Over the past few decades, marketing has evolved. We are using jargon that often leaves the clients confused. However, as online marketers people sometimes themselves confuse various terms and use them interchangeably. But are they really the same?
PPC, SEO, and SEM are often used interchangeably without a clear understanding of what each term means. While the only common thing they have is that they all denote activities undertaken by brands and marketers to increase your business presence and make it more visible, there’s a big difference that separates these terms.
Let’s start with the basic and explain the difference along the way.
SEM
SEM or Search Engine Marketing involves earning search visibility on search engines like Google and Yahoo through paid advertisements. Online marketers often use paid promotions to ensure that your brand gets the visibility it deserves on the digital platform.
SEM is a collective term used to describe both organic and paid methods of ranking on the first page of the search engine. It is an umbrella term that consists of SEO and PPC.
SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the implementation of various techniques employed to increase your search engine ranking on the search pages. SEO experts design a comprehensive marketing strategy that utilizes important keywords targeting your business to enhance your relevance.
However, this does not involve paying the search engine to divert traffic to your website as the traffic you receive will be organic. So how do SEO experts do it?There are a lot of techniques used in SEO to divert the right traffic to your website without putting up ads or investing a lot of money. Some of them include on-page content optimization, using strong links, off-page optimization, making backlinks and various other techniques.
Since the algorithms of major search engines keep on changing, companies need to tweak their website according to the latest update.
PPC
Pay Per Click or PPC is an outright paid method of promoting your online business. When brands opt for PPC, they are buying traffic for their website. Marketers often advertise the business on the SERPs and each time a visitor clicks on the ad, the advertiser pays the search engine. This is a specialized area as it works on a real-time bidding method. Advertisers often bid like in a private auction as the advertising inventory is limited.
Difference Between SEO and PPC
One of the biggest differences that separate SEO from PPC is that while the former is free and unpaid effort, the latter is a paid initiative. In SEO, marketers try to earn traffic. In case of PPC, advertisers are paying an intermediary. Thus, SEO is an organic way of promoting a website and PPC is an inorganic method of acquiring traffic.
Another difference that separates them is that while SEO is slow, PPC show results fast. As SEO is free, companies often engage in making their site optimized from search engines. This is the reason why doing SEO can take about 2 to 3 months for your website to show on the first page for the targeted keyword.
However, even though SEO takes a lot of time as compared to PPC, it is worth the time and effort in the long run. That being said, PPC works almost instantly if done in a proper manner. As the advertisements are placed higher than the organic search results, it starts to get clicks within a few hours.
It must also be remembered that while PPC is a temporary method, SEO is a durable and consistent method.
Difference Between SEO and SEM
SEO is a free but effective way of ranking your website on the SERPs using targeted keywords. On the other hand, SEM is a much broader term that involved paid and free activities such as PPC and SEO.
Difference Between SEM and PPC
SEM and PPC are often used interchangeably. As stated above SEM is an umbrella term under which paid and unpaid marketing methods such as PPC, SERM and SEO are entailed.
SEM often stands for any kind of internet marketing activity used by a brand to improve the business visibility on the search engine page results. On the other hand, PPC is completely paid and it put the company on the top of the search results.
Do Learning the Difference Affects The Marketing Campaign?
It is important that not only advertisers understand the difference between the three but comprehend the meaning of the terms correctly. It is important to have a budget before you choose what works best for your business.
Here are a few reasons why you should know the correct meaning of the terms.
You will be investing a lot of money in paid advertisements, promotions, and making your website attractive and user-friendly. Thus, it is important to know the difference as it will help you assess the data you will get from different marketing tools.
SEO, SEM, and PPC are all powerful performance-driven and result-oriented methods. If you end up mixing the results, you will never know whether your pain or unpaid initiative is faring as expected or not.
Another reason why it is important for businesses to learn the difference is that at the beginning you need to have a pre-set budget for the marketing activities. Similar to traditional marketing, digital marketing also offers plenty of tools to maximize your results. Learning more about the difference will help you choose the right marketing mix.
Finally, learning the difference also helps you be clear with your audience. When the internal team does not have clarity, they can end up putting up the wrong information, thus confusing the customers.
What Works Among the Three?
While it is not easy to choose one over the other as there is no wrong or right in the marketing world, you must remember that every business is different and its needs differ too. Anything that works for your competitor may or may not work for you.
If you want to increase your business visibility and traffic, SEO, PPC, and SEM offer a good foundation.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you to create a custom paid and unpaid strategy to attract the attention of your potential customers.
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