If you've looked into online marketing, you've probably heard of SEO, but you may not have heard of SEM, which is often referred to as "SEO marketing."
In addition to helping you understand the difference between SEO and SEM, this article gives you a basic introduction to SEM so you can understand what search engine marketing actually is.
What is SEM?
SEM (search engine marketing) is a way of using paid strategies to increase search traffic. Broadly speaking, SEM covers both paid and free search engine optimization, but here SEM refers to the narrow sense: "paid search engine optimization."
With SEM, your brand can target specific keywords so that users see your ads when they search for those keywords, and you only pay when someone clicks.
Your ads are also labeled "Ad" so everyone knows that result is a paid placement.
The difference between SEO and SEM
As mentioned above, the biggest difference between SEO and SEM is that one is free and the other is paid.
SEO mainly works by producing high-quality, valuable web content for Google searchers, attracting them to click through to your pages and earning a steady stream of traffic.
SEM mainly works through paid ads, letting people who search for specific keywords see and click your page, and you are charged by the number of clicks.
