What are the Differences Between SEO and SEM?

It is necessary to understand the differences between SEO and SEM. The main difference is that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is optimizing a website to get visitors from organic search results. The purpose of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is to gain traffic and visibility from both organic and paid search.

Let me explain in a simple way;

Google's search results fall into two main categories: paid search results and organic search results.

The purpose of SEO is to make your website organic to rank in search results.

With pay-per-click (PPC), you can also get your website into the paid area of ​​search results. This is provided by Google Ads ads. By advertising, you can make your site appear in paid results.

SEMis a broad term that includes SEO and PPC. The PPC I'm talking about here means cost per click. It is abbreviated as TBM. You can appear in paid searches with Google Ads ads.

What are the Differences Between SEO and SEM?

I have listed the differences between SEO and SEM. The main difference between them seems to be cost. But there are many factors in this.

SEO In other words, search engine optimization is to constantly optimize the website in order to rank the sites for free. There are many ranking factors in the Google algorithm. There are also factors such as Internal SEO and External SEO.

#Related Content: Google Ranking Factors (Important Criteria)

On-site seo refers to the quality of your site. Here is a rough description of it. It includes the speed, appearance, mobile compatibility of your site, readable and regular texts, attractive titles and similar factors. A quality website should have all these aspects.

external seo As the name suggests, it refers to external links and useful interactions to your site. We can also say that other authoritative sites recommend your site in order to increase the popularity of your site. You should not be sloppy while doing this work. It can be beneficial or harmful to your site.

The point I pay attention to when doing external SEO work is the quality of the site to be linked. Is a site good quality? DA ve PA from its values.

DA (Domain Authority); defined as domain strength or image. Your domain name;

• How many years has it been on the air?
• How much his name is mentioned in external sources
• It is a scoring that emerges by evaluating the domain name according to parameters such as quality and length.

PA (Page Authority); refers to the strength of the page under the domain of a site. The site domain and subpages may not be as strong at the same level. Separate studies should be done for the pages, and the values ​​of the pages should be increased by considering the SEO criteria.

You can get links to your site from other sites by paying attention to the DA and PA rates that I mentioned above. These studies backlinkNames such as promotional text, social bookmarking are given. It is one of the differences between SEO and SEM.

Bounce Rate: The way users interact with your site helps Google understand if your page is a good match for someone's search. For example, if your page has a high bounce rate, it could be a sign that your page isn't responding to someone's query. If Google thinks that your page is not suitable for that keyword, it may bring your rankings down a bit. Or completely off the first page. It is one of the differences between SEO and SEM.

SEMis a high-level term that includes SEO. So everything I outlined above for SEO also applies to SEM. But in addition to SEO, SEM also includes PPC.

either Google Ads either Bing Ads Use it, paid ads in search are all about bidding. With PPC, you bid on a specific keyword. And when someone searches for that keyword, your ad appears.

The rank of ads is usually proportional to how much someone bids. Therefore, if you are the highest bidder, you will appear above all other ads.

When someone clicks on your ad, you pay the amount you bid. The amount you pay when someone clicks on your ad is known as the cost-per-click (CPC).

Quality Score: Google calculates Quality Score based on a combination of clickthrough rate, the quality of your landing page, and the overall Quality Score of your Google Ads account. And if your ad has a high Quality Score, you'll get a discount on every click.

Ad Text: Writing engaging ad copy is a HUGE part of being successful with PPC. Why? Great ad copy = high CTR. And a CTR means a good Quality Score. This means you pay less for the same click.

In general terms, we can list the differences between SEO and SEM as follows;

• SEO It is a long term work. The internal and external SEO work you do will work in the long run.
• SEM, on the other hand, gives results in the short term as it includes PPC and a paid study.
• SEO It is permanent work. With the work you do, you will get cost-free results in the long run.
• Since SEM is a costly study, it may not be continuous.

Conclusion

I have covered the differences between SEO and SEM in detail. If you are looking for more SEO focused information 5 Most Effective Ways to Rank High on Google ve How to Write an SEO Compatible Article? You can check my content.