Often, these two words are used interchangeably and many people have a wrong idea about these two concepts. SEO or SEO (abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization) is a concept that most bloggers are familiar with, but in many cases, this word is used instead of the concept of SEM (abbreviation for Search Engine Marketing). This issue has confused many people and created these questions for them which one is better and do we need both of them or not?
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SEM or SEO, which is better?
Both concepts of SEO and SEM are important. Depending on how we look at the two, SEM is a general term that means anything that increases your presence on the Internet, which even includes SEO itself.
SEO is something anyone can do by learning a few things, but SEM on a larger scale requires experts. You can get a much better result by using SEO experts.
SEO and site ranking
Regardless of the approach you take to your site, SEO should be part of your core plan. Studies show that only the first three sites that Google displays have the most traffic for any search term. 33% of the traffic belongs to the first search rank, 18% of the traffic belongs to the second search rank and 11% of the traffic belongs to the third search rank.
There is a sharp drop in traffic from rank 1 to rank 2 and if you are very lucky users will look at the lower ranks. However, SEM allows you to have a presence and be seen elsewhere on the Internet. Although the largest share of your site’s traffic comes from SEO, studies show that sites that use SEM techniques in addition to SEO have 35% more sales. Are you still a little confused? In the following article, you will find the answers to all your questions.
Why is even the best SEO not enough?
You are already familiar with the purpose of SEO. The goal of SEO is to get the highest ranking in search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Search engines are where most people go to find the information and products they want.
SEO involves the use of various techniques to optimize the site for search engines. Because many people go to it to compare their products and prices, you always need it.
SEO generally focuses on three things: content creation, keywords, and backlinks. In the past, you could easily game the Yahoo search engine and increase the page rank in the results page of this search engine by stuffing the page with a specific keyword. This was great at the time, but today Google’s algorithms recognize these tricks and rank sites based on relevance and usefulness. Every time Google changes its algorithms, it provides better results.
Therefore, despite the frequent changes in algorithms and the uncertainty of website SEO parameters, absolute SEO is no longer enough and the site should be presented to users in other ways.
Natural methods are considered the best ways
Today, there are many ways to improve a site’s ranking for a keyword. However, the best way to promote the site is the natural use of keywords in the content of the site. That’s why many people work behind the scenes to choose the best keywords for pages.
After this, backlinks play an important role. Backlinks are links from reputable sites that have linked to your site. Most search engines have an algorithm with a combination of effective content parameters, keywords, and backlinks and use them to rank sites. Also, the structure of URLs is effective in this algorithm. But as we have seen, many users do not spend time searching.
What is SEM or Search Engine Marketing?
SEM is your bigger plan for visibility on the web and the Internet. This concept always includes SEO. But today, most people’s idea of SEM is equivalent to spending money on internet advertising. There are many ways to optimize your blog posts, but people aren’t always searching and you want to drive traffic to your site anyway.
If we take a look at the web version one, the best example of this was the advertising banners of the sites. But over time, users ignored them, especially those that were in a certain place on the page.
As the best search engine in terms of technology, Google came up with a way to offer paid ads that were most similar to the search term. But over time, users got used to ignoring this type of advertisement. It was here that Google paid serious attention to this issue and made changes in the type of advertising that we know today as PPC (Pay-per-click) or PSA (Paid Search Advertising).
The result of using this type of advertising is an increase in website sales, and websites have increased their income without negatively affecting the site’s SEO.
The future of SEM
The idea of SEM will probably be that it supports organic links and paid links to convert potential customers into actual customers for the sites. This type of linking system, which is similar to the activity strategy in social networks, improves the user experience and keeps site visitors satisfied.
Although this process has not yet reached full maturity, sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are experimenting with this type of marketing for companies and placing their ads on the timeline of pages. By displaying ads, they do not intend to deceive the user, but these ads have the potential to attract the attention of users.
Publishing guest posts on other sites is also one of the important SEM solutions. In this process, you submit one of your blog posts, which is highly attractive, to one of the most visited sites for publication, so that it will attract visitors to you from its popularity.
Using SEO and SEM together
Many search engine marketing experts recommend a combination of organic and paid links, strong social media activity, strong SEO, good backlinks, and guest posts for site owners. Combining these methods and using them in rotation will attract maximum traffic to the site and increase your sales.
SEO and SEM should be used together. Regardless of how interested you are in promoting your site yourself, eventually, you will need expert advice. Using the right and wrong methods in business may have irreparable consequences. Therefore, from the beginning, always be in touch with an SEO and SEM expert and even hire an expert in this field if possible.