It’s easy to get confused about SEO vs SEM. Most professionals who work in search marketing know roughly what both terms mean, but how many of them can articulate how the two diverge?

Let’s explore the ways in which these similar yet very different disciplines interact and ultimately complement each other in any marketing plan.

What is SEM, really?


But aren’t SEO and paid search basically the same?

The short answer is no. In the world of digital marketing, SEO and paid search are more like cousins than siblings.

A solid SEO strategy and a strong paid search strategy should work together seamlessly to cover each other’s weaknesses. But they don’t affect each other directly because they focus on different factors influencing search engine performance.



Ideally, a site should have both a well-thought-out SEO strategy and a planned paid search strategy to cover the most search real estate.

So how are they different?


Fishing is a handy analogy here. Paid search is like heading out with your fishing rod and dropping bait in the specific spots where you’ve heard there are fish. SEO, on the other hand, is like dropping a net in the river in the general areas where you’ve heard the fish are jumping. Both techniques catch fish, but not in the same way.


Why does any of this matter?



If you’re the type of person who would rather not know how the sausage gets made, and all you want is a lone specialist to produce results, that’s fair. At least you’ll understand from the get-go how each of these search methods can help produce the results you want.