SEO is optimising your site (on-site and off-site) for the search engines so that your website ranks organically for your keyword search terms. SEM is usually paying to be in search results like with Google Adwords etc.
Search Engine Marketing or SEM, refers mainly to the text advertisements which appear at the top or on the right hand side of search engine results pages. These advertising links are purchased mainly from Google (Adwords) and Yahoo (Overture). They then in turn publish these ads on their secondary ad network as well.These ads are Pay Per Click (PPC), meaning you pay for every time someone clicks on your ad. The ranking sequence is determined by a variety of factors such as top bid price, and in Google's case, a more complex combination of Click Through Rate (CTR) is thrown into the mix. Essentially in Google's Adwords, the less clicks on your ads, the more you have to pay and/or your ranking drops. This is because in Googles ranking system, it has deemed ads that are highly relevant (high CTR) should be rewarded with lower prices and better rankings. In the Overture system, ad rankings are based purely on bid prices, so theoretically, the advertiser with the most money wins top spot. Search Engine Optimization or SEO refers to improving a web sites' natural and organic ranking in the search engine results page. This more affordable method is often slow and new web sites may take up to a year to achieve decent rankings in Google. The methods of achieving high rankings are based on 2 main components. {1} On-page optimization & {2} Off-page optimization
SEM is used for marketing propose, just like we can say traffic generate on website by some thing pay, means that buy link. SEO is traffic generate totally free by search engine to get website on top keyword ranking.
SEO satands for Search Engine Optimization for this process to ranked in search engine. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing
Great feedback! Marketing aspect should be approached only when ready. Don't want to waste time & money if your not doing things correctly with your brand. Do alot of searches & reviews on SEO / SEM. Theres alot of great tips out there that will help.
SEM is everything that can be done to utilize the technology of search engines with the goal of promoting a web site and increasing its traffic, its "stickiness," and, in the case of sites that promote a business (or are a business), increase profits. SEO, therefore, would be a subset of SEM. SEO is the art of creating Web pages that will rank high in search engine returns. SEO is accomplished by optimizing certain sections or "elements" in the HTML coding of each page. These sections are specifically read by search engines and, depending on the level of optimization, can create a greater likelihood of free referral traffic.
Seems like the definition between these 2 terms is becoming grayer. You could easily spend a lot more on SEO to market your website than you do on SEM.
Best answer I've seen yet. SEO is a subset of SEM. SEM includes SEO, PPC, Display Advertising on Yahoo/MSNs home pages, and a variety of other techniques.