Running an online business without SEO or SEM is like a car without petrol or a road without navigation.
The established businesses, as well as start-ups, are going online to gain better brand visibility and reach more customers. Without a strong presence in today's
competitive digital landscape, your business can miss many opportunities.
Certainly, an online search is one of the best tools we have today to find something and be found. For businesses, it is crucial to determine how to gain online exposure.
Whether you are running an online business globally or locally, chances are people are actively
looking for your services. So, you have to have a strategy to stand out in the digital world.
Most entrepreneurs are aware that search engines can drive high traffic to their website. Well, not only traffic but leads also. Moreover, there are other ways also to amplify business potential and gain online exposure. You can either go for organic marketing (SEO) or paid search engine marketing (SEM).
SEO vs. SEM- which one is better for your business? Let’s know here.
What is Organic Marketing (SEO) & Paid Marketing (SEM)?
Organic marketing is nothing but SEO or
Search Engine Optimization. It is a practice to increase quality traffic to your website or improve the ranking of your keywords in organic searches. The process includes link building and on-page optimization activities.
While, on the other hand, SEM or Search Engine Marketing is the practice of acquiring traffic and lead generation through paid advertisement. It is one of the best ways to enhance the conversion of your business in a highly competitive marketplace.
Both of these types of marketing will help you to promote your business, products, and services to a wide audience.
Why & When to Choose SEO?
In today’s ambitious & competitive market, SEO is more important than ever. It is the cheapest alternative one can use to increase traffic to their website.
We all know that search engines serve millions of users daily who are looking for solutions to their problems. And it is probably the best way to build the online presence of your website.
- Target SEO with Less Competitive & Long-Tail Keywords
Including high competitive keywords in your SEO or organic marketing plan will take you nowhere, but, less competitive keywords followed by an insightful SEO strategy is more likely to be effective. With less or medium competitive keywords, it is easier to achieve a good ranking.
But, it is possible only if you are targeting the less competitive keywords. If you are targeting long tail keywords, then you can rank well even without any specific SEO activities.
In any of the marketing plans, the budget is a big concern. SEO is one of the cost-effective approaches which can give you good rankings and organic traffic.
If you are a novice in this field or have a limited budget, then it is better to employ SEO strategies without a second thought.
Well, if your budget is too limited, then you might be able to buy some cheap PPC clicks. But we recommend that if you have budget issues, then invest your time in SEO and when your budget allows, move to PPC.
Why & When to Choose SEM?
SEO is a powerful concept, but there may be one case when SEO alone doesn’t work. The enterprises are looking for some more efficient ways to build a position in their niche market. They are even ready to pay. In that case, a business will
switch to paid search engine marketing or SEM.
- For High Competition Keywords
Not always but often high competition keywords can be too hard to rank organically. If you would rather invest money than time, PPC is a better option for you than SEO.
If you start with Adwords and $3-4 dollar clicks, the costs will be huge. But, if you try competitive keywords on some of the Adwords alternatives first, you will most likely achieve better results for a fraction of the money you would spend on Adwords.
The formula is simple: if you pay more, you will get more. It is no secret that organic marketing will take a lot of time to get the desired results. While, on the other hand, SEM (PPC) will give you some instant results. So, if you don’t have budget issues and you want some quick results, then SEM is for you.
Besides the search engine ranking, sustainability branding, brand awareness, and the market reputation of the website can be achieved both by SEO and SEM.
The Bottomline
So, we can say that choosing SEO or SEM depends on multiple factors, like the nature of your business, the type of organization like service-based or e-commerce or any other operations, market niche and budget.
Both techniques are tried and tested. They will help you achieve the positive results for your business, so think thoroughly and choose wisely.
