SEO vs SEM: A Deep Dive into Driving Search Traffic
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Today, owning a website for your business is like owning prime real estate for your business 50 years ago. It’s essential! Still, even if you’ve invested a lot into your site and it looks and performs well, that’s not enough.
Unlike the Field of Dreams, if you build it, there’s no guarantee your customers will come. So, your marketing efforts need to focus on driving traffic to your site. There are two primary means to accomplish this goal. One, through search engine optimization (SEO) and two, through search engine marketing (SEM).
In this article, we will deep-dive into both of these tools. We’ll define SEO vs SEM, break them down to their core components, and finally compare the two. Keep reading to learn more about the similarities and differences between SEO vs SEM.
SEO is about optimizing your site to obtain more organic search traffic. A search engine determines your site’s SEO ranking via a “crawl.” This crawl scans your site to check the effectiveness of its content. Through the process of SEO, you’re continually working to improve your site to rank for non-paid search engine results.
Learn all about how content marketing is imperative for your marketing efforts.
On the other hand, SEM is about obtaining traffic or visibility from both organic AND paid search results. There are some arguments about the precise definition of SEM. But generally, most subject matter experts consider SEM to be a broad term that encompasses both SEO and paid search results.
Under this definition, SEO is a part of a more extensive umbrella term, SEM. All the same, for this article, we’ll talk about SEM exclusively as paid search marketing. This distinction will help us more clearly differentiate the two.
So, now that we know both definitions, let’s deep-dive into the pillars of SEO and SEM and what makes up each term. Full understanding each will help us create a better strategy for both.
Note that Google is the Alpha and Omega for search engines. Per Internet Live Stats, there are between 5,000 – 100,000 Google searches EVERY SECOND, depending on the time and day. And Google captures more than 90% of the entire search engine market.
Therefore, as we delve a little deeper into the makeup of both SEO and SEM, know we’re focusing solely on Google as THE search engine.
So, here are the four pillars of SEO you need to understand to deploy SEO best practices better. Knowing these pillars will help you better construct and utilize a quality SEO strategy.
On-page SEO entails optimizing your site and content around keywords geared towards searches from your target audience. You’re optimizing factors that help the search engine understand your site content through on-page SEO. Examples of on-page SEO include elements like H1, meta, and image alt tags.
Off-page SEO is about building up authority and trustworthiness signals. Primarily you build these signals with the help of other sites. Examples of off-page SEO include authority and link building and social sharing.
Technical SEO involves ensuring search engines can index all of your site’s pages. It’s about improving the technical structure of your site. Factors of technical SEO include site architecture, site speed, security, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, and more.
Your site’s content and user interface (UI) signals make up the final pillar of SEO. How users interact with your site helps Google determine how well your page answers someone’s question. Most of these UI signals are determined by the quality of your content. Without content that matches a searcher’s intent, your site will struggle to rank on Google’s top pages.
As described above, we know SEO is considered a part of overall Search Engine Marketing. So, as we dive into the pillars of SEM, we’ll focus exclusively on the pillars that comprise paid search marketing. There are four primary pillars of paid search advertising for every SEM campaign.
Within Google Ads, there are five primary types of ads. These ad formats include Search, Shopping, Display, Gmail, and YouTube. Your chosen format largely depends on your message, target audience, and desired outcome.
When building an SEM, or paid search strategy, you’ll need to understand how the bidding process for paid ads works. Under PPC, you bid on a specific keyword or keywords. Consequently, when someone searches for that keyword, they see your ad.
Your ad rank is determined by how much you bid compared to other ads. So, if you bid the most, your ad will appear above all other ads bidding on a given keyword. And every time someone clicks on your ad, you’ll pay whatever you bid. This amount is known as cost per click (CPC).
Quality Score is a vital metric for determining the success of your ads. The Quality Score tells Google how good of a match your ad is for a designated keyword. Google calculates Quality Score via click through rate (CTR), quality of your landing page, and your Google Ad account’s overall Quality Score. Additionally, if your ad receives a high Quality Score, you’ll receive a small discount for every click.
As with SEO, the quality of your content is an essential piece of a successful PPC campaign. Because, well-written copy will boost your CTR. Consequently, the better your CTR, the higher your Quality Score. And the better your Quality Score, the less you pay for the same click.
As you’ve likely been able to ascertain, there are many similarities between organic SEO and paid SEM. Some of these principal similarities include:
It’s in both of their names: “search engine.” Both SEO and SEM help your brand/site appear in Internet searches. Through these concepts, you can garner increased visibility for your site. By knowing your target audience, and crafting stellar content, every time your customers search for specific questions, they’ll see your brand.
You can quickly drive more traffic to your site through paid search marketing. Similarly, you can drive a high amount of quality traffic via organic search marketing. With more traffic, you can boost sales and leads or even monetize your site/your site’s content.
