SEO VS SEM : What's Best?

Author: Pravin Shivarkar

We in India and the world are experiencing the boom in internet population and awareness, leading to high volume of interaction between user segments and B2B (Business to business) as well as ecommerce such as B2C (Business to Customers) sections.

People known as SEO's or Search Analyst or Search Marketers have a plethora of solutions if you want yourself to establish online with lower costs as compared with traditional media advertising such as radio/TV

Wondering what exactly an SEO or SEM professional do?
Roles and responsibilities of an all round SEO / search analyst include understanding of the theme, understanding development, content writing, online (onpage and off-page) optimization and marketing, website designing, usability analysis, technical concepts,brand building and all webmaster qualities.

What is SEO?
Wikipedia defines SEO as:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

A systematic approach to achieve goals (visibility and quality visitors) through higher SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Pages) and high traffic volumes through incoming links can help an increase in brand awareness, sales and memberships too. 

What is SEM?
Wikipedia defines SEM as:
Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet Marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the Search Engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization, SEM methods include: Search Engine Optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion. Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings with the goal of obtaining better free search listings.

SEO has its impact on every walk of internet, from sites to branding to website management, searches etc. still very few people understand the basics or even "How SEO Works?" Some people believe this is only related to ranking on certain search engine but that not completely true.

Another term which is considered synonymous to SEO is SEM Search Engine marketing or simply Search Marketing. Although have a mix of activities such as keyword research and analytics, they certainly stand apart from each other.

Search Marketing revolves around the paid part of advertising :
- Paid Inclusion (search engines and directories)
- Traditional Ads
- Affiliate Ads
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
- Pay-Per-Thousand-Impresssions (eCPM) Advertising
- Video Ads
- Mobile Ads

Various search engines supporting SEM ads/campaigns in a sponsored and content link format include Google , Yahoo! , Microsoft Live (MSN),Ask.com, Baidu(China),Yandex(Russia),Rambler(Russia)

A majority of online marketers do think SEO is a part of SEM or in other words Search Marketing is a bigger idea than just optimization which is limited to organic one.

Advantages with pure SEO are consider more for longer time-frame, they get results a bit slower than paid advertisements but lasts longer giving high ROI (return on investment).

Paid Searches, SEM, on the other hand is a quick booster for your product/service and starts delivering results in no time.

A best solution to market your site /product or service is to have an intelligent balance between SEO and SEM. No campaign or technique can be as useful as a mix of marketing options you have.!