Search Engine Optimization Vs. Search Engine Marketing

By Author: nicksmith
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Website Search Engine Optimization (Website SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are two different internet marketing strategies that can compliment one another or be done independently. They are often confused with one another as they have the same end goal: drive consumers to a website with the intention of making a purchase.

The goal of website SEO is to improve the visibility of a website in search engines through unpaid searches (we refer to this as organic SEO). The higher ranked a website is on a search engine, the more visitors the website will receive. A successful SEO campaign will achieve a high website ranking for predetermined keywords that the marketer will identify as “trophy words”. It is assumed that these words are searched by consumers with the intent to buy a product or service. Thus when a “ready to buy” consumer searches these terms and lands upon the company website, they are more likely to buy from that company.

To be successful, one must optimize a website successful against the competition. SEO is a subjective science as your search engine ranking can falter depending on ...
... what your competitors do and how search engines alter their algorithm that identifies different websites as search engine worthy. Website SEO, like SEM requires a long term commitment to be successful.

Search engine marketing or SEM is a form of internet marketing that promotes website visibility in search engines through paid placement advertising or contextual advertising. Technically SEM can include organic search engine optimization but it is usually used in a term that that may contrast with SEO. SEM can be used in a context where it exclusively refers to pay per click advertising. Where as SEO optimizers strive to achieve higher ranking search results without payment SEM professionals use Adwords and pay per click advertising. Like SEO, SEM professionals do keyword analysis to determine what consumers are searching for with the intent to by.

As stated earlier, the two forms of internet marketing are often confused with one another as they strive for the same end goal. Often a SEO professional might not be as experienced in SEM and visa versa. However as internet marketing continues to prove profitable, the demand for experts in these fields will continue to grow.

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