If website traffic is important to your organization, the best strategies for attracting visitors to a new website include:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

• Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Many SMBs adopt social media marketing almost by default, then question if SEO or SEM marketing is right for their business. But it doesn’t have to be SEO versus SEM—targeting both paid traffic and organic traffic can help your ideal customers discover your business.

Here we consider how SEO and SEM can work together to ensure maximum visibility and traffic by leveraging the strengths of both strategies for a total search approach.

Note that search engine marketing (SEM) traditionally included both paid and organic strategies, but today the term has become synonymous with search engine pay-per-click ads (PPC). Social media channels also offer PPC advertising, broadening your potential reach even more.

SEO vs SEM: SEO is the End Goal

Many small businesses find us after they publish a Squarespace site and stop to consider “now how do we get traffic?” We provide SMBs with professional SEO consulting to help them kickstart or grow organic search.

While free qualified traffic is the ideal end goal for most small businesses, many businesses launch into a competitive niche where SEO will take time to develop, and this is where SEM comes in to play. While your team develops content for SEO purposes over the long term, your business can use SEM marketing to place your brand at the top of search right now.

Understanding SEM

Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a paid digital marketing strategy used to increase a website’s visibility in search engine results pages. SEM is a way to buy visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically through SEO. When executed properly, SEM can quickly drive quality traffic to your website, yielding high conversion rates and enhancing brand awareness.

Unlike SEO which can take months to initially show results, SEM campaigns can yield almost immediate visibility in search. PPC shines especially in hyper-competitive sectors where attaining top organic search positions might seem impossible. For broad searches such as “Paris hotels,” PPC can enable smaller players to compete with giants like Expedia or TripAdvisor.

The search engine marketing space, specifically platforms like Google Ads, Bing Ads, and others, is designed to be user-friendly, enabling businesses of all sizes to run advertising campaigns.

Key Components of SEM and SEO Campaigns

If you are taking a do-it-yourself approach to your first SEM campaign, many SEO best practices also apply:

• High-converting website: You need a great website that will convert the traffic that you drive via PPC ads or content marketing.

• Keyword research: Understand which keywords your target audience uses when searching for products or services similar to yours. To find keywords you can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner.

• Compelling creation: Create compelling content and ads with clear calls-to-action (CTAs). Ensure ad landing pages are relevant, user-friendly, and optimized for conversions. A mismatched landing page experience is the biggest mistake we see. Note, you’ll likely want to prevent PPC landing pages from being indexed.

• Targeting: Target the right audience by considering demographics, location, device type, and more.

• Campaign analysis: Monitor and analyze your campaigns. Tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable insights into user behavior, bounce rates, and conversion rates.

• Test and refine: A/B test to see what perform best. Experiment with different CTAs, headlines, or even landing page designs. Use the insights gained to refine your strategy. To make it easy to interpret your results, test only one thing at a time, and continue to optimize your campaigns based on what you learn.

Finding the Right Help

One of the strengths of SEM/PPC platforms is that they are designed to be straightforward. Anyone can set up an account, design an ad, choose keywords, set a budget, and launch a campaign—meaning many SMBs can manage their own ads. But if your campaigns’ scale and complexity outstrip your in-house team’s ability to manage them effectively, or you aren’t achieving your desired ROI or other key performance indicators (KPIs), you might consider an agency vs in-house approach.

A professional ad manager or agency can help identify and manage issues, but just like with SEO, you must fully vet providers. The rapid proliferation of agencies and freelancers claiming expertise in PPC without adequate qualifications is a real issue—at the very least, look for recognized certifications. And look for a smart partner that understands the importance of holistic strategy and why search experience optimization, or SXO, is just as important for your brand.

Engaging with an ad management professional or agency can be expensive. Your business should weigh the expected outcomes, in terms of increased sales, leads, brand awareness, etc., against the costs involved. This analysis will provide clarity on whether seeking external help is beneficial.

SEO and SEM Marketing Together

Getting your website seen on Google is key because many searchers look at the first page and if they don’t find what they’re looking for, they enter a new query. However, it doesn’t have to be SEM vs SEO—the two strategies can be used together to expand your total search coverage and get your content seen in a competitive market.

Remember, whether you use SEO or SEM marketing, or both, you need to offer your visitors high-quality, helpful content that positions your business as a trusted resource. It’s not just about traffic, but the quality of your traffic and conversions—tailor your campaigns, stay updated, and remain agile.

With the right strategies, your business can succeed with digital marketing.

Exploring SEO and SEM?