Search Engine Marketing And Search Engine
Optimization: Any Difference?
Author: Mikhail Tuknov

For many casual internet users, the terms SEM and SEO rarely
enter their minds when they are busy jumping from one website
to another. However, it is these terms that determine much of
what comes out on the results page whenever we type in a word
in the search tab of any accessible search engine. These terms
are also responsible for all those advertisements and pop-ups
that link us to even more websites, whether they may be
connected to our original search or not. So just what are SEM
and SEO?

In the simplest way possible, SEM and SEO are tools which
website creators, especially those who are promoting and
selling a certain service or product, use in order to gain a
lot of exposure and better ranking for their website. Sounds
easy enough, right? Well, the simplicity ends there.

To make it a tad bit complex, SEM and SEO are not the same. As
suggested by the names, SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, deals
more with how a website is marketed to gain exposure in the
different search engines available on the internet, while SEO,
or Search Engine Optimization, deals with how the web creators
develop and re-develop the content, quality and structure of
their entire websites so that whenever an internet user types
in a particular word in the search tab, their websites have a
better chance of appearing on the first few search engine
results pages (SERPS).

Now, to make it even more complex, although the functions of
SEM and SEO seem different, they are more effective when used
together. Since the main function of SEM is to gain more
exposure for a website, the more common means for attraction
are online advertisements, blogs, internet articles, partner
and sponsored websites, and anything that can catch the eye of
the internet user. SEM also makes use of PPC (pay-per-click)
and paid inclusion to further push a website's visibility.
Lastly, it is also an important process in SEM to submit the
name and URL of a website to different search engines and web
directories if only to inform them of the website's existence.
All this is carried out to ensure the popularity of a website.

So how does SEO come together with SEM? Well, despite having
all the advertisements provided by SEM, it is truly the SEO
that allows the internet user to easily and conveniently find
what he is looking for. Since the function of SEO is to gain a
better ranking in the SERPS, the web creator has to constantly
optimize his website in order to cater to the needs of the
internet user and to make it easier for spiders or web crawlers
to judge whether the website's content is relevant to the word/s
being searched. Optimization is not a simple and easy task. It
involves having to restructure the website regularly (by
editing the html code and meta tags, changing content,
reorganizing the site map, developing an easier navigational
structure, etc.) so as to adapt to the rapidly changing demands
of the internet user. Still, when done properly, not only does
SEO help a website become more useful and therefore, more often
visited by the internet user, it also helps gain more exposure
since it increases the website's chances of gaining a better
rank in the SERPS.

Both SEM and SEO success rely heavily on the words or context
which Internet users type in whenever they search for something
on the internet. Take PPC under SEM, for example. PPC is an ad
that is triggered by a particular word or context used by an
internet user. Once a particular word or context is searched, a
corresponding PPC ad for a website comes out. SEO works in the
same way. The web creator inputs a particular Meta tag (or
keyword) in his html that he believes many internet users will
use when searching for information, information which the web
creator's website may contain.

Although all of these processes involving SEM and SEO are
tedious and time-consuming, it all boils down to knowing and
serving the target audience. A web creator must be discerning
enough to know what the internet users need and want, and at
the same time he must have the real passion to inform and
provide the internet users with the right service and product.


About The Author: Mikhail Tuknov, search engine optimization
specialist and a founder of Infatex (http://www.infatex.com/).
With an extensive background in Internet marketing, Mikhail
Tuknov offers SEO, PPC, SEM services.