Difference Between SEO and SEM?
How to get onto the first page of Google.
| There are two methods that will enable you to dominate the first page of major search engines, SEO and SEM.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will enable you to grow organically (naturally) and through consistent and methodical application of SEO Services you will be listed on the first page (industry dependent). The benefit of Organic Search Engine Ranking is the fact that you will be listed for Free, and potentially receiving thousands if not millions of visitors to your website at no cost to you. This is always the longer term strategy for major success. Search Engine Optimization is long term growth and goal setting and eventually giving you a massive return. |
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Search Engine Marketing will enable you to dominate the search engines immediately, but at a high cost. The most effective way is PPC (Pay Per Click) e.g. through the Google Adwords program which enables you to bid on keywords you would like to be listed for. Depending on the competitiveness of the keyword you would need to match a similar bid as others in order to get the first page and position ranking for your website. See it as a billboard on a freeway, only thing is, whoever bids appropriately will get the exposure. This is a ver expensive way to market your website, but for many it is essential in order to drive visitors to their website.
Usually a combined approach is acceptable where a newly launched website drives traffic through PPC while SEO is being built up for the long term.
To illustrate by example, I have used a competitive keyword such as “Weight Loss”. There are currently around 450,000 Searches per month on Google for that key term. In order to launch a website on Weight Loss and have any hope to be ranked on the first page of Google in order to get your share of 450,000 first page queries, two things need to happen; you either pursue SEO, SEM or both. It will take you a while to get to an Organic SEO first page ranking in Google, so the earlier one starts with Search Engine Optimization for your website, the better.
What does one do while SEO Services are being implemented on your website, and you want immediate traffic and targeted visitors to your website? You use a service like Google Adwords to bid on the key term “Weight Loss” and get Advertisement listed on the first page of Google.
The average bid for the key phrase “Weight Loss” is $2.65 per click (Cost Per Click). That means that each time a searcher clicks on your advertisement in the sponsored PPC list, you pay $2.65 to Google. This is before anything else, before they buy or read anything on your site. Google has provided the doorway to your site from the Google front page for that cost. What you do with the visitor after that is entirely up to you.
Seeing that there are 450,000 search queries for “Weight Loss” every month, trying to capture that with PPC will be devastating, you would need to have a budget of 450,000 x $2.65 to potentially take each click from those search queries. That would be a whopping $1,192,500 PPC budget monthly to get the potential visitors. No a wise move. Maybe a budget of $2,650 monthly would be more acceptable, aiming for 1000 clicks and visitors to your site. Doing this on an ongoing basis would be a fixed cost, but also limited growth and potential.
Now to SEO, do you see the potential? If you were ranked on the first page of Google for “Weight Loss” and let’s say, you shared the traffic with other sites at a conservative 10% that would mean you could potentially get 45,000 visitors to your site for Free. But first, you need to speak with an SEO Consultant to pave the way for Organic Search Engine Optimization success. To closely match the PPC budget, you may want to spend $2,500 per month on your SEO goals and strategy.
The following graphs will explain the return on your investment in SEO versus SEM.
The above scenario illustrates a direct cost per click for SEO versus SEM costs and the long term benefit of SEO. SEO is not PPC and not direct marketing in any way. What it is is an investment in your website organic growth and potential dominance in your market. PPC can never dominate a market niche, SEO can. We have the cost per click on the left and the number of months 1-12 at the bottom. Let’s look at this chart in finer details.
By spending $2,650 on PPC you have a monthly cost that is fixed and continual. By spending $2,500 on SEO it may be more expensive to drive traffic at the start due to results coming in slowly but compounding as the effort continues. Any SEO Consultant will never quantify SEO with cost per click, but hey, we need to illustrate the SEO advantage over PPC. We can see a cost similarity at months 5-6 where the cost per click would potentially match that of PPC.
As we can see from the graph above, the CPC (Cost Per Click) compared between SEO and PPC start shifting dramatically between month 5-6 to become increasingly cost effective. At his point if you were doing both on your website, you could effectively abandon PPC for the specific keywords or include other keywords you are not ranking for yet. By month 8 you cost per click has dived below $0.50 and by month 12 your cost per click is around $0.03. This comparison is only for the first 12 months; imagine the ongoing savings on unnecessary PPC costs up to year 3 and more?
Okay, so now to reveal the absolute shocker. Although our CPC as decreased, our PPC target was for only 1000 visitors per month. What would SEO deliver on visitors with a potential keyword such as “Weight Loss”, receiving 450,000 searches on Google alone? Okay, here we go.
Again, our breakeven point is around month 5-6 with equal amounts of traffic being generated from both PPC and SEO, but after this it is a complete runaway. By month 7 we are more than doubling our traffic at 2,880 visitors and by month 12 we have achieved traffic rate of 92,160 visitors monthly to our Weight Loss website.
The power of SEO is huge, and luckily for you, most website owners and competitors don’t realize this yet. It is the holy grail of successful online businesses. You have the key in utilizing Search Engine Optimization Services to benefit your website and business growth online.
So in effect the question can be: “If I had $2,500/month to spend on my website for the next 6 months, should I go SEO or SEM?”. I think the answer is clear. Are you a patient person? Impatience has led to the downfall of many potential moneymakers and banned to the internet graveyard.
The claims made in this presentation are hypothetical and based on real case examples and solid SEO theory and practice. Although these results can be achieved in your niche market, this example serves to illustrate the power of SEO.
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