SEO vs. SEM: What are the differences?
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 6:41 am
SEO (search engine optimization) is about getting traffic and potential customers from organic search engine results pages (SERPs).
SEM (search engine marketing) is a broader strategy for acquiring new visitors from both organic results (i.e. through SEO) and paid results (through pay-per-click advertising = PPC). SEM therefore covers both SEO and PPC activities.
A closer look at SEO
SEO encompasses the activities that businesses should facebook data undertake to ensure that their websites rank high in organic search results. However, it is not paid advertising. As can be seen from the information above, the goal of SEO is to ensure that your website appears first when users search for the product or service you provide.
If your website appears in the top positions, you are likely to convert as expected, as nearly a third of all local business searches result in a purchase within 24 hours of the search.
There are several SEO activities. Let's go through them one by one.
Keyword research
To get to the top of the search results, you need to know what keywords people are using to find businesses similar to yours. This is done by doing keyword research. The easiest way to do keyword research is with free tools like Google Keyword Planner or Google Trends.
SEM (search engine marketing) is a broader strategy for acquiring new visitors from both organic results (i.e. through SEO) and paid results (through pay-per-click advertising = PPC). SEM therefore covers both SEO and PPC activities.
A closer look at SEO
SEO encompasses the activities that businesses should facebook data undertake to ensure that their websites rank high in organic search results. However, it is not paid advertising. As can be seen from the information above, the goal of SEO is to ensure that your website appears first when users search for the product or service you provide.
If your website appears in the top positions, you are likely to convert as expected, as nearly a third of all local business searches result in a purchase within 24 hours of the search.
There are several SEO activities. Let's go through them one by one.
Keyword research
To get to the top of the search results, you need to know what keywords people are using to find businesses similar to yours. This is done by doing keyword research. The easiest way to do keyword research is with free tools like Google Keyword Planner or Google Trends.