No doubt you would have heard the term SEO in relation to marketing and content creation, and possibly even SEM too. But what exactly are they, and what role do they play in your inbound marketing strategy or marketing campaign?
Well, both relate to attracting visitors to your website. And both involve the use of keywords. But SEO and SEM involve quite different approaches to marketing your business online.
A simple way to look at it is that SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is all about boosting your Google ranking and getting more visitors to your website for free. So, when people search for a business like yours on Google, you want to rank at the top for keywords related to your service offering.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) involves leveraging and adding to your SEO activities through investment in paid advertisements. This approach allows you to quickly jump the queue and position your business at the top of Google as an ad placement, based on keywords you choose to target.
SEM is a really effective way to market your business, but it comes at a cost. On the flipside, SEO is also a great way to market your business, but it does take more time and effort – there’s no such thing as a free lunch!
Let’s jump into SEO vs SEM a little more.
What are the key elements and benefits of SEO?
There are three main components of SEO, all of which are considered by Google’s search algorithms:
- On page SEO includes the front and back-end elements of your website. Essentially, it is what the search engine can learn about your page by crawling your website.
- Off page SEO refers to other places online where your keywords appear and link to your website. Such as external links and social sharing.
- Technical SEO, as the name suggests, refers to the more technical parts of SEO, such as mobile optimisation, site speed, and structured data.
Obviously the number one benefit of SEO is that it’s free. And if done well, SEO plays a key role in supporting your inbound marketing strategy. The use of targeted keywords, aligned with your service offering and industries, ensures you attract ideal customers to your website (we know inbound marketing is all about reaching the right people, not just anyone!). It also helps boost your company’s credibility and trust through a high Google search ranking.
SEO is an essential aspect of any effective inbound marketing plan for a business that wants to do well online. But to be successful, you need a plan. Most importantly, you need to come at it with a strategic perspective – always keeping your customers’ needs front of mind.
What are the key elements and benefits of SEM?
Using paid advertising is one of the ways your business can break into search engine results pages (SERPs) when you just aren’t seeing results from SEO – whether due to tough competition for your keywords, or simply not having the time to invest in regular SEO activities. It can help ensure your company’s products and services are clearly visible at the top half of SERPs for potential customers who are searching relevant keywords.
Unlike SEO, SEM works on a pay to play approach. To get in the game, you will first need to identify keywords that you would like to appear for.
How do you choose the right keywords? Well, all keywords are not created equal. To get the best bang for your buck, you need to be targeting keywords that:
- are highly relevant to your product and service offering
- are likely to be searched by your ideal customers
- have a high number of searches per month
- have lower competition from other businesses
How can you track results from SEO vs SEM?
How you track results from SEO vs SEM depends on the software your business is using. For example, if you use HubSpot (which is our go-to inbound marketing software) you may have access to SEO tools and ad tracking. Alternative tools may include an SEO plug in on the back of your website like Yoast, Google Analytics or Neil Patel’s SEO tools.
These tools, along with our free Website Grader, allow you to review the performance of your website’s SEO and will offer a list of recommendations on how you can improve.
For SEM results, you need to use an analytics platform, like Google Analytics, Google Ad Analytics or HubSpot. These platforms all provide a comprehensive breakdown of your results by audience, interactions and engagement.
So, which should you focus on – SEO or SEM?
There’s really no hard and fast rule here, as it depends on your business stage, the amount of organic (free) traffic your site is already receiving, and of course your resources – both in terms of your capacity to regularly review and update SEO, and your budget for paid advertisements.
Ultimately, SEM and SEO activities are most beneficial when done in tandem, as part of a strategic inbound marketing strategy. It’s crucial to take the time to understand, implement and learn from your results.
A good place to start is to check the performance of your current site, using a tool like our Website Grader. From there, you will have an indication of how your SEO game is faring, and where you need to invest first.
If you’re unsure of how to get started, you’re not alone. SEO and SEM can be one of the toughest areas of marketing to understand, and it can be difficult to see results.
