Posts Tagged Search Engine Optimisation
The Difference Between SEM and SEO
Posted by Chris in Search Engine Optimisation on March 16th, 2009
I have had many ask me what the difference between Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is, so I thought I might throw a couple of definitions out there.
I am going to start with SEO, as it is a part of SEM. SEO is the act of optimising the HTML and other content of your website for relevant, targeted key phrases in order to attain higher natural listings than competing websites. SEO provides a cheaper long term solution for increased qualified traffic and generates customer inquiries that ultimately convert to sales.
Now SEM is broader than SEO. It includes SEO and other areas to improve a sites visibility in search engine results pages, like paid listings and paid inclusions.
You can think of SEM as more expensive and quite possibly more targeted, while SEO is free (not counting your time of course) and its purpose is to obtain better free search listings.
Personally, I would start with SEO and then move onto SEM.
What is SEO?
Posted by Chris in Search Engine Optimisation on March 16th, 2009
Well I guess I should start at the beginning, for those of you who are starting out and want to learn exactly what SEO really is. To begin with, SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimisation, and what better place to obtain the perfect meaning for SEO other than Wikipedia 
: Search engine optimisation is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings.
So the main aim in SEO is to get your website to the top or as high as possible to the top of search engine listings. There are ethical and unethical methods of achieving this, but I believe in only using ethical ways and will focus on these only. Many search engines will penalise domains for “cheating”.
I will try my hardest to blog on SEO or tips on the topic, whether it be on site architecture, page content, or finding the suitable directories. My plan is to share as much as I can with you and who knows, maybe I can learn from you too!
Footnote: In some countries, for example the United States, the spelling is Search Engine Optimization. Google’s definition of SEO is an abbreviation for “search engine optimizer”.
