The differences between SEM and SEO
【Digital Marketing Strategy】Quickly grasp the difference between SEM and SEO
In 2022, half of the world's population is actively using the Google search engine, and Google controls more than 91% of the global search engine market, making it the world's largest search engine. According to real-time statistics on the Internet, Google's search volume has grown by more than 10% every year, processing 390 million searches per day, and processing an average of more than 91,100 search queries per second.
Benefiting from the popularity of the Google search engine, SEM and SEO has become common marketing strategy.
What is SEM?
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) generally refers to the paid advertising channels in the search results, which means that when users enter or search for specific words, SEM allows a brand’s Website page or products to appear on search pages, increasing the exposure of brands products and service.
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to the natural search results that appear on Google's search page, under paid advertisements. If you want your website to appear in a higher position on the search results page, you need to continually improve the quality of your website for better rankings and traffic.
Difference between SEO and SEM
- 1. Form
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SEM is carried out in the form of bidding at a price you are willing to pay for each click of your keyword. The brand can choose any keyword. As long as the bid is high enough, it can win the bidding and obtain the use of the keyword, and the brand's products or services will appear at the top of a google search. Higher search positions can let potential target customers see the advertiser's specified ads and pages first so that your ads are likely to get higher exposure.
The difference between SEO and SEM is that you do not need to pay for clicks or impressions, you may get traffic for free by using SEO. Google will determine the ranking of a website and its position on the search page based on the quality of the website, so brands can improve their placement on the search page for free through the process of optimizing the page’s position.
- 2. Time required
SEM is easier to get traffic in a short period of time than SEO. To begin with, the advertising position of SEM is higher than that of SEO, so consumers are more likely to be exposed to SEM advertisements. As long as consumers search for relevant keywords, brand advertisements or links to the website will appear, which greatly increases the brand’s exposure rate. Therefore, it is easy to get traffic in a short amount of time by using SEM.
However, due to Google's strict review of website quality, if a brand wants to get free traffic by scoring a better ranking based on the quality of the website, it takes a relatively long period of time. It would be a good option to choose SEO when your brand wants to gain stable traffic for the website and raise brand awareness in the long term.
- 3. Conversion rate
SEM has a higher conversion rate than SEO. SEM can analyze the effectiveness of advertising through different data of Google in a short period of time, and make adjustments efficiently, which is easier to attract more potential target customers. With SEM, Google shows more analysis about the audiences, such as age, gender, region, or the interests of visitors to the site, who may be beauty lovers, movie lovers, etc. The conversion rate of the website can be increased by narrowing the range of your targeted customers and changing different keywords.
Comparatively, SEO appears in a lower position on the search page. It obtains fewer chances for customers to click on the advertisement and enter the web page to buy the products. It is also difficult for brands to make adjustments to the needs of potential customers immediately. Therefore, the conversion rate will be lower than SEM.
Learn more about SEM and SEO marketing strategies and make yourself an expert in digital marketing too!
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