The role of SEO and SEM is inseparable from Digital Marketing and is considered to be the lifeline of the digital marketing process. The prime objective of Search Engine Optimization or SEO in digital marketing is to make the website accessible to the target customers, on the other hand, Search Engine Marketing or SEM in digital marketing generates web traffic. SEM compliments SEO and content marketing, and gets the brand to the top of the search engine. SEO typically refers to internal, organic website optimization whereas SEM is commonly known as advertising through paid media.
The article will provide a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the role of SEO and SEM in digital marketing.
SEO in Digital Marketing
SEO imparts immense importance in digital marketing, and all the SEO tactics actually improve the user experience of the website in several ways.
1. Increases Traffic to the Website
SEO helps the website to gain a prominent place in the search engine results with the help of appropriate keyword related search and through natural algorithmic means thereby, increasing the number of visitors to the website. The more traffic in the website the more is the chance of increment in sales and new customers.
2. Increases Brand Awareness
SEO digital marketing approach focuses on increasing brand awareness by the means of generating more traffic. As the traffic increases on the website, more people learn about the products or services offered by the brand and the brand gets good exposure. The more the brand is exposed there are high the chances of the brand becoming known to a larger section, and in this way the turnover increases simultaneously. Potential customers who are satisfied with the products and services of the brand turn out to be the advertisers of the brand by exposing the brand to more people thus helping in brand outreach and expansion.
3. Enhanced User Experience By Optimizing Website Content
High-quality website content enhances the experience of the user and SEO aims in improving the content and web pages. A good quality content in the website eases out the process of understanding for the customers and new visitors so that they can gain maximum knowledge about the product and services offered to them by the brand, and also a sense of trust develops among the customers towards the brand when the customers find that the brand keeps updating the website so that the customers can get the latest information.
4. SEO Promotes Sales by Creating Inbound Leads
Whenever any visitor reaches the website by searching for a particular product or service, they actually become the potential customers. Thus, SEO in digital marketing helps in generating more leads by leading the traffic to the website which ultimately results in promoting sales.
5. SEO Increases the Page Load Speed
SEO ensures that the webpage loads faster so that the visitors can see the content faster without switching to another webpage. There are high chances that a visitor might get bored if the webpage loading time is high; therefore, SEO helps in reducing the load time so that the potential customers do not have any qualms and they can trust the site for its effective service.
6. SEO Makes the Website Mobile Friendly
Research data has found that the stress has to be laid down on the user experience of those customers that visit the website through their mobile device. If the visitors have a poor experience on a mobile device, they will be less likely to stay on the website to explore more content which is a demerit for the entire brand. Therefore, SEO plays a significant role in digital marketing by making the website mobile-friendly.
SEM in Digital Marketing
SEM is more commonly referred to as a paid form of advertising within search engines and is very important for digital marketing in the following ways.
1. Conversion Focused Approach
Making money is the main goal of marketing campaigns but other types of conversions shouldn’t be ignored. SEM is an important conversion driver for marketing campaigns such as new subscribers, newsletter signups or even contest entries are alternative types of conversions that a marketer may be trying to achieve. It is to be noted that paid ads are commonly linked to conversion-focused landing pages or sales pages that move web traffic through the sales funnel.
2. Best for Local Marketing Strategy
SEM is an important tool for driving website visits and achieving conversions on almost any budget. While the local marketing aims to connect regional businesses with the surrounding community, SEM plays an indispensable role in connecting the customers with the local store. For example, when people search online for local services, like ‘medical store near me’ or ‘food delivery’ in a particular area, it is the job of the local marketer to make those queries connect with business listings and ads in the search engines.
3. Generates Immediate Results
SEO tends to be a long term strategy whereas SEM has the potential to deliver immediate results. The minute the ads are launched, which doesn’t take longer, the potential to start getting more clicks and even sales becomes active and for this reason alone, SEM is one of the fastest ways to launch traffic strategies out there.
4. Acts as a Consistent Traffic Source
Businesses, be it small scale or giant one, always desire consistent web traffic to maintain visibility and sales, and also to plan, forecast and budget. However, it’s quite often seen that there are spikes and drops in traffic. Therefore, in order to mitigate some of the chaos, search ads can be used to generate consistent traffic for certain keywords and help the businesses to control the amount of traffic to the website.
5. Brings in More Qualified Leads
Bringing the right traffic is one of the biggest benefits of search ads. With the use of SEM, the businesses get the potential of creating a custom audience, which will prove to be more likely to see and engage with the ads than the average searcher. PPC search ads allow targeting specific demographics as well as visitors at any point in the sales funnel, which means that the traffic generated and devised from paid ads is more likely to be qualified in comparison to the traffic generated from organic SEO.
With increasing competition and customer demand, the businesses should analyze both SEO and SEM, and make the best use of them for better results.