The Technicalities of SEO, SEM and SMO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – SEO is used to improve the visibility of a website on the internet. This is done by improving your SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page). The higher the SERP, the higher the traffic on your website!

It is common knowledge that a higher ranking website on the search engine will get the most number of hits. This is achieved through the right usage of keywords. There are 2 kinds of keywords viz branded keywords and traditional keywords. Balanced use of these 2 kinds of keywords can do wonders to your website.

The ROI on SEO is equal to the amount of effort one puts in. SEO is a smart way of beating the search engine crawler at its own game. However, one gets a maximum of 30% conversion rate when implementing SEO on a website. Also, it is interesting to note that SEO ought to be done differently for different search engines. For instance, Google’s crawler goes for the back links whilst Yahoo and Bing’s is more interested in the website’s content.

Also, Google likes old websites better. Hence, even with SEO a website will take some time to get a higher rank on Google. All search engine algorithms work differently and a website has to adopt smartly to get on top of all the search engines. SEO is one of the best ways to market your website through natural and unpaid search results.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – Direct and paid marketing of the website on the search engine is known as SEM. A website will display in the advertisement section of the search engine when implementing SEM. However, the conversion rate of SEM is a humble 10%.

SEO is very much a part of SEM. What’s the difference then? SEM is a larger blanket than SEO. SEM allows you to optimize links, increase keywords through bids, increase conversion rates via paid methods etc. against SEO. The major difference between SEM and SEO is that SEO lets you garner attention through natural means. On the other hand, SEM is a paid direct campaign.

For, a campaign will not succeed in its ventures until the website performs. This is where SEM comes in. One often sees ads along with search results on the search engine. These ads are an outcome of SEM done by numerous websites. These websites pay the search engine to display their ads with the relevant keywords. Thus, whenever relevant search terms are entered, these websites show up as ads.

SEM requires a certain level of smartness. One needs to keep a close eye on the competitors when using SEM to promote business. For, if the ad doesn’t receive any clicks, it will simply mean wastage of money. The best way out of this would be to keep a fine balance between SEM and SEO.

SMO – Social Media Optimization has nothing to do with search engines for a change. It involves social networking websites such as facebook, twitter, foursquare, Google plus, stumble upon, tumblr, pinterest, YouTube and many others. SMO is considered to be much more useful than SEO and SEM. For, it lets you reach out to your customers directly. However, SMO is not for all the industries.

For instance, a stock equity will never do well on social media. Social media is for vibrant industries such as fashion, ecommerce etc. When the visibility increases on social networking websites then SERP i.e. Search Engine Ranking Page automatically goes up.

For, an increase in visibility on social networks automatically leads to more hits on the website link. In fact, even search engines give priority to websites that are viral on social networks. Hence, it makes sense to spend money on SMO to increase visibility and traffic on your website.

Also, if one is looking for your website then he or she is bound to find it if you have implemented SMO. Moreover, services found on social networks are more trusted than services found on search engines. Hence, social networks are a good place to market your business at. What’s more, it anyway adds to your organic search results!

Even though, increasing your presence on social network will be helpful, implementing SEO, SEM and SMO altogether is the best strategy. This way you will not lose out to the competition and your money won’t be wasted. Plus, who doesn’t want maximum results!