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What’s the Difference Between SEM and SEO?

January 04, 2019

What’s the Difference Between SEM and SEO?
Search optimization is an important part of every digital marketing strategy and SEM and SEO are two essential concepts of the same. While these two i.e. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) sound the same, they actually are not. 

And to make the most of your marketing campaigns, you must understand the difference between the two:

Search Engine Marketing
SEM uses paid methods of marketing in which you set up and optimize ads to improve your website’s SERPs. This is the reason why it’s also called as pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.

Google Ads is the most popular way to use SEM. In this, you pay the company to display your ads on the search results pages that target certain keywords associated with your brand.

Search Engine Optimization
In SEO, you don’t use digital ads but rather the optimization of your own content so that you are able to attract more traffic to your website organically. For instance, you can use certain keywords in your blogs, optimize images and videos, etc. so that they are displayed more frequently in Google’s search results. 

SEO is a vast subject that uses a variety of techniques including on-page SEO (keyword optimization) and off-page SEO (link building), technical SEO (website crawlability, data structuring), etc.

The following are the main differences between SEM and SEO:

  • SEM costs money, SEO usually doesn’t
  • SEM’s click-through rate is low but that of SEO is high
  • SEM gets immediate results but SEO takes time
So, there you have it- the key differences between SEM and SEO! If you want to learn about both in detail and other digital marketing techniques, then consider getting a professional diploma in digital marketing. It’s the best way to gain industry knowledge in the shortest period. 

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