SEO And SEM: What’s The Difference?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

If you haven’t been around Internet marketers very long then you might get a little confused about how terminology is used. Even the veterans sometimes disagree on the labels and get confused between the blurring lies. But I thought I’d take a little time to explain the difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). They’re not the same thing.

Essentially, SEM is a broader term and includes SEO. Here’s the distinction:

• SEO is the process of using content, links, keywords, and meta tags to improve a web page’s search engine rankings. Search engine optimizers tend to get a little tunnel vision where rankings are concerned and make that the No. 1 priority.
• SEM involves any task of marketing a web page through a search engine and may not necessarily be concerned with organic rankings. Typically, SEM refers to organic SEO as well as paid search models like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Some marketers also include display advertising because Yahoo! and MSN both offer display advertising on their search pages. I think you could also include some aspects of social media since many social media marketing campaigns can have search implications attached to them, intentional or not.

That may or may not clear things up for you. An easy way to distinguish between SEO and SEM is to ask, “Does this activity concern itself ONLY with organic search rankings or can it influence other aspects of my relationship with a search engine?” If you are working on a web page and hope to influence your search engine rankings in some way you are engaged in optimization. If what you are doing has implications beyond search engine rankings then it is likely SEM, but it could also be SEO. See the difference?