SEM vs SEO and SEA
The digital marketing world is as difficult as it is exciting. Companies apply different digital marketing strategies to gain new clients and grow their presence online. Many of them became extremely successful through the use digital marketing. In this generation age, it’s compulsory for every online entity to have a digital marketing strategy in order to be competitive in the internet marketplace. This is the reason why, SEO, SOM and SEM are very popular acronyms in this industry.
What’s the Difference between SEM, SEO and SEA?
Search engine optimization (SEO), Social Engine Advertising (SEA) and search engine marketing (SEM) are popular concepts in the industry. These terms are frequently used interchangeably by marketers, making it difficult to understand the differences between the three.
What is SEM or Search Engine Marketing?
SEM refers to all the techniques and actions that aim to improve the visibility of a website and increase its traffic through search engines. Likewise, it is the practice and the science of using paid and free techniques in order to improve rankings. One of the paid Search engine marketing practices, you probably know is PPC advertising (pay-per-click). In fact, experts highlight that SEM=SEO+SEA.
However, for SEM to be effective, you need an SEO approach. You will definitely need to search for keywords (SEO) to include in your SEM ads in order to relate to requests your target audience is already interested in.
What Is SEA or Search Engine Advertising?
Search Engine Advertising (SEA) means advertising online through search engines. It includes all techniques to bring paid traffic to your site. You actually pay so your optimized content can easily appear on SERPs. The benefit of Search Engine Advertising is that you don’t compete for organic space, as your ad is publicized at the top of the first page on SERP.
What Is SEO or Search Engine Optimization?
SEO refers to all the techniques used to obtain better SERP positioning or simply to be more visible on search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. Being on the first page of Google gives the user unique visibility and a way to get organic traffic. With SEO you compete on the organic space with many other sites in your industries. All the strategies you use do not involve any paid advertising. You appear on SERP in an organic way.
What is SMO or Social Media Optimization?
The SMO refers to all the actions that aim to improve the visibility and notoriety of a site through social media. These platforms are essential vectors of visibility and notoriety because they generate a lot of visits daily. Social media has become so diverse that today there are many ways in which it can promote a site’s visibility.
Indeed, while we can immediately see that social networks can serve as a generator of traffic, we must not forget that they are also used for brand awareness. Finally, social media also offers the possibility of carrying out advertising campaigns to increase the traffic, visibility and/or notoriety of a company.
