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SEM or SEO: Which Method is Right for You?

By on December 14, 2011 in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

In earlier posts, I have talked much about Search Engine Optimization (SEO); but what about Search Engine Marketing? Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a paid form of online marketing and complementary to SEO. SEM incorporates paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. This is all done through the use of Pay Per Click and Pay Per Call Ads. SEM ads appear under the Sponsored Ads section in search engines or as Banner Ads across the web.

So, what is the difference between SEO and SEM?

Listed below are the categories that differentiate SEO from SEM.

Time Consumption: SEO is very time consuming in the sense of manual labor which includes extensive research, onsite optimization, offsite optimization, and monitoring results. In addition, SEO requires a person to continuously work on optimizing his/her website. In comparison, SEM requires less time. Once some research has been made to find good keywords and the ad is in place, minimal amount is required for monitoring results.

Cost: If SEO is done in house by an employee, the cost is minimal. However, if SEO is outsourced, then the cost between good SEO and effective SEM campaigns are more comparable.

Visualization: The end result of SEO is a site’s visibility in organic search or in other content around the web. The end result of SEM is a site has visibility online only though sponsored or banner ads.

Result time: SEO takes times, so the results can take two to three months to appear. SEM provides faster results, once one sets up an ad it can be seen in a matter of minutes.

Longevity of Results: Although the effects of SEO on a site take longer to notice, once SEO is in high gear, even if a person stops optimizing his/her site the results can last for awhile. In contrast, however, once a person stops SEM, the ads, and thus the site’s visibility, disappear.

Sometimes it is hard to identify which method , SEO or SEM, is best for your business. So, go ahead, contact Softway Solutions for a FREE consultation to discover what will work for your business.

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Internet Marketing Strategy: SEO, PPC, Blogging, Social Media

By on December 13, 2011 in Search Engine Optimization

Now that you have read our previous post about strategizing your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEO Tools, and Keyword Optimization, is there anything else? YES, a good Internet Marketing Strategy will also help your website’s rankings. Listed below are a few common online strategies that any business should be utilizing.

Internet Marketing Strategy #1: Search Engine Marketing

  • Per Wikipedia that Search engine marketing, (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. This is done through the use of Pay Per Click, Pay Per Call and banner advertisements. These paid advertisements, also known as Sponsored Ads, are usually found as text ads on the top and right sides of the search engine results page (SERP) or appear as banner ads in numerous shapes and sizes across the internet.

Internet Marketing Strategy #2: Content Management

  • One of Content Management’s platforms is a blog. Blogs are rich with content, precise, and relevant keyword information that allows a website to be easily found by prospective customers. In addition, blogs allow for the distribution of business services, news outlet, social media updates, social responsibility and case study information.

Internet Marketing Strategy #3: Social Media

  • Social Media is a good online marketing strategy for brand awareness and customer engagement. Social Media includes the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social networks. Utilizing these mediums provides a venue for readers to link back to your website.

These strategies, SEM, Blogging and Social Media, are all good sources to help increase traffic into your website. This means, more traffic you have coming to your website the more credible your site will appear to the search engines. In turn the search engines will provide your site’s pages with higher positions in the search rankings results pages (SERPs). Contact Softway Solutions for more information on how we can help you find the right online tools for your business.

 

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