Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are linked as they leverage search engines like Google to drive traffic and enhance visibility.
Sometimes the terms are used together to reference a similar set of activities, which can be confusing for those of us who aren’t as familiar with this world.
But while they have the same purposes, there are differences. Marketers need to understand what these are to leverage SEO and SEM in marketing activities and to feed into search intent.
It’s worth mentioning the recent Google API documentation leak which gave marketers a rare glimpse into what factors the search engine really uses to rank content.
In this article, we look at the key differences between SEO and SEM, how to use them successfully to boost the visibility of any product, service, or company and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on search marketing.
What’s the difference between SEO and SEM?
How does SEO work?
How does SEM work?
How can you use SEO and SEM together?
How much do SEO and SEM cost?
SEO and SEM: future directions
What’s the difference between SEO and SEM?
So what’s the difference? While SEO optimizes a website to drive organic traffic, SEM uses both organic and paid search such as Pay-Per-Click or programmatic advertising to boost web traffic.
This means that SEM covers organic and paid channels while SEO focuses on organic traffic, making it a subset of SEM.
It’s worth noting that SEO experts are debating the value of paid search due to changes in search behavior and the rise of AI-powered search, such as Google's AI Overviews (SGE). More on that later…
Now you know the difference, let’s look at SEO and SEM in more detail.
How does SEO work?
So what is SEO? SEO involves continuously optimizing a website to rank in organic search engine results pages, known as SERPs.
Search engines like Google or Bing work by ‘crawling’ content to see how effective it will be to attract traffic and provide information. Search engines will assess a website based on many factors (explained below) and rank it.
According to Statcounter Global Stats, Google claims 91% of the global search engine market compared to only 3.74% on Bing and 1.26% on Yahoo. This means that when we talk about search engines the main focus for SEO is on Google, but we still need to remember that others are still in the running (but barely).
You should note that it takes a bit of time for Google to recognize and reward your site – if your site is brand new, it probably won’t get ‘noticed’ for quite a while.
With Statista reporting that Google processes 5.9 million searches every minute there's a huge opportunity for marketers to use that search intent to drive traffic.
That’s the way you need to think when it comes to SEO - What’s my audience searching for and how can I feed into it?
SEO categories
There are four main categories of SEO to consider in your marketing activities - technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO and local SEO.
Technical SEO - This means looking after the health of your website. It involves improving the architecture and backend elements of a site to improve its visibility and performance on search engines. Elements to consider are broken links, metadata errors or site architecture.
On-page SEO - This focuses on optimizing the content and elements of a website. Keyword research is crucial here so you tap into what your audience is looking for and create content that provides information or solutions. Elements to consider are page titles, headings, URLs, and internal linking.
Off-page SEO - This is all about how your website is perceived externally. It aims to build external signals and boost the authority of your site so search engines get a signal that it’s trustworthy and authoritative. Digital PR is important here as that includes external link building and press coverage.
Local SEO - It’s often neglected, but local SEO can make or break a small business. The key is to use local keywords or phrases that people would use to find a local business or service. A simple tool is Google Business Profile, a directory that displays business information on local searches and Google Maps.
SEO key features
Google’s algorithm uses 200+ ranking signals so there’s a lot to consider when you’re looking at ranking content on the search engine.
To narrow it down, let’s look at the key SEO ranking factors you should focus on.
Keyword Optimization - Once you identify the right keywords or phrases (there are some great research keyword tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to help), it’s important to use them across your website.
Content Creation and Optimization - Content is king when it comes to SEO. It’s not only about including the right keywords, you need to create high-quality content that speaks to your audience.
User Experience (UX) - If you want to keep customers on your website, it’s crucial to provide a good user experience. Slow load times, poor navigation or irrelevant content will make people leave within seconds.
Link Building - Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to backlinks. A high-quality backlink from a reputable site can help build your site’s authority.
Voice Search Optimization - Voice search is on the rise. eMarketer reports that over 86 million US smart speaker users will ask questions via voice in 2024.
Schema Markup - This is structured data you can add to your website to help search engines understand your content. Optimize for this in your SEO activities by implementing structured data and optimizing for featured snippets.
Core Web Vitals - Core Web Vitals consist of three user experience metrics that measure the loading, interactivity, and visual stability of a web page. To improve these you need to optimize Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), improve First Input Delay (FID) and minimize Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
Video SEO - Google now ranks videos, so optimizing them can help get your content and brand found. Make sure to post video content on your site and across social networks.
Mobile SEO - With nearly 7 billion smartphones on the go, it’s no surprise that people search for information via mobile devices. You can test your site using Google's Mobile-Friendly Test.
Social signals - Social media is a valuable channel as it can drive engagement through likes, comments and shares. Make sure pages on your site are shareable and include social sharing buttons.
E-E-A-T - While Google E-E-A-T ((Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is not a ranking factor, it is used to assess the quality of your content and plays a role in ranking.
All of these features help to improve a website's visibility and ranking in SERPs which drives organic traffic and enhances online presence.
