A common question we get is “what’s the difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM)”? The terms are often used interchangeably, so it can be confusing! Here's an infographic of the terms to make it easier to visualize
SEO and SEM Defined
SEO is the first thing you do and the process occurs entirely on your own website. In contrast, SEM is the last stage and this happens entirely on other websites.
SEO begins with selecting which keywords you want to show up in search results on search engines like Google. Quality content is developed and published on your website with these keywords in the various parts of your page
Title of your page
URL
Meta-tags
Headings
Copy/content
SEM occurs after publishing the SEO content and is on 3rd party websites. Whether you pay for links or create your own, the content can be in the form of:
Guest blogs
Articles
Comments
Press releases
Twitter Tweets
Directory listings
Google +1′s
Google Adwords
Other search engine text ads
