SEO vs. SEM who’s your Daddy?

Today we will discuss the difference between 2 categories of website searches. In order to get website visitors keep in mind they will fall into 2 major categories- SEO Search engine optimization also known as organic search and search engine marketing – SEM also known as paid search.

Since both techniques result in website traffic, the methods and goals are radically different, especially when considering where you site visitor came from and what they see when they arrive- the landing page. Now I know a lot of you may be thinking been there done that, what you didn’t know is SEO pages tend to be website home pages and very general in nature. On the other hand SEM landing pages are very specific and offer a greater level of control. But both are essential for most desirable conversions.

When designing and putting a site together for a client the landing page should have a specific goal in mind. The goal therefore is to push more specific quality traffic to the website through the search engine. However when you are looking for a targeted landing page, unlike the generic home page, it should be designed and relevant to what a user has just seen on the SERP (search engine results page) making good on the listing offer.

THE SEO Experience

Think about it in simpler terms lets say you go shopping at a department store, with a specific item in mind to buy- Lets say a bra (since I am female we always need new ones) You enter through the front door and notice every little thing on your way to the lingerie department. The sales, decorations, toys, maybe even a coffee shop on the way will catch your attention. If you are like me distractions will become strong enough to make you go blank and completely forget what you came in for in the first place, or you could ignore them until you reach your final destination in the lingerie department.

The landing page or “home” associated with organic listings isn’t going to be that different. The SEO landing pages have to cater to the browsing humans and search engines bots that are not set up to look for a particular item. Due to this your marketing focus is indirect at best.

On the other hand (this is where it become a 2 edged sword) the organic listing you will see is spewed out by algorithms (a procedure for solving a mathematical problem like finding the greatest common divisor in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation) are not going to be controlled by the retailers so easily. Most search engines will look at the home page first and rank it as the most important page based on the relevancy of the queries. This should encourage you to code your pages on broader terms, in order to gain a wider readership. Basically organic landing pages are not driven by rates of conversion. The main goal here would be to get a higher ranking and mucho traffic. This is great if you just want traffic with no real customer quality. Come back tomorrow and I shall give you more information… Like the SEM of E-commerce experience.