If your company is new to the digital marketing game, Orange County, then you probably don’t know very much about concepts like SEO. It’s okay; you don’t need to be an expert on the subject when you can hire an agency to help you in this area. However, it is best for you to have at least a fundamental understanding of SEO and SEM, and to understand the differences between them and how they relate to each other.

SEO

SEO is search engine optimization, and what it involves is the efforts that you make on your website that are geared toward raising that site to the top of the search engine results when someone looks for a particular term on Google. If you’re an auto body shop in Houston, then you would hope that if someone typed a phrase into Google like “best auto body shops Houston,” then you would be one of the first names to pop up.

SEM

SEM stands for search engine marketing, Orange County, and it is a kind of internet marketing where you use paid advertising methods to increase your ranking with search engines. You can make use of services like Google AdWords to customize your ads before you make them visible online. By studying analytics related to your niche, you can make them as enticing as possible, making it likely that people will click on them and come to your site.

How Do They Relate to One Another?

SEO is different than SEM, and yet their goals are similar. It could be said that the SEO efforts being made by you or your agency are not something that you’re paying for directly. You’re trying to use best practices for designing your website to get to the top of the SERPs without paying for it. That way, people find out about your company and come to your site through organic means. With SEM, you’re paying for ads, and when people click on them, they’re coming to your site that way.

You’re not paying for SEO, Orange County, but you’re spending time on it, because you’re trying to make your site as appealing and user-friendly as possible, and time is the same as money in the business world. On top of that, if you’re paying an SEO company to handle your website, then you are in fact paying for SEO, which in a sense makes it quite similar to SEM.

The point of both is geared toward the same goal. You’re trying to get more people to come to your site and buy your products. If you aren’t an expert in designing a website (SEO) or coming up with ads (SEM), then you’re best off getting yourself a digital marketing agency that can do both for you.

So, now you understand the differences and similarities between SEO and SEM. All that remains is for you to find yourself the SEO agency that can help you out in both areas.