SEO and SEM are both strategies for promoting websites through search engine results. However, the difference between them is significant. SEM comprises a wider range of techniques than SEO, while SEO solely focuses upon improving a site’s ranking among normal non-paid search results.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) involves gaining links at other websites, optimizing META tags, improving keyword density, getting listed in directories, and creating websites that search engine “spiders” can easily navigate. It generally does not involve making payments directly to the search engines.

On the other hand, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) features such promotional methods as pay per click (PPC) advertising on search engines or paying an individual engine for “guaranteed” or “expedited” inclusion in regular results. Although the greater variety of techniques in SEM is part of the difference between it and SEO, it should be kept in mind that SEO is also considered part of SEM.

Another difference between SEO and SEM is the focus upon major and minor search engines. While the vast majority of SEO work is aimed at improving rankings on a few major search engines (Yahoo, Google, Live/MSN), there are a substantial number of minor PPC engines which can be utilized in SEM campaigns.

For example, there is no reason to conduct search engine optimization to improve a site’s ranking on Mamma.com (it draws regular results from other engines), but it is popular enough to use for pay per click ads. The search engine Entireweb.com offers a paid “express inclusion” service which adds a website listing to it and a number of other minor engines within two days.

There is also a difference between the amounts of time these two strategies take to become effective. A strictly SEO-based marketing strategy involves fewer direct costs, but will take months before achieving full effectiveness. On the other hand, pay per click or guaranteed inclusion services used in SEM often take effect within a few days, in some cases delivering new visitors on the same day a campaign is initiated.

One potential strategy is to use paid SEM services to gain traffic for the first months after starting a new website, while working on SEO in the meantime. This approach produces a more easily sustainable method of promotion in the long-term, without sacrificing traffic during the first few months. It may also add to the SEO campaign’s success as people discover the website and voluntarily add links to it.

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