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.
However, be careful when shopping for SEO or SEM services. So companies may just be providing services, such as submitting your website's URL to a few search engines, which you are perfectly capable to do yourself. Don't be fooled! If they do not tell you the exact services it offers in the package you have intrest in, then be sure to ask questions.
You need to find out very specifically what a company will do to help you become visible on the web. Figure out what search engines they're focusing on besides the obvious ones. Yahoo and Google are so popular they're basically freebies! While some companies will offer URL submission to search engines alongside many other options, it's not worth paying for that part unless they've got a comprehensive list of relevant search engines to submit to. Maybe they'll offer to keyword optimize your site, in which case you'll want to know what keywords they'll use, the density of keyword use, and whether or not they use meta or alt tags.
Finally, it doesn't really matter what services are offered, as long as the company uses "SEO" or "SEM". Although, SEM will be more valuable than SEO, because SEM includes SEO as well as other marketing strategies. Even though im sure not all companies are the same in packages. Just simply put, the company could just be charging you for what you could do yourself. If shopping, look for websites with noteable backgroundsand ask about all services offered. Eventually, when you feel your research is sufficient and you know you will get the best value for your money, you can proudly make a efficiently wise decision.
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.
However, be careful when shopping for SEO or SEM services. So companies may just be providing services, such as submitting your website's URL to a few search engines, which you are perfectly capable to do yourself. Don't be fooled! If they do not tell you the exact services it offers in the package you have intrest in, then be sure to ask questions.
You need to find out very specifically what a company will do to help you become visible on the web. Figure out what search engines they're focusing on besides the obvious ones. Yahoo and Google are so popular they're basically freebies! While some companies will offer URL submission to search engines alongside many other options, it's not worth paying for that part unless they've got a comprehensive list of relevant search engines to submit to. Maybe they'll offer to keyword optimize your site, in which case you'll want to know what keywords they'll use, the density of keyword use, and whether or not they use meta or alt tags.
Finally, it doesn't really matter what services are offered, as long as the company uses "SEO" or "SEM". Although, SEM will be more valuable than SEO, because SEM includes SEO as well as other marketing strategies. Even though im sure not all companies are the same in packages. Just simply put, the company could just be charging you for what you could do yourself. If shopping, look for websites with noteable backgroundsand ask about all services offered. Eventually, when you feel your research is sufficient and you know you will get the best value for your money, you can proudly make a efficiently wise decision.
About the Author:
Justin Harrison is an internationally recognised Internet Marketing Consultant who provides world class SEO Services to website owners. For more information visit: http://www.seorankings.co.za
