So... what's the difference? Are they the same thing? Which one should I concentrate on the most?
All good questions. Basically, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. SEO is organic in nature, meaning it is a collection of strategies to naturally optimize the pages of your website without spending advertising dollars. SEO includes writing search engine friendly copy text and making sure your keywords are being used just the right amount of times in your content.
Other best practices for SEO include making sure that each page's Meta tags are written properly, your site is submitted to all the proper directories and indexed by the major search engines. Link sharing and generating one way links back to your site are a great way to improve your Page Rank in Google. More on all of these items in future posts... lots of great ways to build traffic without paying a dime!
SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, is advertising plain and simple. Whether you are running a Google AdWords Pay Per Click campaign, using affiliate marketing tactics, buying banner ads or investing in link building services, that is SEM in action. The most important metric to consider with SEM is your return on investment. What is your CTR (click through rate) from your ads? More importantly, what is your conversion rate? Each SEM strategy can be easily implemented to improve your traffic. You don't have to know everything to get started. Soon you will learn the most effective and profitable ways to implement SEM simply and effectively. Stay tuned and let me know if you have any questions. As always, you can visit www.netpointmarketing.com for more information or email me at david@netpointmarketing.com.
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