What does SEM mean and how does it differ from SEO and SEA?

Similar to classic marketing, there are different classifications in online marketing. In this article, we take a closer look at the design of SEM and how the terms SEM, SEO and SEA are related.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a strategy to increase visibility in search engine results. The purpose of SEM is to attract more website visitors and thereby increase brand visibility, sales and potential customers. SEM can be found in Google, Bing and Co. e.g. Google AdWords. This places and displays ads alongside organic results in search engines.

The following steps are relevant when designing SEM:

1. Before the ads are targeted, a budget must be set.
2. It is necessary to decide in which network the ad should be placed: in the Google search network or in the display network.
3. Creation of a new account.
4. Planning of the advertisement: on which day and at which time should it be shown?
5. Choice: Determination of the click price for the individual keywords or automatic calculation.
6. Set keywords and determine the click price.

If the bid is set too low, Google gets in touch and recommends a minimum value that must be paid for the corresponding keyword to get on the first page.

The relation with SEO and SEA

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the free strategy to increase visibility in search engine results. This means that the search terms should be as high as possible in the organic search. According to experience, users click on one of the first three to six results after a search engine query. The goal of SEO is to optimize sales and increase awareness of, for example, a website. This means the content on the website (images, videos, texts) is optimized to increase the value of the user. SEO is an ongoing process ("trends come, trends go"). The changes in the search results must be monitored regularly, and one or two inspirations can be taken from other websites. In addition, it is important to talk to users about what keywords they are searching for. After all, the selection of keywords is essential for finding the website in the search results.

In search engine advertising (SEA), so-called payment techniques are used such as advertisements or paid clicks, thus the website appears quite quickly on the first ranks of search engine results. Of course, the content of the website also plays a role, if the user does not receive the desired information, he leaves the website again. Therefore, in addition to the paid strategy, it is advisable to optimize the website in terms of content to build a sustainable marketing strategy and from this combination of SEO+SEA results SEM.