Sunday, July 8, 2007

Search Engines - SEM vs SEO

The phrases search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are often misunderstood in the new home marketing industry. SEM is a form of marketing that includes SEO, paid placement (PPC) and paid inclusion.

SEO is related to your website and how it is viewed by the search engines. Optimizing a website to get more quality traffic is the goal of search engine optimization.

SEM incorporates SEO as well as the pay per click model of advertising; bidding on keywords in the sponsor areas of the search engine websites. It may also include paying for links on high traffic websites or paying for guaranteed consideration. None of the major search engines will guarantee a rank in the organic search. They may not even consider your website for their ranking. Most of the sites offer a payment plan to at least guarantee a review of your website for inclusion.