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.