Search Engine Marketing And Search Engine Optimization: Any Difference?

For many casual internet users, the terms SEM and SEO rarely enter their
minds when they are busy jumping from one website to another. However, it is
these terms that determine much of what comes out on the results page
whenever we type in a word in the search tab of any accessible search
engine. These terms are also responsible for all those advertisements and
pop-ups that link us to even more websites, whether they may be connected to
our original search or not. So just what are SEM and SEO?

In the simplest way possible, SEM and SEO are tools which website creators,
especially those who are promoting and selling a certain service or product,
use in order to gain a lot of exposure and better ranking for their website.
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the simplicity ends there.

To make it a tad bit complex, SEM and SEO are not the same. As suggested by
the names, SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, deals more with how a website is
marketed to gain exposure in the different search engines available on the
internet, while SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, deals with how the web
creators develop and re-develop the content, quality and structure of their
entire websites so that whenever an internet user types in a particular word
in the search tab, their websites have a better chance of appearing on the
first few search engine results pages (SERPS).

Now, to make it even more complex, although the functions of SEM and SEO
seem different, they are more effective when used together. Since the main
function of SEM is to gain more exposure for a website, the more common
means for attraction are online advertisements, blogs, internet articles,
partner and sponsored websites, and anything that can catch the eye of the
internet user. SEM also makes use of PPC (pay-per-click) and paid inclusion
to further push a website's visibility.
Lastly, it is also an important process in SEM to submit the name and URL of
a website to different search engines and web directories if only to inform
them of the website's existence.
All this is carried out to ensure the popularity of a website.

So how does SEO come together with SEM? Well, despite having all the
advertisements provided by SEM, it is truly the SEO that allows the internet
user to easily and conveniently find what he is looking for. Since the
function of SEO is to gain a better ranking in the SERPS, the web creator
has to constantly optimize his website in order to cater to the needs of the
internet user and to make it easier for spiders or web crawlers to judge
whether the website's content is relevant to the word/s being searched.
Optimization is not a simple and easy task. It involves having to
restructure the website regularly (by editing the html code and meta tags,
changing content, reorganizing the site map, developing an easier
navigational structure, etc.) so as to adapt to the rapidly changing demands
of the internet user. Still, when done properly, not only does SEO help a
website become more useful and therefore, more often visited by the internet
user, it also helps gain more exposure since it increases the website's
chances of gaining a better rank in the SERPS.

Both SEM and SEO success rely heavily on the words or context which Internet
users type in whenever they search for something on the internet. Take PPC
under SEM, for example. PPC is an ad that is triggered by a particular word
or context used by an internet user. Once a particular word or context is
searched, a corresponding PPC ad for a website comes out. SEO works in the
same way. The web creator inputs a particular Meta tag (or
keyword) in his html that he believes many internet users will use when
searching for information, information which the web creator's website may
contain.

Although all of these processes involving SEM and SEO are tedious and
time-consuming, it all boils down to knowing and serving the target
audience. A web creator must be discerning enough to know what the internet
users need and want, and at the same time he must have the real passion to
inform and provide the internet users with the right service and product.

About The Author: Mikhail Tuknov, search engine optimization specialist and
a founder of Infatex (http://www.infatex.com/).
With an extensive background in Internet marketing, Mikhail Tuknov offers
SEO, PPC, SEM services.