SEO and SEM: One and the same thing?

I’m sure you all are aware of SEO and SEM and know what they do. There is a debate about the actual purpose of both and whether they are same or are two different methods meant for the same thing. It is believed that both are a part of internet marketing and are meant to increase site visibility and traffic. It is true to some extent. But, actually there is a big difference between the two. Not that one is free and other is paid, that is very obvious and not needed to be pointed out. Here is the real picture of the two.

Internet marketing consists of SEO, SEM and SMO. This was initially. Now, SEM is the sole technique left. SEO is a part of SEM now which does the same thing, but for free listings. And SMO is now a part of SEO. So, the whole picture is:

SEM

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SEO

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SMO

The whole process of SEM is to increase visitors and traffic for a website. It works towards this target through paid listings, i.e. the sponsored listings on Google, Yahoo and Bing come through SEM. There are no free methods involved here. SEM includes PPC and CPC and it’s about running and managing a campaign for which one needs to pay.

SEO, on the other hand works toward the same target of increasing visitors and traffic, but with all the free methods. No payment is required to be made for any method. The site visibility is increased by building free links, directory submissions, article submissions, blog commenting, bookmarking, forum postings, etc. Now, it also includes social media techniques like, Facebook and Twitter profile creation and optimization, business profile management, etc. All these methods are free and result in site appearing in the first page of search engine. This is targeted towards getting listings in normal listings.

SEO not only increases visitors, but also the keyword ranking and site Page Rank. SEM, on the other hand, focuses more on traffics. That is why, 70 percent of traffic is brought by SEM and SEO contributes only 30 percent. So, actually what the reality is that SEM is the main technique – a bigger platform which includes SEO.

How to Choose a Good Title for a Web Page?

Many times people under-estimate the importance of the title of a web page. They just concentrate on the content of the site and think that they can put any title that they like. This is where they are wrong. Title is very much important as search engines first see the title and then the content. A title not relevant to the content and not catchy will have little value. So, how to choose a good title? Here are some tips:

1. Clear: Try to be more clear. Title is just like a headline for a news story. By seeing the title, one must get the clear picture about the whole web page.

2. Catchy: A title must be catchy and tempting. Make sure it is attractive. A catchy title ensures that a searcher is tempted to visit the site.

3. Don't focus on the company name: Most people just use the company name in the title thinking that they can profit from this. This is a misconception. Using the company name is wrong practice. You can use it in the URL. Or if you want to use it in the title, put it at the end, if and only if its in the URL. Eg.

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4. Different title for different pages: Some people use the same title for all the pages. This another wrong practice. Each page is different from the other as contents differ. Title is decided on the basis of the content. So, keeping same title for all the pages may bring the major page high in the ranking, but all other pages have to suffer.

5. Long tail keywords: Use mostly long tail keywords. This way you can target more keywords at at same time. If you see, long tail keywords are the real reason behind the success of a lot of web pages.

So, give a deep though before choosing the title. Don't just go by what is the normal practice these days. Do what is best and right. Do a proper keyword analysis and choose the title using the keywords. And my friends, that is the real SEO.