For either SEO or SEM, you must intimately know your target audience. Your content will struggle to connect with your audience without an in-depth understanding of your customers and what they want. And if your content isn’t connecting, you’ll have difficulty generating ROI through your search marketing efforts.
Like knowing your target audience, it’s imperative to know specific keywords you want to target. One of your first steps with either type of search marketing is to research what keywords you’ll target. A best practice for selecting keywords is to target those with as high volume and low competition as possible.
Neither of these search engine strategies is one you can set and forget. Both SEO and SEM require continual monitoring, testing, and optimization. Without a consistent focus on either of these strategies, you won’t achieve your desired performance.
Like there are many similarities between SEO and SEM, there are also many differences. These differences include:
The first difference between SEO vs SEM, is speed. Generally, SEO takes time, especially if your site is new. On average, it takes two years to rank on the first page of Google. And most top-ranking content was first published three years ago.
Through paid search (SEM), you can see almost instant results. Still, seeing increased traffic from a PPC campaign doesn’t equate to ROI. Additionally, it’s essential to know your traffic from this source will stop when you stop paying for your PPC campaign.
This difference is often misidentified. Typically, people will talk about traffic obtained through SEO as “free.” But in actuality, you’re paying for the time it takes to research, write, edit, and publish your SEO content. Still, unlike SEM content, you don’t pay for every individual click.
This difference isn’t set in stone. But as a rule of thumb, CTRs for SEM content are lower than those for SEO content; especially if your content ranks on the first or second page of results. Still, it’s essential to know that if your SEO content is on the third page or lower, you can likely get more clicks and a higher CTR through SEM.
Another primary difference between SEO and SEM is their appearance on SERPs. Each will look different as they appear on a SERP. Paid ads feature an “Ad” icon by their result. On the other hand, search engines don’t give organic content these markers.
Additionally, SEM results may include ad extensions, whereas SEO results include featured snippets. Ad extensions for SEM results can contain links, phone numbers, or callouts. Conversely, featured snippets are blurbs that attempt to answer a user’s question, enticing them to click on your content and learn more.
This difference ties into the first. As we mentioned above, your ad’s visibility will cease as soon as you turn off your SEM campaign. Whereas for SEO, your content can continue to add value over time. Consequently, your return on investment for SEO is also cumulative. The value of your SEO content, if done correctly, will build over time to deliver lasting results.
As previously stated, both SEO and SEM require continuous monitoring and testing to optimize your content. But the difference here is the ease with which you can test and optimize your content. Paid search ads are easy to test and reformulate.
Plus, you can see the results of these changes quickly too. Organic search content, though, is more challenging to test. So, while it’s still important to monitor, you’ll have to be more creative in testing and optimizing your organic search content.
So, you now know what both SEO and SEM are. You know what the similarities and the differences are between the two. Still, in the battle of SEO vs SEM, how do you determine which type of campaign is right for you?
As with most questions in life, the answer is – it depends!
When making your decision, consider these factors:
What are your goals for your search marketing campaign? Do you want quick results? Or are you okay with building your site slowly for the long term? If you want immediate results, paid advertising is the way to go. If you’re prioritizing long-term growth, SEO is your best course.
Another consideration for your goals is how much you want to spend per click. Before picking between SEO and SEM, consider how much you’ll need to spend to show in paid search. If the cost-per-click for your target keywords is low, you should explore SEM. Conversely, a high cost-per-click might signal you should start your search campaign with SEO.
How well do you know your industry? If your business is new or new to the industry, you may consider an SEM campaign for quick results. Utilizing SEM will also let you test your ideas and products/services better and more quickly.
What’s the typical buying cycle length for your product/service? If your product/service usually has a shorter buying cycle, you may benefit more quickly from SEM ads. You can put your product/service right in front of your target audience through SEM.
If your product/service usually involves a longer buying cycle, you’ll likely benefit more from SEO. SEO aligns with this cycle when your customers research and compare for weeks or months.
When analyzing your business for a search campaign, you should also consider the status of your current site. Consider where you have the potential for organic growth through SEO before putting money into an SEM campaign. To analyze these potential areas, consider a full site audit.
The final consideration when deciding between SEO vs SEM is what your competition is doing. How are your closest competitors executing search campaigns? How do their sites perform? Again, as mentioned above, this likely requires a full site audit.
Note, during such an audit; you also need to include an analysis of these competitors. Including your competition in your site audit allows you to determine the best opportunities for your search campaign. This analysis should include what organic keywords your competition is ranking for and what paid search terms they’re targeting.
Ultimately, in the battle of SEO vs SEM, it’s not necessarily a choice of which, but a choice of when. Eventually, you’ll use BOTH SEO and SEM to strengthen your web presence, lead generation, and overall brand.
Contact me today to start your own SEO or SEM campaign and get more visitors to your site!
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