You may be confused by two terms, “search engine optimization” (SEO) and “search engine marketing” (SEM) that are often used in the digital marketing industry. They sound the same, but aren’t, and are different strategies that has a time and place for your business.
Let’s explore the differences, the pros and cons of each, and how business owners can effectively use both to maximize their online leads and sales.
Introduction to SEM: Immediate Results
SEM, short form for Search Engine Marketing, primarily involves paid advertisements on search engines like Google.
The most common form of SEM is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, where you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. This strategy provides immediate results, offering quick visibility and an influx of traffic and leads to your site.
Immediate Results with SEM
When you pay for an SEM campaign, you are essentially paying for the top spots on search engine results pages (SERPs).
This guarantees that your website appears prominently when potential customers search for keywords related to your business. The benefits are almost instantaneous. Once your campaign is live, you can start seeing increased traffic and potential leads, sales and conversions.
Examples of Search Engine Results of SEM in Comparison to SEO
For example, a local Singaporean aircon servicing business can use (SEM) Google Ads to target keywords like “air con servicing Singapore” or “aircon repair Singapore.” Within hours of launching the campaign, the aircon servicing service can see a spike in website visits, leads and enquiries.
SEM results too come with a “sponsored” wording above their results.
Introduction to SEO: What is SEO
(SEO), short form for Search Engine Optimization is a search based digital marketing strategy focused on improving your website’s organic ranking on search engines such as Google and Bing.
Unlike SEM, SEO does not involve paying for ad placements. Instead, it relies on optimizing technical aspects of your website, creating high-quality content and link building.
Key SEO Practices that are Different to SEM
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Content Development Around Relevant Keywords
Unlike SEM campaigns requires more keyword research, grouping and short form copywriting based, key practices in SEO include optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and headers with target keywords.
It also involves curating SEO friendly content around keywords that attract potential customers to your business. Such as creating informative blog posts based on longer tail keywords in the form of engaging product descriptions, and comprehensive guides can help attract organic traffic.
Content development is much heavier in SEO. That is because only by understanding what your audience is searching for, you can create valuable content that meets the user query on search engines. Hence leading to ranking well on organic search results.
SEO or PPC: What to Focus On First?
There are simple ways to think about SEO and PPC. If you’re a business owner, then leads and customers are the lifeline if your business. Hence forth, SEM can be seen as an immediate solution to your business needs.
There is also no reason why you can’t scale a business just solely on one channel: SEM. In my enterprise days, our online sales of over a million a month was 80% to 90% reliant on paid channels.
Either way, here are the pros and cons of SEO and PPC.
SEO: A Long-Term Investment
- Pros:
- SEO is cost-effective in the long run.
- High search engine rankings builds credibility and trust with your potential customers
- Provides sustainable traffic over time
- Creates an invaluable asset for your company
- Cons:
- Takes time, money and effort to see results
- It requires continuous effort and updates
PPC: Immediate Visibility
- Pros:
- Instant visibility and traffic.
- Highly measurable and controllable
- Targeted advertising based on specific keywords
- The ability to test offers FAST!
- Cons:
- Can be expensive, especially in competitive industries
- Traffic stops once you stop paying for ads
The similarities between both is they are involve understand user query. In simpler terms, this is keyword research commonly known amongst many search marketers. They both require optimisation on the landing page level.
Cost Benefit Analysis of SEO Versus SEM
The costs and benefits associated to each strategy aren’t only monetary. However, they are also related to: time required for results.
SEM, PPC campaigns may require some budget upfront, especially for competitive keywords. However, I’ll still recommend SEM to business owners as it offers the ability to go live, test offers, product market fit, and adjust fast. Nonetheless, PPC done right can too be done on an efficient budget.
In comparison, SEO efforts require more upfront investment in quality content creation, technical SEO audits, backlinks but can be more cost-effective in the long term.
The reason I’ll recommend business owners to go with PPC first is because you don’t want to end up spending all the time building up SEO assets, driving traffic by ranking at top search engine results and not achieving any conversions after 6 months!
