ARE SEO AND SEM TWO DIFFERENT CONCEPTS?

SEO and SEM Concepts

Everyone has observed the rate at which online activities have accelerated since last few years. Technology is changing at lightning fast speed and so has the business strategies. Marketing is not limited to flyers and hoardings anymore. Internet marketing is the biggest buzz in the world presently and it is one of those marketing strategies that will only evolve but has no end.

Digital marketing is a wholesome package made up of various modules and each of these depends upon each other. All these modules have something or the other common in them, confusing many what to prioritise. Here we are going to discuss about how SEO and SEM differ and how they rely on each other.

SEO i.e. Search Engine Optimization helps in ranking the website on search engines organically. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing which helps in website ranking as well, but in the exchange of money. Both the strategies serve the same purpose but in different manner. It’s just that you need to understand which one will serve best for you.

As mentioned earlier, SEO works organically and thus takes time to produce results. Even though it’s slow, it’s one of the most powerful tools. So, if you are working as a start-up, it’s neither ideal nor profitable to wait for months (or years sometimes) for the website to be ranked on top in SERPs.


If you are looking for immediate sales and results, SEM is your key. SEO is free but SEM charges you for your website to be ranked in SERPs. But, you should not pour money blindly. You must be sure that your website is highly optimized and can attract and engage users to you site. You must know what is your budget and how much can you invest. If done carefully and with planning, SEM can drive most traffic to your page and thus generate leads rapidly.

SEM can help in the following ways:

• It enhances brand awareness.
• It can help sell services and product online
• It can generate online leads and gradually increase sales
• It can provide information through online content.
• Increases Return on Investment.

If done with proper planning, SEM can enhance your business outcome to a great level. Remember that SEM is a combination of SEO and PPC. The SEO and PPC analytics will help you indicate the performance of your website.

I would conclude this article with the statement of Jim Yu, CEO of Bright Edge, “The key [to SEO and SEM] is to present the right content to the users at the time they need it in an engaging manner”