SEO stands for search engine optimization and refers to improving a website to increase its visibility in search engines like Google and Bing. The goal is to attract more website visitors who may become customers or clients. SEM refers to search engine marketing, which includes both SEO (organic search results) and paid search advertising like PPC (pay-per-click). While SEO aims to drive unpaid traffic, PPC is the paid side that charges advertisers when users click on ads. Together, SEO and PPC are complementary channels that companies should use to maximize their search engine exposure.

1. SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, SEO means the process of
improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search
engines whenever people search for:
 Products you sell.
 Services you provide.
 Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.
The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to be found and
clicked on. Ultimately, the goal of search engine optimization is to help attract website visitors
who will become customers, clients or an audience that keeps coming back.
How is SEO different from SEM and PPC?
SEM and PPC are two other common terms you will read about a lot here on Search Engine
Land and hear about in the larger search marketing community.
Read on to learn more about both of these terms and how they’re related to SEO.
SEO vs. SEM
SEM stands for search engine marketing – or, as it is more commonly known, search marketing.
Search marketing is a type of digital marketing. It is an umbrella term for the combination of
SEO and PPC activities meant to drive traffic via organic search and paid search.
Put simply, search marketing is the process of gaining traffic and visibility from search engines
through both paid and unpaid efforts.
So how do SEO and SEM differ? Technically they aren’t different – SEO is simply one-half of
SEM:
 SEO = driving organic traffic from search engines.
 SEM = driving organic and paid traffic from search engines.
Now, this is where things get a bit confusing.
Today, many people use SEM interchangeably with PPC (which we’ll talk about in the next
section).

2. This idea seems to undercut SEO. However, SEO is marketing, just like PPC is marketing.
Here’s the best way to think about SEO and SEM:
Imagine SEM is a coin. SEO is one side of that coin. PPC is on the flip side.
SEO vs. PPC
PPC stands for pay-per-click – a type of digital marketing where advertisers are charged
whenever one of their ads gets clicked on.
Basically, advertisers bid on specific keywords or phrases that they want their ads to appear for
in the search engine results. When a user searches for one of those keywords or phrases, the
advertiser’s ad will appear among the top results.
So again, if we think of search marketing as a coin, SEO and PPC are two sides of the same coin
– SEO is the unpaid side, PPC is the paid side.
Another key point: it’s important never to think of it as “SEO vs. PPC” (i.e., which one is better)
because these are complementary channels. It’s not an either-or question – always choose both
(as long as your budget allows it).
As we mentioned before, the terms SEM and PPC are used within the industry interchangeably.
However, that isn’t the case here on Search Engine Land.
Whenever we mention “SEM,” it will be because we’re referring to both SEO (organic search)
and PPC (paid search).
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