SEO, SEM and SEA are three very common acronyms in digital marketing that are, however, often misused.
Specifically, these are essential web activities that all have the same goal: to appear on search engines and increase traffic to one’s site. However, the route by which they accomplish this is significantly different.
In this article, we want to clarify and explain to you the differences between SEO, SEM and SEA. In addition, we want to give you some tips on how to make the most of them.
What are SEM and SEA?
The acronym“SEM” sums up the broader term Search Engine Marketing. Originally this was an umbrella term that encompassed all those activities aimed at publicizing one’s website. Specifically, any action (whether paid or organic) whose goal was to give more visibility to one’s content and get more user traffic.
As is often the case, however, in common speech some words tend to take on other meanings. In fact, today the term SEM refers only to sponsorships. Thus, paid advertising campaigns that can be created for Google (with Google Ads) or for other search engines.
The acronym that originally referred to thepurchase of advertising space in the SERP (the results page) was“SEA,” an acronym for Search Engine Advertising.
Over the years, this distinction has become increasingly thinner and thinner until it almost disappears. For this very reason, within the article we will use only the term SEM to refer to the paid advertising activity as opposed to the free SEO activity.
What is SEO?
“SEO” is another acronym and is used to refer to Search Engine Optimization. This term collects all those content optimization activities. Their goal is to improve the SERP position of one’s pages without financial investment in paid ads.
Specifically, sending SEO-optimized texts and images online allows us to index them. That is, make the search engine understand what topic we are talking about. However, appearing on the first page is much more complicated than it may seem. In fact, thealgorithm is constantly being updated and, above all, is unknown.
Theauthority of a piece of content is determined by a number of factors that have never been revealed exactly. Currently, we know that action must be taken on several fronts. For example:
- The creation of content and text optimized on one or more keywords
- The editing of tags and metatags
- The optimization of the site structure
- The internal and external link-building
- Image tags
- The writing of unique and valuable web content
Putting all these actions into practice does not give us the certainty of appearing among the top results for a given search. Similarly, not performing them gives us the certainty of not succeeding.
The two main differences between SEO and SEM
One of the main differences between SEO and SEM is cost. While in SEM there are paid ads, in SEO content interventions do not require any budget, except for the hours to be invested in their implementation.
At the same time, however, the time of effectiveness of the 2 strategies is very different:
SEM allows you to have almost immediate visibility, defined depending on the type of ad and budget set;
SEO requires constant updating and longer-term timelines. However, if done correctly it allows for more lasting results.
How to use SEO and SEM for an effective strategy
Using SEM and SEO together according to an integrated strategy is the only way to bring as much traffic to your site. In fact, the different approaches when well combined can be successful.
For example:
- SEM is critical in the first few months after the creation of a brand-new site, when SEO efforts have not yet been able to bear fruit.
- At the same time, it is essential to apply the principles of SEO in the creation of each piece of content. So that the search engine begins to show our portal as an answer to user queries.
- Once SEO has started to get us on the first page, SEM can be used on an ad hoc basis to advertise products, new services, promotions and discounts.
- Even at this time, SEO activity must continue for every new page, image, or text we want to send online.
Reap the benefits of SEO and SEM with the professionals at Isola
To sum up, SEO, SEM and SEA activities are essential to increase the number of users browsing through our pages. However, good SERP ranking is not that simple and requires the use of multiple tools and strategies.
By relying on the experts at the web agency Isola di Comunicazione you can get quality support and set up agreat online presence. Plus in this way you can manage to create a strategy tailored to your business and achieve your goals.
Contact us to get more information or request a quote!
