SEO and SEM are two concepts that we commonly find in the world of digital marketing , both strategies have characteristics that can help your website or online store.
One of the objectives of great importance for any digital project is to get traffic and make it visible among the millions of pages and websites that exist.
The SEO strategies and SEM are very important for a web site or online store has a presence in the SERPs ( Search Engine Results Pages ) or results pages search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing. Do you want to know their differences? Here we explain some concepts and the characteristics that distinguish them.
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How do search engines work?
To enter the world of SEO and SEM it is important to know how search engines work:
Platforms such as Google or Bing, have different algorithms that help them process the information of the web pages that are created and updated on the internet.
This process also called crawling, it lets give them step by search engines to understand your content in order to index and rank pages in SERP s .
Search engine algorithms take into account different factors of the structure of web pages to classify them organically: quality of links, quality of content, user experience, usability, security, among other aspects.
SEO and SEM are also based on these factors, but they use them differently.
What is SEO?
SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization and refers to the set of actions that are carried out on the web pages of a site or online store to improve its organic positioning in search engine results.
Search engine optimization seeks to improve the ranking and relevance of a site so that it is visible and connects organically (not paid) with the related searches carried out by users through platforms such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, among others. In our SEO Strategy for your e-commerce content , we tell you more about this type of optimization.
What is SEM?
The concept SEM, acronym in English for Search Engine Marketing , also refers to those actions, tools and strategies in order to optimize a website so that it has greater visibility in search engines. However, this strategy generally relates to paid online advertising and ad campaigns used by search engines.
Google Ads , Yahoo Ads and Microsoft Ads are some of the most popular platforms from which paid advertising can be carried out so that websites appear in the most relevant results of these search engines.
The advertising model that is generally used on these platforms is PPC (pay per click): you pay each time a user clicks on the ad on the website or online store.
This type of strategy also aims to increase the traffic of a website, as well as increase the possibility that visitors will make a purchase or a specific action.
Differences between SEO and SEM
These are some of the differences between an SEO strategy and an SEM:
Weather
- SEO positioning requires different processes that are carried out both on the website and outside of it. These types of actions must be carefully planned and carried out to achieve the objectives set out in the strategy. Results take weeks or months to visualize.
- An SEM strategy must also be planned and different aspects must be taken into account such as keywords and the buyer person. However, by using paid advertising, the results could be seen in less time.
Investment between SEO and SEM
- An SEO strategy is a long-term investment to rank a website among the most relevant organic search engine results. When it is already positioned, the investment will be less.
- In the case of an SEM strategy, you must constantly invest in paid ads so that the site has the visibility it needs. In this type of campaign, you will be paying for each click that the website or online store receives when displayed in search engines (PPC).
Visibility
- The organic positioning of your website or online store helps to conserve the number of visits and as it is more visible, to increase them.
- An SEM strategy needs recurring active ads to maintain traffic.
Update between SEO and SEM
- If your website has a solid SEO strategy and is constantly updated according to the requests of the algorithms of search engines and users, its organic positioning will last longer.
- When using paid advertising, you must constantly update your ads and strategy objectives.
