SEO vs SEM

11/02/2018 6:42 am

SEO-Search engine optimization

SEO stands for search engine optimization.
It is used to getting traffic from the free, organic/natural traffic or visitors from the search engine result pages.
The aim of SEO is to attract relevant visitors to your website that are interested in your products or services.

SEM-Search Engine Marketing

SEM stands for search engine marketing
It’s process of gaining website traffic by purchasing ads on search engines.
SEM often refers to PPC or pay-per-click advertising slash marketing

SEO vs SEM

SEO:

It is a method used for maximizing the number of visitors of a website by ensuring the higher position of the site by optimizing the search.
SEO is a part of SEM
Natural (Organic)
Inexpensive

SEM:

It is an online marketing technique which involves promotion of the website by increasing visibility of the site in SERPs with the help of optimization and advertising.
SEM is a broad term used for traffic generation and is a umbrella term of SEO.
Paid Search
expensive

Difference Between SEO and SEM

SEO:

SEO is continually evolving to keep up with Google's ever-changing algorithms, but one thing is constant: SEO is made up of on-page and off-page.

On-page:

Content
Meta data
Site architecture

Off-page:

Links
Trust
Social

SEM:

SEM strictly involves earning search visibility through paid advertisements on search engines like Google. While these advertisements are commonly referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, there’s a slew of additional terms used for paid search or SEM activities—cost-per-click (CPC) ads, paid search ads and paid search advertising.

SEM activities:

Launching ad campaigns with a specific audience (e.g., geographic) in mind
Creating ad groups that consist of target keyword variations
Writing relevant ad copy using these selective keywords
Setting an ad budget
Monitoring metrics like clicks, impressions, click through rates and average cost-per-click..