Why small businesses need digital marketing is to build relationships with customers, stay ahead of the competition and track performance. Two digital marketing strategies helping companies achieve this are search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). 

The reason is that search engines are where most online activities start - 86 percent, to be exact. Whether they are searching on Google directly or using Siri to do searches, you should try to make your website as search engine friendly as possible. 

Our Denver SEO specialist team is here to break down what SEO and SEM are and when you should be using them in your digital marketing strategies.

What is search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website for search engine results. This is an important part of any digital marketing strategy because the most prominent way people find businesses is through search. 

SEO uses two different strategies on-page and off-page. On-page SEO is optimizing a website’s content for search, while off-page SEO focuses on off-page things like link building. 

What is search engine marketing?

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the practice of creating advertisements on search engine result pages (SERPs). How it works is that advertisers will bid on a keyword that their target audience might be using to find their products and services. For every click that an ad receives, advisers must pay a fee. 

The difference between SEO and SEM

The main difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) is the kind of website traffic they provide. SEO brings in organic traffic, which is any kind of traffic that comes from search engines. On the other hand, SEM brings in paid traffic, which is traffic that comes from advertisements. 

When should you use SEO and SEM?

Now that you know what SEO and SEM mean, it is time to learn when companies should be using them. One is not better than the other, but when used together effectively, they can help companies reach their goals.

Our Denver SEO specialist recommends using SEO as a long-term strategy. It takes time for a web page to rank on search engines, but once it starts ranking, the results are worth the time. A Denver SEO Company’s top six reasons why SEO is important is its cost-effectiveness. The reason why it takes longer to rank on certain keywords is due to the changing marketing, competitors and search engine updates. 

SEM does see quicker results, however those results are paid for and only temporary. It can be used throughout a certain period to gain traffic, raise brand awareness or help with product/service launches. 

Let a Denver SEO specialist handle your company's SEO and SEM!

It does not matter if you need extra help with your company's SEO or SEM; Denver Media Group can help you. Our team has a clear understanding of which industries are competitive and how to navigate a way to optimize pay per click costs while also generating revenue. Contact us to learn more about our services.