Difference Between SEO and SEM?

What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

A common question is what is the difference between seo and sem. We all pretty much know what seo is, Search Engine Optimization. And we think along the lines of proper header tags, keywords in subject line, keywords and meta tags. There is on page seo and off page seo. With off page seo we work on back links (BL's) by targeting the keywords and or pages we want to optimize for in the link description. Off line seo is all about getting BL's for our pages.

So what exactly is SEM? Well it stands for Search Engine Marketing, and originally represented such techniques as PPC, and advertising. But has become to mean more on the line of the function of locating, researching, submitting, and positioning a web site within the proper search engines for maximum exposure and effectiveness. Sounds pretty close to seo, accept is more heavy in research, hence the marketing. A large part of marketing is research and development! The difference is sem is Marketing more then Optimizing.

In my opinion, my definition of SEM is a little different. While I do agree with all the definitions I just gave for sem, I also believe it involves more *what and how* we do things after we seo our pages. As in any product, our pages and website(s) requires proper marketing. Sure PPC is one element of sem, but not the holy grail. In fact it is entirely possible to do successful IM with out ever needing to do any PPC!

I can not emphasize enough the importance of the research end of IM! It is through research, gathering of information, comparisons, see what others are doing, and how, measure the level of success, that we can better plan our own paths and make better projections.

How Much Automation?

Automation is a good thing if used wisely! The problem I see is many times newbies jump in to it with the idea that it is the silver bullet! It is NOT. There is no silver bullet!

What automation can do for you is speed up some tedious tasks and help you form a blog network faster. It will not assure you that you will gain PR any faster or better, and in fact can hurt you if done to much! Yes, too much automation is not good. Blogs should grow in a natural speed, posts should make sense and not be scraped content or spinned content! While spinning content can be used with more experience, newbies should avoid it.

Duplicate content is your worse enemy! It can at the very least land you in supplementary results, or worse. That is why I do not recommend relying on search engine feeds or news feeds for content. While this can be used effectively as a supplementary source of content, you should NOT rely on it, and in fact newbies should avoid it!

The best approach is to use automation sparingly in the beginning, and concentrate your efforts on a few projects in the beginning. Make manual posts that you write and is original! As you progress you will better understand how manipulation works, and what level to apply it at.

As you get better, you can safely apply more and more automation. But understand that automation, like any thing else we do, is a skill. Applied incorrectly, or half hazardly can be the kiss of death!

What Is Black Hat SEM?

Black Hat SEM is all about marketing. Let's face it, SEO takes about 15 minutes if you know what your doing. There is only so much seo you can do, the rest is all about marketing!

But what about content?

It has been said many times by foolish seo's that content is King. This is a myth prepetuated by Google and carried over in all the seo forums. Content is NOT king, not even close, and all the search engines are proof of that. Just take a look at the top serps! Even on Google, supposidely the cleanest serps, you will find the crappiest content on the top serps!

The reason is simple. Search engines have no way of distinguishing good content from trailer park quality content. All they can do is spot duplicate content. That's it! So the age old myth that content is king is a lie!

Marketing Is King!

The truth of the matter is that marketing is King, and once again the search engines prove this. They prove regardless of the content, if marketed correctly can produce high ranks and good serps!

What is Black Hat SEM?

It is black hat marketing and can include any thing and every thing ranging from ethical to unethical techniques used to manipulate search engine ranks by less direct techniques. For example, exploiting the current weakness in web 2.0 sites like all the social bookmark sites, Netscape, and MySpace. This in turn will effect your SE rank and serps!

Give Em What They Want!

Search engines want backlinks, so that is what we give them. They asked for it, and they will get it! Backlinks are the single most important factor in SEO. HOW you accomplish it can be through marketing! Forget about foolish link farms! Those days are gone along with those ancient doorway pages and hidden text! These days you must be better at marketing!

Bending The Rules

But isn't BH SEM breaking the rules? Who's rules are we talking about? SE's rules? Other website's rules? I don't recall ever signing a contract or agreement that I would follow their rules. Did you sign any such agreement or contract? If you did, then you must follow their rules! If not, you are not obligated to follow their rules. Any one can make up rules and change them as they go along. SE's do it, socials do it, and I can do it here and now!

Let's say I decide to make some rules for conduct. If you read my blog, rule number one, you must donate by paypal to my hard work in the sum of no less then $10. Rule number two, you must provide me with one quality one way backling free of charge. Those are my rules. Should you follow them? With out any signed agreement or contract you are not obligated to follow my rules, and can even tell me to take a f@#king walk!

Bottom line is this good people. Any one can make rules or Acceptable Use Policies on the Internet. As long as you do not break any real laws, you do not have to follow them, or even feel obligated to follow them. If you disagree, please include my rules too :)

Stay tune for more BHSEM!