SEO vs SEM

SEO vs SEM

A Comparative Study And Features

1. Full Form

• SEO is Search Engine Optimization
• SEM is Search Engine Marketing

2. Definition

• SEO aims to get your website higher in the search engine page results.
• SEM is about using the search engine results page (SERP) to reach your audience.

3. Search

• SEO (Organic)
  Good content, backlinks and great website design can improve your search ranking.
• SEM (Paid)
  The more money you pay, the more traffic you can bring to your website.

4. Budget

• SEO (Cost Effective)
  Creating quality content and maintaining website won’t cost much in long-term.
• SEM (Expensive)
  For regular search ads, you need a big budget.

5. Traffic

• SEO (Steady)
  With the high ranking on Google, the amount of traffic to your website grows over time.
• SEM (Inconsistent)
  When you spend on PPC, your traffic is highly unpredictable

6. Results

• SEO (Time Consuming)
  Need to put in efforts for a long time before you see the actual results.
• SEM (Instant)
  You can get on any SERP you like within few hours if you can pay the price

7. Monitor

•  SEO (Difficult to Measure)
  Even with the best analytics, it is tough to measure your progress.
• SEM (Easy to Monitor)
  With the Google AdWord, you get all the datapoints on your fingerprints.

8. Credibility

• SEO (User Friendly)
  User Blindly trust all the top search results and thus there is a high chance of conversion.
• SEM (Lack of Trust)
  Search ads have lower credibility and click through by users.

9. Dependency

• SEO (Dependent)
  Content, backlinks, SE Algorithm
• SEM (Independent)
  No Algorithm, Only cost

10. Search Engine

• SEO = Google
• SEM = Google + Yahoo + Bing