There’s really no easy answer to this question and, if you ask 10 different SEO professionals, you’re likely to get 11 different answers.I’ll define it the easiest way and the way I always define it for our clients: SEM involves PPC and SEO doesn’t.In a sense, SEM and SEO are one in the same. With SEM, you pull out all of the stops to get your site(s) ranking, including paying for instant results by using ads of somes ort, be it AdWords, banner advertisements or other PPC campaigns. With SEO, you’re not paying for placement for your keywords, therefore it takes some time to achieve the results you want.Naturally, the next question is, “which is better?”. As with everything, there’s pros and cons to each. With SEM, you can get nearly instantaneous results which ofcourse means, instant traffic. You decide which spot you want to appear in foryour chosen keyword. And, with that decision comes a, sometimes, hefty price. The advantage is you get to choose to be first or second or third place (how often do youget THAT choice in life?) The downside is once your money runs out, you vanishfrom the search results.Although SEO does take time along with an investment of resources (time, money,etc.), the results can, literally, last for years. While you don’t necessarily get tochoose your exact position within the search engines, there’s ways to make certain you get pretty close to your chosen spot (#1, presumably!). The only true downside to SEO, in my estimation, is the time it takes to see results (traffic to your website).Some may think that SEM exists without SEO. In fact, SEO is a crucial portion of SEM; I consider SEO a subset of SEM.Whether or not you choose SEO or SEM approaches for traffic generation yourwebsite, you must be mindful of your reader. Design a site for your reader and your visitors will stick. Design your site for the search engines and your visitors won’t stick. And, non-sticky visitors = loss of revenue. Choose wisely. And use lots of duct tape, err… design your site for your visitor for maximum stickiness!
There’s really no easy answer to this question and, if you ask 10 different SEO professionals, you’re likely to get 11 different answers.I’ll define it the easiest way and the way I always define it for our clients: SEM involves PPC and SEO doesn’t.In a sense, SEM and SEO are one in the same. With SEM, you pull out all of the stops to get your site(s) ranking, including paying for instant results by using ads of somes ort, be it AdWords, banner advertisements or other PPC campaigns. With SEO, you’re not paying for placement for your keywords, therefore it takes some time to achieve the results you want.Naturally, the next question is, “which is better?”. As with everything, there’s pros and cons to each. With SEM, you can get nearly instantaneous results which ofcourse means, instant traffic. You decide which spot you want to appear in foryour chosen keyword. And, with that decision comes a, sometimes, hefty price. The advantage is you get to choose to be first or second or third place (how often do youget THAT choice in life?) The downside is once your money runs out, you vanishfrom the search results.Although SEO does take time along with an investment of resources (time, money,etc.), the results can, literally, last for years. While you don’t necessarily get tochoose your exact position within the search engines, there’s ways to make certain you get pretty close to your chosen spot (#1, presumably!). The only true downside to SEO, in my estimation, is the time it takes to see results (traffic to your website).Some may think that SEM exists without SEO. In fact, SEO is a crucial portion of SEM; I consider SEO a subset of SEM.Whether or not you choose SEO or SEM approaches for traffic generation yourwebsite, you must be mindful of your reader. Design a site for your reader and your visitors will stick. Design your site for the search engines and your visitors won’t stick. And, non-sticky visitors = loss of revenue. Choose wisely. And use lots of duct tape, err… design your site for your visitor for maximum stickiness!