How to get results with SEO
Now that you know the key SEO factors, it’s time to look at how to get results with your efforts.
Here are some effective ways to improve your rankings and boost your SEO to get to that top spot on Google.
Keywords
Incorporate keywords on landing pages, blogs or product pages in a way that fits into the content and reads naturally
Focus on relevant and high-intent keywords
Use long-tail keywords for specific targeting
Include your main keyword in the title tag, meta description, and URL
Content
Use buyer personas to craft content that will inform, influence, and convert
Update content regularly to keep it fresh and relevant
Aim to create content that’s better than what is ranking
Create evergreen content
Use internal linking strategies (link to relevant pages and use anchor text)
Research and create data capture content
Review Google’s helpful content guidelines as they frequently add core updates that relate to helpful or quality content
User experience
Constantly improve site navigation and structure
Reduce bounce rates
Ensure cross-browser compatibility
Link building
Build an internal linking structure (using content pillars can help you do this)
Do outreach for link opportunities
Create linkable assets such as original research, templates or case studies
Monitor and disavow toxic links
Voice search
Optimize content for conversational queries
Implement structured data
Focus on long-tail keywords and questions
Video
Optimize video titles, descriptions, and tags
Create video transcripts and use closed captions
Use SEO strategies to optimize video for YouTube and TikTok
Mobile
Optimize for mobile users
Use mobile-first indexing
Implement Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Google E-E-A-T
Use credible authors for content
Demonstrate industry expertise
Build brand authority
Analysis
Monitor and analyze site performance using reporting tools like Google Analytics and Search Console
Set and track key metrics and adjust strategies based on data
Security
Secure your site with an SSL certificate
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
Site maps
Create sitemaps for all content types
Submit sitemaps to search engines via Google Search Console
How does SEM work?
SEM generally refers to paid search marketing and focuses on paid efforts like PPC which helps companies target audiences and improve visibility in search engines. However, SEO is related to SEM in the broader context of search marketing.
With the rise of AI-powered search, such as Google's AI Overviews (SGE), many marketers are wondering about the value of PPC.
"PPC is still one of the biggest forms of advertising on the planet and is a hugely important form of advertising,” said Brendan Almack, Managing Director of Wolfgang Digital on the DMI podcast. “One of the battles that anyone running PPC campaigns is fighting at the moment is trying to keep their cost per clicks down. If you're in e-commerce, it's particularly challenging.”
Despite the challenges, paid advertising can pay off as it allows you to be targeted and can get results quicker than SEO. This involves spending some time designing ads and allocating a budget so they are targeted.
Here are some examples of SEM-based advertising activities:
PPC advertising - Google ads, Bing ads or Gemini ads
Display advertising - banner ads, retargeting campaigns
Video ads - In-stream video ads or YouTube View ads
Local services ads on Google
Social media ads
Responsive search ads
Voice search ads
Geotargeting and location-based ads
SEM key features
Search Engine Marketing includes several key features that make it a powerful tool for digital marketers which include:
Keyword Targeting - Keywords are important for paid search. Select and bid on relevant keywords for ad displays and use match types (broad, phrase, exact) to refine keyword targeting.
Bidding - You can bid on keywords to appear in sponsored search results and optimize bids for specific goals (e.g. generate leads)
Ad Creation and Optimization - Create compelling ad copy for different channels with headlines, descriptions, and call-to-actions. Using AI copywriting tools can help with this if you need some guidance.
Budget Control - On paid platforms, you can set daily or monthly budgets and adjust bids at the keyword or ad group level.
Audience Targeting - You can target select audiences by demographics (age, gender, location, etc.) or based on behavior and interests.
Analytics and Reporting - You can use Google Analytics to get detailed performance metrics and insights and develop custom reports and scheduling
Negative Keywords - You can exclude irrelevant search terms to improve targeting and ensure you’re not wasting your budget.
Leveraging some or all of these SEM features will help create targeted, measurable, and cost-effective advertising campaigns that you can continuously optimize for better performance.
How to get results with SEM
Now that you know the key features of SEM, it’s time to look at how to get results with your efforts. Here are some effective ways to improve your rankings and boost your SEM.
Keyword research and targeting
Identify and select relevant keywords that your target audience uses to search for your products or services.
Find high-volume, low-competition keywords by using tools like Google Keyword Planner
Ad copy optimization
Include your target keywords in ad copy
Highlight your unique selling propositions
Ensure ads are clear, concise, and include a strong CTA
Landing page optimization
Create landing pages that are relevant to your ads and provide a seamless user experience
Ensure fast loading times and easy navigation
Bid management
Regularly adjust your bids based on keyword performance, competition, and budget to maximize ROI.
