Evaluating the best for your specific digital needs can be a difficult decision. Launching your first website and developing your initial online footprint to promote your product or service will require you to learn when to focus on SEO and SEM marketing. Read on to know more about the features that distinguish the two and which one fits best with your business purposes.
An overview of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO disciplines are structured to continuously evolve to keep up with Google’s ever-changing digital algorithms. It is made up of both on-page and off-page (i.e., “on-site” and “off-site”) activities as its two main pillars.
| Elements of On-page SEO | Elements of Off-page SEO |
| Optimised metadata, which entails the page title tag, heading tags, and image ALT tag (responsible for incorporate target keywords) and Meta description. Well-arranged and digitally optimised page copy using strategic keyword research. Simple and well-structured page URLs including selective keywords. Optimisation of page speed. Social sharing integration within each piece of content | Link building to imbibe and obtain quality inbound links, which are basically backlinks that make up the majority of off-page SEO. Increasing traffic to a website using social signals from media sharing platforms. Getting attention from social bookmarking sites |
Paying attention to the above-mentioned on-page and off-page tactics to make sure your landing pages, web copy or blog articles are well optimised for search.This helps establish valuable, high-quality content that is appreciated by the target audience, eventually resulting in increased organic website traffic, more opportunities for inbound links and greater conversions.
An overview ofSearch Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM solely involves earning search visibility by paid advertisements on popular search engines like Google. These advertisements are generally referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. There are lots of other terminologies used for SEM activities, such as cost-per-click (CPC) ads, paid search ads or paid search advertising.
PPC advertising enables you to target potential buyers by deploying relevant ad copy and keywords that are in line with their search queries. PPC advertisements show up in search engine results pages (SERPs) beside organic listings. They give businesses the opportunity to increase the visibility of their web pages, landing pages, blog articles and other platforms.
What is the main difference between SEO and SEM?
SEM is solely a paid search strategy and SEO entails principles of the organic search strategy. Where Search engine marketing is the process of acquiring website traffic by purchasing ads on search engines platforms, Search engine optimisation, on the other hand, is defined as the process of getting traffic from organic (free), editorial or natural search results.
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