Mix SEM and SEO!

Mix SEM and SEO!

Currently, Digital Marketing has become essential for any company. No one can deny obtaining and increasing traffic and sales thanks to searching engine optimization or Search Marketing. However, although the best thing is to have a good SEO positioning, the ideal is to combine SEO and SEM to achieve more significant benefits.

Remember that SEO and SEM are different

While SEO focuses on improving visibility organically or naturally in search results, SEM is based on advertising campaigns through paid ads on the results pages.

As you can see, the paid results are displayed under the "Sponsored" or "Ad" label. On the other hand, in organic search results, there is no label, and they are shown right after the paid ads.

The main difference between SEO and SEM is that the former attracts organic traffic and the latter attract traffic through PPC advertisements. In other words, while SEO positions a page among the first search results through good practices, SEM manages the sponsored links that appear in the ad sections.

How to combine your SEO and SEM strategies?

Both SEO and SEM are two essential strategies in online marketing, and you must be able to combine them to achieve optimal results.

When you have just set up your own business, you must start your SEO strategy as soon as possible. The longer you take to do it, the longer the results will take. Of course, while your page still does not appear well-positioned in the search results, you can combine it with an SEM strategy. Depending on your budget, the results will be higher or lower.

Once your website begins to position itself and gain visibility in the Google SERPs, you can use SEM campaigns as maintenance. Also, it is complicated for some keywords to appear in the first results, so if your ads are doing well for those keywords, you can keep them.

Complementary tools

The SEM allows promoting advertiser campaigns under a particular time or action plan with specific objectives.

On the other hand, by applying SEO, you will have the alternative of connecting with potential users who wish to link to what you sell. However, the SEM has the possibility to achieve it provisionally under a budget.

Therefore, your appearance is given by 2 parameters that work in synergy but under limiting and restrictive conditions, according to your needs and willingness to move forward in the short, long or medium term.

Finally, when trying to position yourself through SEO, you will obtain clients based on engaging content and off-page SEO strategies adjusted to the niche you dedicate yourself to. Thus, you will get long-term performance, but that adds value to visitors and future leads.

In addition, this alternative will be helpful to you. However, you must be consistent to improve traffic to boost results. However, if you want to capture customers in the short term, the SEM allows you to achieve it under conditions limited by scheduled ads.

Combined SEO and SEM are a success for your site

Imagine that, for some reason, your SEM strategy fails and your ads on Google stop appearing. The reasons can be many. On the other hand, the budget may end due to an oversight, or your clicks may have increased in price without realizing it, and it happens that the daily budget is insufficient to generate good traffic. Or, your card was blocked, and Google can no longer bill, or some ad unintentionally violated a Google policy. When you do SEO and SEM combined, even if bad luck hits your paid advertising, as described above, your SEO still works, and your organic traffic keeps coming. If your finances are not the same, it is possible that you can't pay as usual. When this happens, if you didn't do SEO and SEM together, your traffic goes to zero.

Can I earn by combining SEO and SEM?

The differences between SEO and SEM are more than evident, but they are not incompatible. And there are many advantages of combining your SEO and SEM strategy.

SEO and SEM are two very different online marketing strategies but using them together will help you optimize your results to the maximum.

It is important to remember that both SEO and SEM are not substitutes, and neither of these two strategies is expendable, much less SEO. SEM will help you achieve good results in the short term. Still, thinking about the medium or long term, SEO is the only strategy to help you survive online.

If you are starting with your website and want to know a little more about SEO or SEM, some articles can be of great help.

The power of a combined strategy

SEO should be considered an essential strategy for the success of any web project, to the extent that it generates quality customer-oriented content.

However, SEM is essential to address short-term strategies, such as seasonal campaigns, offers, stock rotation, visibility, and traffic acquisition.

There are very competitive markets from the SEO point of view, where a significant investment and time are required to achieve results. SEM provides a faster and cheaper means of achieving brand visibility in these cases.

Users use search engines to make merely informative, commercial, or transactional queries. It is essential to detect search intent to address less "commercial" questions with a long-term SEO strategy and capture queries that will generate highly qualified or predisposed to "buy" traffic with SEM campaigns.

Tips for mixing SEM and SEO

1. Use SEO principles to sectorize your SEM ads

Many people think that SEM is about paying for advertising, and that's it. But as with SEO, for it to be an efficient strategy, there must be research and analysis behind it, especially when it comes to search terms.

In SEM, the most important keywords are not necessarily those that bring the most traffic but those with the highest conversion rate. In other words, it is better for us that fifty visitors enter and convert twenty than having two hundred visitors enter and only ten convert.

This search for high-converting key terms is done following the search intent principles of SEO. Of course, the idea is to find keywords that at the same time have a good search volume and, preferably, are not very competitive.

2. Use SEM as a visitor booster in the initial stage

As you surely know, SEO has a slow start. It costs to start giving results. For this reason, you can take advantage of SEM as a means to obtain visits while your SEO strategy gains momentum.

Of course, be careful not to abuse it with keywords with little competition since you will unnecessarily waste your budget.

Generally, this is recommended during the initial stage of the project since the SEO will give you a constant flow of web traffic without having to pay for them later. At least, of course, it is a keyword with robust competition.

3. Choose keywords

Initially carried out Keyword Research, then used Google Keyword Planner to select the indicated words according to the competition. It is ideal to choose those that are less competitive to favor positioning.

Keep in mind that the higher the search volume, the longer it will take to reach the niche of your business with that Keyword. Therefore, you can consider common or locally used terms to favor your appearance.

By putting both strategies into operation, you will be able to direct the ads promptly and improve the appearance of your website before the indicated audience.

On the other hand, by including SEO on a page when preparing the contents, you will be able to optimize them according to the parameters indicated to position them in Google. It will be a plus in favor of connecting with users.

Based on the keyword analysis, we can define the type of content for our SEO strategy and the type of SEM campaigns that will have the best performance and thus achieve our objectives. Remember that this is not about including keywords for no reason throughout your site.

The user's search intention and the results they expect to obtain when "Googling" is something that you should not forget in order to generate valuable content, content that invites your visitors to stay longer knowing your website and your brand.

If you do not have the possibility of launching both strategies simultaneously, starting with paid advertising campaigns (since your website is well optimized for SEO) will be a good starting point for attracting visits and clicks to your website. Faster, so you will achieve positive results in a much shorter period.

At Ingenuity and Solutions, we will help you with your company's digital presence. We can also advise you on the best strategies for positioning your brand through understanding tools such as SEO. If you need help with digital marketing, contact us. If you are interested in more content, do not forget to visit our blog.