Difference between Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): It is a digital marketing process with the goal of increasing website ranking in search engine results (Organic results)

SEM (Search Engine Marketing): SEM is a digital marketing process with the goal of increasing visibility in search engines by getting paid traffic through PPC advertisements (Paid results).

SEM is also known as PPC. PPC means pay-per-click, a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Search engine advertising tell the advertisers to bid for ad in a search engine's sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword that is related to their business offering.

SEO VS SEM

Organic SEO is generally the best marketing tactic for long-lasting results. Websites that rank high in the organic results for their target keywords can get free traffic 24/7, industry recognition and enjoy all the benefits of SEO.

Websites that use PPC can still get targeted traffic from search engines but they have to pay for it. Once they stop the paid campaigns, the traffic will stop.

Another major difference between SEO and SEM is that it takes a lot of time for SEO to work and generate results while PPC is almost instant.

So, which is better depends on your overall digital marketing goals. If you want to get traffic fast then you can start with SEM (paid search advertising) and in parallel work on your SEO. If you want to create a long-lasting online business without relying on paid traffic, then SEO is your answer. So always prefer the best digital marketing company which provide you different types of digital marketing services