Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing are very common words for people associated with Internet and E-Commerce. Most of the people think that both the terms are same and relate to website optimization and promotion. Well, it is true that both SEO and SEM are related with websites optimization and promotion. Even, the ultimate goal of both SEO and SEM is to drive organic traffic to the website, generate leads and increase incoming revenue. However, it is not right to say that both these terms have same meaning.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization deals with making a website Search engine friendly, so that the contents from different web pages of website can be easily indexed by Search Engine crawlers. SEO is in fact initial step in all Website Optimization and Promotional campaigns. Search Engine Optimization process takes care of several important aspects, like:

Designing/Modifying existing design of website for easy navigation Implementing file/directory/image naming principles of SEO Keyword analysis depending upon the targeted niche Creation of web pages with keyword rich contents Including most relevant META tags in all web pages of website

Above described things are very important in order to make your website ready for Search Engines as well as potential visitors. The initial success of your website completely depends upon SEO. If your website is not properly optimized for Search Engines, you can’t expect sudden increase in number of visitors and revenues coming from your website.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing deals with all aspects of promoting a website through various means. Whatever we do to promote a website and to increase the incoming traffic towards a website comes under Search Engine Marketing (including SEO). In brief, SEM covers all free and paid online promotion and advertising techniques. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) includes following actions:

Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Submission Paid or Sponsor Listing in Search Engines Online Ad Placement (Banner or Link Advertising) PPC Campaigns Email/Newsletter Marketing, and Social Network/Social Media Marketing

In brief we can say that, Search Engine Optimization is just a part of Search Engine Marketing. Another thing is that Search Engine Optimization deals with mostly internal tweaks in website, for which you don’t have to spend money. However, most of SEM actions required prior investment but in return they provide instant results.