SEO vs SEM: Which is Better for my Online Business

This is the eternal dilemma: SEO – SEM, which one should I choose for my online business?

We assume that having an online business and making it profitable requires work and investment.

One of the main problems that online shop managers encounter is that, once they have the shop ready for people to buy from it, those sales do not come.

The main cause of the lack of sales is that there are no visits to the shop and search engines are one of the best options to get them.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the work that is carried out on a website so that it appears in the first organic positions of search engines.

What is SEM?

It is the way in which the visibility of web pages on search engines is increased by paying advertising directly to the search engine itself.

Within this search engine advertising, in the case of Google, we can differentiate between two types of ads.

• Google AdWords

Among the forms of advertising on Google, AdWords is the best known and the one that has traditionally been used.

Anyone with a website can advertise on AdWords (as long as they comply with its policies and restrictions) and start getting visitors to their website.

Currently, AdWords results are displayed above and below the organic results, with a maximum of 6 results per page.

In the event that all AdWords slots are filled, ads will appear 3 above and 3 below organic.

• Google Shopping

This is a very useful form of advertising for online shops, as it consists of graphic ads in which, in addition to a product image, the price of the product can be seen.

Currently, Google Shopping ads can be found in various positions on Google.

They are usually placed to the right of the search results, but can also appear at the top of the page, even above AdWords ads.

Differences between SEO and SEM 

– Time to achieve positioning

The first big difference between SEO and SEM is the time it will take to achieve an effective positioning in Google.

By investing in SEM you will get visits to your website almost immediately.

Whether through traditional AdWords ads or graphical ads through Google Shopping, you will be on the first page of Google in a very short time.

With SEO this is impossible.

The time it will take to position a page in the first positions of Google by doing SEO will depend on the competition and the work done on it.

– Cost

In SEM you pay for each click on an advertisement, i.e. you pay for each visit to the website.

In SEO you do not pay for each click, but this does not mean that it is free.

A good SEO job has a cost, since, as I said before, positioning yourself on the first page of Google requires a lot of work and an important investment in time.

Investment in SEO tends to be more profitable if you look at the project in the long term.

Reaching the first organic positions on Google will lead to high page visits.

An investment will have been made to position the page there but it will not be necessary to pay for each click achieved.

It should be clear that, as in the case of SEM, in sectors where competition is higher, the price for positioning a page in the first positions of Google will be higher than in projects with low competition.

As with SEM, there will be companies that cannot afford in their marketing plan the necessary investment in SEO to reach the top of the search engines for their most important keywords.

– Visibility over time

As you can imagine, the visits obtained thanks to SEM campaigns stop occurring the moment you stop investing in them.

SEO tends to last over time, if you stop investing in SEO you will not suddenly lose all the visits.

– Target audience

You may think that the target audience is the same with both actions, as in both cases the results will appear on the same Google page.

However, there are slight variations on this.

There are some people who do not know the difference between SEO and SEM, so they will click on the first results they find, i.e. the ads.

The first results on Google will always be reserved for ads.

So, what do I do, SEO or SEM?

If we are considering a long-term project, investment in SEO is essential.

Visits from search engines are what make most online businesses profitable.

For this reason, almost any online shop and also companies that sell services that are not going to change significantly over time, need a clear commitment to organic positioning.

This is not to say that such businesses do not need to invest in SEM.

Investment in SEM is also essential when we are talking about projects that are relatively short-lived, in one-off campaigns (Christmas, sales, holidays, etc.) and also in products or services that are going to be offered for a short period of time.

If you have an online shop and you are considering adding new products, you can test how they will work among your potential customers through an AdWords or Shopping campaign before making a significant outlay in stock and a heavy investment in SEO.

In conclusion, if the budget allows it and we see our online project as something serious, investment in both SEO and SEM will be almost non-negotiable.

In order for this investment, both in SEO and SEM, to be profitable, we must be clear about the objectives we want to achieve, as well as carry it out within a global strategy for our project.

Tell us about your project and we will help you on what strategy to follow depending on the characteristics and needs of your business.