to understand that Google’s search results have two different types of categories. They are organic search results and paid search results.
The purpose of SEO is to gain a better rank for your website on the organic search engine results. These results are nothing but the ones that find a place below the sponsored websites. To put it simply, you won’t have to pay a dime to Google to rank in the organic search results.
The major goal of SEM is to rank your website in the organic search results but the paid ones as well. These paid results are basically the first three websites that will appear whenever you search for anything commercial. It can be identified with the “Sponsored” tag, which is just above the title of the page.
Paid search is also known as pay-per-click(PPC) advertising. So, SEM is basically the amalgamation of SEO & PPC. That’s why SEO is considered an important part of SEM.
What Are The Most Important Features of SEM vs. SEO?
Let’s learn about the major components of each one of the digital marketing channels that are listed below:-
What is SEO?
SEO is one of the best digital marketing strategies, which includes regularly optimizing the website. It can help your website gain a lot better organic search engine rankings, which is non-paid.
SEO involves different types of activities that can give a boost to your website’s rankings in a variety of ways. It is not just limited to your website but can expand to different areas of the web. These types of activities can fall into two different types of activities. These activities are as follows:-
- On-page SEO
The optimization that takes place on your website is known as on-page SEO. Some of its components are updating the title tag, bettering the page speed, publishing a blog post, etc. You can be in charge of everything when it comes to on-page SEO.
- Off-page SEO
In this aspect of SEO, optimizations need to be carried out on third-party websites. Its elements include carrying out outreaches, optimizing the social media profiles of your brand, and even sharing the content. In off-page SEO, you have a sufficient amount of control on some things, but the other aspects can’t be influenced with your involvement.
- Technical SEO
The optimizations that are covered under technical SEO help the search engines to not just crawl but index your website as well. Improving the page speed of the website and taking care of internal linking are some of the things that are covered in technical SEO.
Here is a list of SEO action points you need to carry out:-
- Creating the right type of content and optimizing it accordingly.
- Optimizing the website and the server side as well.
- Doing appropriate keyword research after a lot of brainstorming and analysis.
- Optimize the meta descriptions and page titles as well.
By following these pointers, you’ll be all set to convey to the search engines what to expect from your page. Furthermore, you’ll be able to provide as per the expectations with the body text, media elements, and other components of your website. It will definitely show your users that your website is sophisticated and as per the requirements of your prospective clients.
What is SEM?
SEM is a common term that includes not only SEO but also the paid advertising medium that happens on a search engine.
Here are some of the most commonly used SEM strategies:-
- Remarketing ads
- Product or service ads
- Display ads
- Organic SEO
- Local SEO
- PPC ads
In case you want to gain an advantage in the battle between SEM vs. SEO, it will be better if you don’t take sides. The best approach will be to research distinct types of ad platforms. Some of the options that you can consider are Google ads and Microsoft ads. In this way, you will be able to learn how you can judge and deliver ads with the clear motive of optimizing your ads to get the best possible results. Along with this, you can create organic content to drive great results.
How Much Time Will It Take To See Results Between SEO and SEM?
SEO and SEM have very stark differences! It becomes evidently clear when you comprehend it on the basis of how much time both SEO and SEM take to show results.
- SEO: It takes a minimum of three months to a maximum of six months to show the results for your website.
- SEM: You can get the results you desire as soon as your ad campaign is live for your website.
Different factors can affect your turnaround time for the results you expect.
It can happen that your SEM campaign doesn’t deliver the results you expect straight away. You might even have to require a few weeks of advertising data to better your targeting and boost your conversion rates. Another possibility is that you will need a lot more time to build backlinks and even to fix issues after a robust SEO audit.
What is The Actual Cost of SEM & SEO?
SEM and SEO have different aspects that might fluctuate their costs. But, in most cases, you will have to invest the following amounts in SEO and SEM for your business.
- SEO: $500-$7,500/month
- SEM: $9,000-$10,000/month
When it comes to SEO, you don’t really need to pay anything for ranking in the organic search results or when someone lands on your website. So, you won’t even need to pay a dime to Google or any other search engine to get those rankings. But you need to understand that there might be some costs that you would have to pay in terms of purchasing the tools or getting SEO services.
Let’s understand it with an example: You want to monitor the performance of your website. In that case, you will have to subscribe to a premium SEO tool to be better equipped to check your site’s performance. SEO requires a great amount of work to get those organic rankings. You can either have an in-house professional for the same requirement or opt for a reputed SEO agency like Kinex Media.
When it comes to SEM pricing, you’ll have to pay for the PPC ads beforehand. You can get faster results with the help of PPC. But you need to understand that when you stop paying for the PPC ads, your ads will stop showing on the search engines, and your leads pipeline will dry up.
But, with SEO, when you start to rank, you’ll be all set to gain a huge amount of traffic and leads. Afterward, you won’t have to invest significant effort or money to maintain your website’s search engine rankings.
Which One You Should Opt: SEO vs. SEM?
SEO can prove to be the top choice in most cases, but you need to be cautious in choosing between SEM vs. SEO.
Some scenarios in which you can opt for SEO are as follows:-
- You have plenty of time and resources to take care of your website’s SEO.
- You need to choose a digital marketing strategy that isn’t dependent on spending a huge amount of money on your ads on a monthly basis.
- You are willing to wait three to six months patiently to get a good amount of traffic, leads, and even sales.
In contrast to this, you can use SEM when:-
- You have a good amount of time, resources, and budget to ensure that your weekly ads will be managed astutely.
- You are looking to have a solid presence in competitive search results without waiting for the SEO results.
- You want to get plenty of traffic, leads, or sales but on an immediate basis.
Holistically, opting between SEM and SEO is a lot more dependent on what you are looking to get and in how much time.
Is SEM or SEO the most appropriate option for you?
Are you thinking about whether SEO or SEM is the right option for you? If your answer is in the affirmative, you need to understand that this dilemma is faced by a lot of individuals and business owners. But the answer to this question will depend on what goals you have for your digital marketing campaign. Ideally, you should have a great SEO strategy for your website, which is basically a coherent part of your bigger SEM campaign.
You should also have strategic PPC campaigns that will target different types of demographics and focused local ads to increase your store’s foot traffic. A modern remarketing campaign powered by AI will provide tailored product recommendations to the visitors who will land on your website after searching on the web.
It’s entirely doable to have the right type of digital marketing strategy, which will include the right elements of SEM.
You need to understand that you must get started with the most popular channels of SEM, which are SEO and PPC, initially. You can reach your market and even put in a good amount of effort to grow your business further.
Let Kinex Media Help You Ace Both SEM & SEO
Are you confused between SEO vs. SEM? Let Kinex Media help you out with our impeccable guidance. We have a dedicated team of SEO and SEM professionals who have many years of experience in these fields. We will be more than willing to help you ace both these digital marketing mediums and grow your business. We guarantee that you will have not just boosted traffic for your website but plenty of high-converting leads with our assistance. So, opt for our SEM and SEO services if you’re serious about having compounding growth for your business in a limited timeframe.
Wrapping Up
The battle of SEO vs. SEM is one of the healthiest competitions in the digital marketing sphere. SEO can be considered a part of SEM, but there are many business organizations that opt for only one of these digital marketing mediums.
If you’re someone who relies on organic traffic and leads(as they are more loyal), getting SEO services for your website is the way to go. However, if you’re of the opinion that your business growth should be a lot quicker, SEM must be your top choice.
Both of these digital marketing mediums have their pros and cons! So, you need to do a comparative analysis for both SEM and SEO. With this insightful analysis as per your requirements, you will find out which one to choose between SEO vs. SEM.