While both search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) assist businesses with attracting customers via the Internet, they encompass different strategies.  Understanding these differences is critical when determining how to allocate key business resources and marketing funds.  However, if you lack the expertise, you can always consult a trusted SEO company in Traverse City, Michigan.
SEO is considered a subset of SEM services and uses tactics that improve a business’s website ranking in organic search engine results and in turn the chances that a user will visit it.  This means trying to get your website to the top of the list for an internet user searching with keywords related to your business.  Most of them will not scroll through multiple pages of search results, so where a website ranks is pertinent for directing more traffic towards it.
SEO technologies such as creating and publishing quality content, utilizing keywords and social media sites, link building, and improving navigation can help make your website more visible.  SEO focuses on bringing a company’s sales website in line with what search engines want, delivering top content to users.  Thus, they tend to feature sites with a simple understanding of benefits and clear navigation for searchers.  A SEO company in Traverse City, Michigan can help you with all these details.
SEM also uses search engines to advertise a website or business to customers and sends more targeted traffic to their website.  SEM encompasses paid listings, SEO, and other search-engine related services and functions that increase exposure and traffic to a website.  SEM relies on creating clear ads and choosing the right keywords prospective customers will likely enter into search engines.
SEM allows businesses to spend advertising dollars when they want to appear in paid search results on major search engines.  It also offers them the opportunity to only pay for each click made from an ad to their website.  A successful SEM campaign will display paid ads or sponsored links to consumers specifically seeking a business’s services or products.  Internet searchers can then find them prominently displayed beside or above their organic search results. The drawbacks of SEM are that advertisements are not always given as much clout as the highest organic listings and that the business must continually pay for results and will instantly loose their position once they stop.
SEO and SEM are complimentary services, depending on your unique circumstances you may want to implement one or both.  You can consult a trusted Michigan SEO/SEM company like Brassy Marketing for recommendations regarding your internet marketing strategy. Contact us today for a free consultation.