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<\/p>\nAnother day, another acronym.<\/p>\n
SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing \u2013 another route a business can take to increase their website traffic.<\/p>\n
But wait, isn\u2019t that what SEO is for? There\u2019s a difference, and it\u2019s especially useful when it comes to targeting particular groups. Let us explain.<\/p>\n
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When people want to buy something, they search for it online using keywords. Real estate is power on search engines like Google and Bing. For example,<\/a> First Page reported<\/span><\/a> that, in 2024, the business that ranks first on a Google search engine results page (SERP) gets a whopping 39.8% of all website traffic from that search. Number two gets 18.7% of all traffic and number three gets 10.3%. In other words, where you rank matters.<\/p>\n All big search engines, such as Google and Bing, use an algorithm to rank websites and web pages based on what they believe will best answer the search of the user. SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimisation is the act of optimising your website to improve your ranking based on these algorithms.<\/p>\n If you can get it right, SEO is one of the most cost-effective ways to market your business online and get more website traffic\u2014especially if you\u2019re trying to expand your customer base to neighbouring communities or cities. SEO helps you appear in regional searches (such as \u2018supplier in regional qld\u2019), and ultimately brings in more traffic to your site.<\/p>\n Once upon a time, SEM encompassed all forms of search engine marketing, but these days, it has become known purely as the paid side of the business. It\u2019s also known as paid search, paid advertising, or PPC (pay-per-click).<\/p>\n Unlike SEO, SEM \u2013 search engine marketing \u2013 needs to be paid for. When businesses want to rank for a certain keyword, they bid a certain price for each click on their ad \u2013 which comes in the form of a spot in Google\u2019s top paid search results. However, it\u2019s fast and more predictable than SEO because you can be extremely targeted in your keywords and customers. SEM allows you to target based on location, job and user behaviour\u2014just to name a few.<\/p>\n Search engine marketing strategies are significantly faster than SEO, as they jump you straight to the head of the queue. Google Adwords<\/span><\/a> is the most popular paid search platform, followed by Bing Ads, which is why it\u2019s handy to have a service like SEM<\/a> that is both a Google Premier Partner, and a Bing Elite Channel Partner (which, we\u2019ll be honest, is actually fairly rare!).<\/p>\n SEO and SEM tend to work well together, with some of a company\u2019s investment going into content creation for the former, and some going into paid search for the latter. Aside from the payment aspect of SEM, one of the biggest differences between the two is the ability to seriously hone in on a particular demographic or audience for super targeted ads.<\/p>\n Targeting customers in your online marketing almost knows no bounds. Here are some of the top ways you can use SEM to speak to your audience:<\/p>\n SEM\u2019s effects are immediate, whereas SEO\u2019s effects can take months. You can jump right in and connect with your audience straight away. This is especially good if you\u2019re running a sale, have a special offer or want to reach a very specific market and don\u2019t have time for SEO to kick in. You can be very precise with terms such as \u2018Red Back Spider removal\u2019 aimed at people located in just the southern suburbs of Adelaide.<\/p>\n Google estimates<\/span><\/a> that for every $1 businesses spend on paid search, they make $2 in revenue, making SEM an effective and lucrative form of digital marketing.<\/p>\n SEO, on the other hand, is a way for your website to appear organically on a search engine by improving its relevance and authority for the main things your business does. It works off more generic search terms such as \u2018Pest Control Adelaide\u2019.<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to put a figure on SEO revenue, as it depends on a range of factors and is less quantifiable, but one study says<\/span><\/a> that as much as 33% of website revenue stems from SEO.<\/p>\n Basically, SEO is your long term strategy for helping customers find you all the time, while SEM allows you to have a more agile strategy when trying to attract customers in the short term. Combined, SEO and SEM deliver maximum visibility and greater revenue.<\/p>\nThere are three pillars of SEO:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\u00a0How to improve SEO.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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What is SEM?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Tips for great SEM.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Customer groups you can target with SEM.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Why should SEO and SEM be combined?<\/strong><\/h2>\n