SEO vs. SEM: what’s the difference?
As a small business owner, you’re always looking for ways to maximize your marketing efforts and drive more traffic to your website. In your quest to do so, you’ve probably encountered SEO and SEM. These two key strategies often come up in the pursuit of digital marketing success.
But which one is better for your small business?
I’ve dabbled with both and believe that once you’ve experienced both, the answer is clear. So, SEO vs. SEM, what’s the difference?
Let’s dive in and explore the differences between SEO and SEM to help you determine the best approach.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website and its content to rank higher in organic (unpaid) search engine results. FYI, organic search results account for 45.1% of all clicks on search results.
The goal of SEO is to make your website more visible and accessible to potential customers who are searching for products or services like yours.
When You Should Use SEO
SEO is best suited for small businesses that are looking to build long-term, sustainable online visibility. If you have the time and resources to invest in creating high-quality, informative content and optimizing your site, SEO can be a powerful and effective channel. Here are some scenarios where SEO shines:
- Establishing brand awareness: When people search for relevant keywords, your website appears in the top results, increasing brand recognition.
- Driving organic traffic: SEO attracts qualified leads who are actively searching for what you offer.
- Building trust and credibility: Ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs) portrays your business as an authority in your field.
This means SEO is the best marketing channel if you’re on a shoestring budget yet want to grow your brand, attract leads, and drive sales.
SEO Best Practices to Follow
You should follow certain best practices to get the most out of your SEO campaigns. Fortunately, learning SEO isn’t so hard. Some of the most important SEO best practices to follow include:
Use the Right WordPress SEO Plugin
One of the first steps to a winning SEO strategy is using the right SEO tool. For WordPress users, there’s no better tool than All In One SEO (AIOSEO).
AIOSEO is a powerful, easy-to-use SEO plugin with over 3 million active users. Because it’s regularly updated, you can rest assured the plugin stays abreast of changes in SEO best practices and keeps up with WordPress versions.
Millions of smart marketers and bloggers use AIOSEO to help them boost their search engine rankings and drive qualified blog traffic because the plugin has many powerful SEO features. These are designed to help you properly configure your SEO settings. Examples include:
- Cornerstone Content: Easily build topic clusters and enhance your topical authority and semantic SEO strategy.
- Author SEO: Boost your Google E-E-A-T signals right in WordPress, giving you an edge over competitors.
- Search Statistics: This powerful Google Search Console integration lets you track your keyword rankings and see important SEO metrics with 1-click, and more.
- SEO Revisions: Track any changes you make to your site and see their impact on your SEO. Plus, you get to see on a timeline how Google updates affect your site.
- Advanced Robots.txt Generator: Easily generate and customize your robots.txt file for better crawling and indexing.
- Next-gen Schema generator: This no-code schema generator enables users to generate and output any schema markup on your site.
- And more.
AIOSEO also has many other features to help you boost your local SEO, on-page SEO, and technical SEO. Plus, if you’re a WooCommerce user, AIOSEO has a tailor-made WooCommerce SEO module to help you rank your online store higher in search rankings.
For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check our detailed installation guide.
You can also check out our WordPress SEO checklist to help you master SEO and boost your chances of ranking high on search engines.
Keyword Research
Another foundational aspect of SEO is identifying relevant keywords that your target audience uses. To do this, you must conduct keyword research.
Keyword research involves identifying the words and phrases your target audience uses when searching for information online. There are many tools for this, with the most prominent being LowFruits, Ahrefs, Semrush, and more.
When looking for keywords, the sweet spot is to target those with high search volume and low competition. If you’re in a competitive niche, you’ll have better success at targeting long-tail keywords as they have lower keyword difficulty.
Check out our list of recommended keyword research tools here.
Content Creation and Marketing
Design an SEO content strategy to help you create impactful content that drives traffic to your site. You should also market and promote said content to help ensure it reaches the right audience.
While it may sound daunting, this is made easier by using the right content marketing tools.
On-page Optimization
On-page SEO involves optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic from search engines. It includes factors like optimizing titles, meta descriptions, headings, content, images, and more.
For more on-page SEO tips, check out our comprehensive on-page SEO checklist.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO focuses on optimizing your website’s technical aspects. This especially applies to factors that impact crawling and indexing. It also refers to elements that affect user experience (UX).
Examples of areas to focus on in your technical SEO implementation include:
These help ensure search engines can easily access and understand your content.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to the optimizations done outside of your website to improve its search engine rankings. The most significant off-page SEO factor is link building – acquiring high-quality backlinks from other authoritative websites. Other aspects of off-page SEO include:
- Increasing social media engagement
- Guest posting
- Content promotion
- Encouraging branded searches
The goal of off-page SEO is to make search engines and users see your site as more authoritative and trustworthy. This results in higher rankings, more traffic, and better conversion rates.
Check out our SEO tutorial for more tips on driving organic traffic to your site.
Now that we’ve looked at SEO, let’s go ahead and explore what SEM is.
What is SEM?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to the practice of using paid advertising on search engines to drive paid traffic to your website. With SEM, you bid on relevant keywords and create ads that appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Examples of SEM include:
- Search Ads: These are text-based ads that appear at the top or side of SERPs on platforms like Google, Bing, etc. It also includes display ads on websites, video ads (particularly on YouTube), and shopping ads appearing on Google Shopping results.
- Social media advertising: This includes all types of ads displayed on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, etc.
- Retargeting/Remarketing: This involves placing a tracking pixel on your site to show relevant ads to people who have previously visited your site. You can also upload your email list or customer data to advertising platforms to target those individuals.
The key for small businesses is to experiment with different SEM tactics. Monitor performance and focus on the channels and strategies that deliver the best return on investment (ROI) for your specific business goals and target audience.
When You Should Use SEM
SEM is a great option if you’re looking for immediate results and increased website traffic. Here are some ideal situations:
- Launching a new product or service: Drive initial awareness and attract customers quickly.
- Targeting specific keywords: Reach a highly targeted audience actively searching for your offerings.
- Complementing your SEO strategy: Boost website traffic while your SEO efforts gain momentum.
- Targeting specific demographics: SEM is an excellent marketing channel to help you target specific demographics
If you want to quickly get your message in front of a specific target audience, SEM is the best way to go about it.
SEM Best Practices
As with SEO, you must follow best practices to get the best ROI from your SEM campaigns. Some examples include:
- Keyword research: Choose high-intent keywords with a clear call to action for your ads. Google Keyword Planner is one of the best tools for this. Check out our article on the best keyword research tools for more examples.
- Compelling ad copy: Craft clear, concise, and persuasive ad copy that entices users to click.
- Landing page optimization: Ensure your landing page delivers a seamless user experience relevant to your ad.
- Targeting options: Utilize audience targeting features to reach the right users based on demographics and interests.
- Bid management: Strategically set your bids to maximize ROI while remaining competitive in the auction.
Following these best practices will help you create laser-targeted campaigns that give you the best value for the money you spend promoting your content.
SEO vs. SEM: 6 Main Differences
Now that we’ve examined the SEO and SEM and their main characteristics, let’s focus on their main differences.
1. How Long It Takes to See Results
One of the biggest differences between SEO and SEM is the time it takes to see results from your campaigns.
SEO is a long-term strategy that can take months to see significant results, while SEM can provide more immediate visibility. This is the reason businesses prefer SEM at the launch stage.
In short, SEO takes time to build results, while SEM delivers immediate traffic. However, if you play your cards right, you can see faster SEO results than the industry average. For example, check out how Leatherology, a leather goods eCommerce store, grew traffic by 322% in 6 months.
SEO vs. SEM Winner: SEM.
2. How Long Results Last
Besides speed, another important element in any digital marketing campaign is the longevity of results.
So, how do SEO and SEM fare in this category?
SEO-driven traffic and leads tend to be more sustainable, as your website can continue to rank well in organic search results. Check out this example of how REI.com has dominated search using SEO.
Thanks to SEO, REI’s growth has been consistent for over a decade. And if you want a more detailed case study, check out how HiEnd Accents, a family-owned textile manufacturer grew organic traffic by 1,086% in 6 months.
SEM, on the other hand, isn’t a long-term game. The results are more short-lived, as your ads will only appear as long as you’re actively running the campaign. Once the campaign stops, the traffic stops.
SEO vs. SEM Winner: SEO.
3. The Cost Difference: Paid Vs. Organic
With many businesses cutting down on marketing budgets, the cost of running SEO or SEM campaigns becomes an important factor. It’s also a huge differentiator between these 2 online marketing strategies.
SEO is generally more cost-effective in the long run, as you’re not paying for every click or impression. SEM can be more expensive, with costs fluctuating based on competition and the specific keywords you’re targeting.
SEO vs. SEM Winner: SEO.
4. Which Has a Greater Impact
When it comes to impact, SEM and SEO target audiences differently, which is why their impact also differs.
SEO can have a broader and more long-lasting impact on your online visibility and brand reputation. This is because a well-optimized piece of content can continue ranking well for years while driving traffic to your site.
SEM, on the other hand, is more focused on driving immediate traffic and conversions. Because of this, the impact is short-lived.
As you can see, in this category, it all depends on whether you want fast, short-lived results or slow but long-lasting results.
SEO vs. SEM Winner: Both.
5. Return on Investment (ROI)
An essential element of any marketing strategy is the return on investment (ROI) you can expect. And this is a big factor when deciding between SEO and SEM.
Which strategy gives a better ROI?
SEO can have a higher ROI, as the traffic and leads it generates are more sustainable. However, if executed well, SEM can provide a quicker return on investment.
Overall, the ROI of SEO vs. SEM depends on your specific business goals, target audience, and marketing budget.
SEO vs. SEM Winner: Both.
6. SERP Listing Position
Another major difference between SEO and SEM is their position on SERPs. Because of the nature of SEM, paid ads appear at the top of SERPs and are labeled sponsored.
In fact, Mangools (in the screenshot above) is a classic example of a brand that has grown exponentially through SEM. They broke through in the competitive niche of keyword research tools.
However, appearing at the top of the SERPs is not automatic, as many other brands are competing for that ad space.
SEO listings appear organically, and your position will be determined by how well your content aligns with ranking factors. However, studies show that users pass ads and favor organic search listings, with organic listings getting 19X more clicks than paid ads.
SEO vs. SEM Winner: SEO.
SEO vs. SEM: Your FAQs Answered
Which strategy is better for my small business?
The best approach often involves a combination of both SEO and SEM, with a specific balance depending on your business goals, budget, and timeline.
Can I use both SEO and SEM together?
Absolutely! Combining SEO and SEM is a powerful strategy for small businesses. SEO builds long-term brand awareness, while SEM drives immediate traffic and targets specific keywords.
How long will it take to see results from SEO and SEM?
SEO is a long-term strategy that can take 6-12 months to see significant results, while SEM can provide more immediate visibility and leads, often within the first few weeks of launching a campaign.
We hope this post helped you settle the SEO vs. SEM debate. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like our tutorial on increasing organic traffic or our guide to Black Friday SEO.
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