SEM and SEO: An Academic Discussion.

While search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are frequently used interchangeably, aspects of marketing a website and optimizing how a search engine finds the site are distinctly different. SEM entails actively marketing a site though paid methods such as paid inclusion or standard advertisements such as those generated by Google’s search results (SEO and SEM: Two Names for the Same Thing?). In SEM, a site simply pays the search engine provider to list their results higher or purchases targeted ads to those searching for given keywords. This is a blunt instrument that requires funding but it can also save time as compared to other SEO strategies.

According to the Economist, SEO means with clever manipulation of the website, one can achieve a higher ranking in Google’s search results (2012). This manipulation can include something as simplistic as adding unrelated key words in the META fields of a webpage. Additionally, gaining many links into one’s page will move the site up in the PageRank algorithm of Google. Understanding how the search engine algorithm ranks pages and crafting a strategy to meet those objectives allows webmasters to “game the system” and create an artificially higher ranking than one can achieve organically. While genuine marketing of the site can result in increased traffic or link generation—in social media, for example—this is not SEM or SEO. SEO requires active steps to force a search engine to rank one’s site higher than would have normally happened. SEM accomplishes the same by trading cash for the technology of well-crafted SEO.

References
The Economist (2012, December 7). Search Engine Optimization: How to sell Botox to Panda. Retrieved April 22, 2013, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/blogs/theworldin2013/2012/12/search-engine-optimisation SEO and SEM:

Two Names for the Same Thing? (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2013, from Raise My Rank: http://www.raisemyrank.com/articles/seo-sem.htm f.