You can repurpose research from PPC campaigns to SEO. Yes, by building SEO content/ landing pages around converting keywords and user queries from your SEM campaigns.
SEM for Immediate Results
PPC/SEM campaigns provides instant visibility, making them ideal for businesses looking to generate immediate traffic and leads. The duration of these campaigns also vary based on your budget and return on ad spend. If you achieve a positive return on investment, then why not spend more for longer periods of time!
With SEM, you can quickly test and adjust your marketing strategies. Immediate feedback from PPC campaigns allows you to refine your marketing messaging, offers and optimize the campaign for better performance. This flexibility is a significant advantage for businesses looking to test new markets and offers.
I am a huge fan of SEO. However if you’re a small medium enterprise owner starting out, I’d say go for search engine marketing first because it allows for rapid testing of offers to achieve product market fit.
Nonetheless, effective SEM requires continuous monitoring and tweaking.
Tools such as Google Ads, Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag manager can be used to track performance. On the digital media end, metrics such as click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates are looked at. You can optimize by adjusting bids, ad copywriting, keyword intent and targeting parameters.
SEO for the Long Run: Building a Company Asset
While SEM can give you immediate results, SEO is a long-term strategy that builds long term value for your business.
There are entire marketplaces such as EmpireFlippers, Flippa that investors, sellers buy and sell, websites that has SEO traffic. These SEO ranked websites are worth millions of dollars due to their sustained traffic, organic rankings and cashflow it produces.
If you are look to exit your business for a multiple, I am sure strong SEO organic traffic can help with the exit valuation of your local business.
Long-Term Benefits of SEO
Investing in SEO is akin to building an asset that continues to grow over time. High-quality backlinks and optimized content increase your website’s authority, making it easier to rank for competitive keywords. This ongoing effort pays off as you gradually see more organic traffic and improved online visibility.
Requirements for Long-Term SEO Success
Follow the 80/20 rule, backlinks are the key to traditional long term SEO success. I’d say spend a good time building a strong backlink profile by earning links from reputable sites. SEO friendly, on page SEO and quality content is a given. Secondly to note, local SEO done right has been taking the SEO industry by storm and ranking on Google maps pack has became a quick fire strategy.
As with with building any asset, time and monetary investment are required from hiring a team to produce SEO friendly content to hiring an SEO agency to help you earn backlinks through link building outreach.
SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush and Majestic SEO are required for backlinks prospecting purposes, technical SEO audits, content audits, and to monitor SEO performance.
Recommended Course of Action for Business Owners in Singapore
In my experience working alongside Singaporean small business owners, they are often anxious for leads because customers can make and break a company’s cashflow. Hence forth, I recommend combining both SEM and SEO. A “blended search” method can yield optimal results.
Here’s how to strategically use both SEM and SEO for Optimal Results:
- Start with SEM for Immediate Traffic: Launch PPC campaigns to generate quick visibility and traffic. This helps you gather immediate data and understand which offers, keywords and ad copies perform best.
- Invest in SEO for Long-Term Growth: While running SEM campaigns, simultaneously invest in SEO to build a robust online presence. Focus on creating high-quality content and earning backlinks.
- Analyze and Adjust: Use the data from your SEM campaigns to refine your SEO strategy. Understanding which keywords drive the most traffic can help you optimize your content more effectively.
- Continuous Monitoring and Optimization: There are overlaps in SEO and SEM such as conversion rate optimization, tweaking of content, visuals on landing pages. You can use data from both campaigns to make necessary adjustments.
Conclusion
I am a hardcore SEO fan. However, there is no denying the strengths of paid traffic from SEM to social media marketing.
Ultimately, the goal here is to create an end to end customer acquisition funnel with positive return on ad spend on paid channels.Then, compliment it by building for the long term with SEO.
This way, business owners can achieve both immediate and long-term success in search marketing.
This strategic approach ensures that you not only attract customers immediately but also build a compounding search presence to potential customers over time.