These search channels are similar in some ways but also very different.
What are SEO and SEM?
SEO and SEM are part of the search engine marketing channel and are strategies to help websites and businesses appear in the top portion of the search results as the primary goal.
SEO is Search Engine Optimize SEO is how you optimize your website to bring free traffic to your site.
SEM (or PPC – Pay Per Clicks) stands for Search Engine Marketing. SEM requires paying for the ads to show up in the search results.
SEO vs SEM
Below are some of the main key differentiators to help decide how to use both together to benefit your website:
SEM
- Costs Money
- Short Buying Cycle
- Quick Ranking Result
- Bidding System
- Quality Score
- Ad Copies
- Target Audiences
SEO
- Free
- Longer Buying Cycle
- Longer Ranking Results
- Constant Evolving Algorithm
- Content Needs to be Indexed
- Content Optimization
- Backlink Building
- Technical Website Audit
Summary
In summary, the main difference between SEM is it costs money, has quicker results, and can target audiences specifically. At the same time, SEO there are no additional costs, may take a bit longer time to see results, the algorithm is constantly shifting.