Use automated bidding strategies where appropriate
Ad extensions
Use ad extensions (e.g. site links or structured snippets) to provide extra information
A/B testing
Use A/B testing to try different ads, landing pages, and targeting options
Retarget prospects
Set up retargeting ads to reach users who have interacted with your website
Conversion Tracking
Measure and analyze user actions after clicking on ads
Track actions such as sign-ups, downloads, and sales
Location & Device Targeting
Show ads to users in specific locations
Adjust bids based on user location
Tailor campaigns for devices (e.g. desktop, mobile, or tablet)
If you're looking for agency support in the areas of SEO, content marketing and paid media, get in touch with Neil Patel Digital
How can you use SEO and SEM together?
SEO and SEM both rely on keywords to drive traffic to business websites and web pages. The key difference is that SEM includes paid advertising so you need to take that into account in your SEM activities.
By 2027 global retail online sales are predicted by Statista to reach over $8 billion and with most people searching online before purchasing, it’s crucial to have a strong presence on search engines.
By leveraging SEO and SEM you can capture online traffic using both organic and paid channels. For example, use data from PPC campaigns to inform SEO keyword strategies and vice versa.
This will give you a better chance of getting high-quality traffic and improving conversion rates.
Once you have an SEO-friendly site and paid ads that are targeted properly using the right keywords, you have more chance of showing up at the top of paid searches. But remember you need to use SEO tactics so search engines like Google see you as a credible website.
Top tip: If your website is still quite new, you can prioritize your PPC campaign first as it can take a while for SEO rankings to become established. But don’t ignore your SEO during this process.
How much do SEO and SEM cost?
While SEO does not require a budget in the same way paid advertising does, it still requires investment in tools, content creation, and technical expertise.
Other costs that need to be factored in to use the key features of SEO such as:
SEO audit - Unless you’ve been doing SEO for a while, you probably don’t know where your site falls down. The first step should be an SEO audit which examines your site so you can make improvements that will make a difference. These can be expensive if you don’t have in-house resources and knowledge, costing from $500 for a backlink audit to thousands of dollars for a full audit. Alternatively, you can use Google tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and Google Console or paid tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush.
Content creation - Content is what makes SEO tick. This means you need marketers with content expertise who can create high-quality and relevant content for paid and organic channels that are SEO optimized. If you need to outsource content, you will need a budget. For example, depending on the experience of a copywriter a blog can cost upward from $0.05 per word.
Link building - While it’s great if you can build reputable external links naturally, it can take a lot of effort to get high-quality links. Great content helps but if this is a priority, then you may need to hire an agency or freelancer to do this for you. This can cost between $100 to $1,500 per link depending on the industry and quality of the site, according to Forbes.
Analysis and reporting - Your SEM can only improve if you know how it’s performing. To do this you need to set metrics and track performance using custom reports, especially if you’re using paid advertising. Luckily Google Analytics is a great tool for this and it’s free. You may just need some guidance to do it so check out our GA4 reporting guide.
If you have an SEO/SEM expert or SEO Manager on your team, then you’re lucky. Most companies do not so it’s worth putting some budget aside to prioritize elements that you need to drive any SEO efforts.
SEO and SEM: future directions
This is a period of huge change for search marketing. The future of SEO and SEM is moving towards being more user-centric and technically advanced.
While it’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen for search marketing, here are some likely directions.
Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning - Search engines like Google are using AI and machine learning to understand user intent better and deliver more relevant results. Since the launch of Google’s AI Overviews (SGE), search results are changing so it’s important to keep search intent in mind for your SEO. You should also look to provide useful and relevant information (like you would for SEO anyway) and build authority and credibility.
AI tools - Along with search intent, consider using AI-driven SEO tools and AI in SEM such as Surfer SEO and Jasper.ai. These tools are becoming increasingly significant in optimizing campaigns and understanding search intent.
Google algorithms - Google is constantly updating its algorithms and many of its ranking factors are not clear to marketers making it hard to exactly how to rank. While there are small updates daily, it’s the core updates you need to keep an eye on that happen once or twice a year.
Preference for expertise - Google has always liked relevant and credible content but with playing a big factor in how it displays content, becoming an authority on a topic is crucial. It’s important to understand what that expertise is and look for ways to capitalize on it. Creating a hub and spoke model for top content areas that your company knows about can help create original content such as research that can be cited and linked to.
Zero-click searches - According to Semrush, 57% of mobile and a quarter of desktop searches leave the SERP without clicking on an organic or paid result. This could mean that searchers aren’t finding the information they need or they get exactly what they need on a search and don’t need to click such as a concise featured snippet. While these may not drive traffic, zero-click searches can help boost visibility (as you’re at the top of the SERP) and build credibility.
YouTube - When it comes to paid advertising it’s worth looking at YouTube as a platform. It has been long established as being a search engine and its growth is massive, with nearly 2.5 billion active users making YouTube ads an attractive prospect.
Watch newer platforms: Did you know that TikTok is being considered a search engine? This means that more people will use the network to research and find content so it’s worth optimizing content for SEO keywords especially with 1 in 10 Gen Zers more likely to rely on TikTok than Google as a search engine according to Adobe research.
