SEO and SEM: What’s the Difference?

People use the terms ‘SEO’ and ‘SEM’ interchangeably. But they are two separate entities. They are both used to help drive traffic to your website. CCL Designs would like to help unravel these two terms.

SEO 
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is ever evolving to keep up with Google’s ever evolving algorithms. There are 2 parts to SEO: on-page SEO (on-site) and off-page SEO (off-site). These are the two pillars of SEO.

On-page SEO consists of some of the following: optimized meta data, well written and optimized copy, well formatted URLs, optimized page speed, and social CCL Designssharing integration. In addition, on-page SEO includes meeting schema.org’s parameters.

Off-site SEO consists of link building (backlinks), social signals, and attracting attention from social bookmarking sites.

SEM
SEM is an acronym for Search Engine Marketing. SEM is malignly paid advertisements through search engines like Google. Paid advertising includes PPC (pay-per-click) ads. Another form of SEM is purchasing an ad on a reputable website that is trackable to determine ROI.

Which is more important: SEO or SEM? Neither. They depend on each other for success. When your SEO is done properly, two things occur. Organic traffic and SEM campaigns will bring traffic to great web pages. Neither SEO or SEM can be ignored nor solely relied upon.

Contact CCL Designs today to manage your intricate SEO and SEM campaigns.