Difference Between SEO And SEM

A common question we get is “what’s the difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM)”? The terms are often used interchangeably, so it can be confusing! Here's an infographic of the terms to make it easier to visualize

SEO and SEM Defined

SEO is the first thing you do and the process occurs entirely on your own website. In contrast, SEM is the last stage and this happens entirely on other websites.

SEO begins with selecting which keywords you want to show up in search results on search engines like Google. Quality content is developed and published on your website with these keywords in the various parts of your page

Title of your page

URL

Meta-tags

Headings

Copy/content

SEM occurs after publishing the SEO content and is on 3rd party websites. Whether you pay for links or create your own, the content can be in the form of:

Guest blogs

Articles

Comments

Press releases

Twitter Tweets

Directory listings

Facebook pages

Google+ Pages

Google +1′s

Google Adwords

Other search engine text ads