Search engine optimization and search engine marketing can be a confusing concept to grasp. Is there even a difference between them? Both terms are often used interchangeably, which makes matters even worse. It is important to understand the difference between the two terms and that they are different. What is search engine optimization (SEO)? SEO is essentially a component of the larger category, SEM. According to Google’s Knowledge Graph, search engine optimization is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.” The SEO industry is continually changing due to the frequent changes made to Google’s algorithm. But, there is one aspect of SEO that stays constant: SEO is made up of On-Page and Off-Page activities. What components does SEO include? As stated above, SEO is comprised of two different activities. · On-Page SEO includes: -Incorporating selective keyword naturally into title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, alt text, etc. -Blog posts and page copy that is written and optimized with quality -Clean and formatting page URLS -Optimized page load speed -Google authorship incorporated -Social sharing integration within your content And much more! · Off-Page SEO includes: -Creating a high quality, natural backlink profile (aka having other high quality/authoritative sites link to your site naturally) -Social sharing signals -Social bookmarking (Stumbleupon, Reddit) -List goes on here too! What is search engine marketing (SEM)? According to Wikipedia, “Search engine marketing is a […]