Sarana pencari uang

gravatar

SEO vs SEM: What Is It And Why Is It Important to Know?

By Justin Harrison

SEO and SEM; familiar with these terms? If you?re a webmaster, you certainly are. If you spend a lot of time with a webmaster, you?ll hear the two terms tossed around so frequently they will probably seam as if the two terms are interchangeable. However, that view would be wrong, as there is a difference between the meanings of the two words.

For starters, SEM is an abbreviation for Search Engine Marketing, and is a broad label that covers pretty much anything that will get your site listed more visibly in search engine results. This can range from utilizing back links to deliberately submitting your URL to search engines. By contrast, SEO is narrower, and stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a subcategory of SEM, but any individual SEM operation does not necessarily contain SEO.

Even knowing the definitions, they do seem kind of like the same thing, don't they? But don't get careless! When you're shopping around for SEM or SEO services, you need to know exactly what's being offered. Companies that don't tell you exactly what services they have available should be looked into thoroughly. Don't ever just buy a package from a company without knowing what's in it, that's as silly as buying a box without knowing the contents. The reason to hire a company to do these things in the first place is because you can't do them yourself, and some of the less reputable kinds will try to trick you with vague packages and then do no more than submit your URL to some search engines. Why even bother hiring them for something you're perfectly capable of doing on your own? You can hand out your URL to search engines yourself without it costing you a penny, and you can likely hit all the major ones without much difficulty.

Information that would be good to gain would be what they plan on doing to increase traffic to your website. So they are submitting your URL to search engines? Which ones? Have them give you a list of those search engines. What about the use of keywords? Ask about keyword optimization of the website. Ask about META and ALT tags.

Whether it's called SEO or SEM, the precise names don't matter so much as the services offered and particular actions companies will take. Since SEM is so broad, it can range to anything from a comprehensive and detailed package of multiple services to a mere bare bones effort not worth buying. You need to find companies that know what they're doing and have developed a history for good business practices and treating customers fairly. With a little effort put into researching your options, you can be sure to get the best online marketing for your money.

About the Author: