In today’s market, it is becoming increasingly more affordable and profitable to employ internet marketing strategies in addition to, or in some cases, in lieu of, other options.  Before you choose an internet marketing agency, understanding the differences between SEO and SEM is important, so that you know what you should expect to receive with each service.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process by which your online content is made easily readable by search engines so that your content can be ranked and displayed to searchers when they enter a keyword or keyword phrase.  SEO prepares your online content, be it a blog, website or article, so that the search engine can understand the value of your content and thus determine its ranking.  SEO is more of a process than a strategy.  A strategy outlines a plan, while processes help to see that plan come into fruition.  It may be a goal to receive high rankings by a search engine.  Part of your strategy might be to optimize your online content…but the actual process of SEO involves many factors, including the balance of keywords we discussed yesterday.

SEM, or search engine marketing, is a collection of strategies designed to increase brand recognition and improve your virtual presence by strengthening it through the employ of various techniques that might include PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns, blog management campaigns or email marketing campaigns, to name a few.  Often times, these campaigns may incorporate some of the processes involved with SEO, but SEO and SEM are different.  The goal of search engine marketing is to drive traffic to your site through a variety of online marketing tools.

Understanding the differences between SEO and SEM is important; not only so that you know what you’re signing up for but also so that you can understand what sort of reports you should expect, so that you can monitor your progress.  An internet marketing agency not offering to report back to you is likely trying to scam you, so knowing what to expect is crucial to making the choice of which internet marketing agency you should work with.