For most startup owners, Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are two of the most popular online marketing strategies to consider. These marketing tactics are key to getting your website of the ground and help your business get exposed to potentially new customers, both locally and internationally. The question is, which one is best for startups? Here we’ll be discussing the pros and cons of both strategies and help you decide which tactic you should consider investing the time and effort in.

Using SEO for Startups

What is SEO? 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an online marketing tool that is widely used by many entrepreneurs. Basically, SEO is the process of acquiring organic traffic from major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The concept of SEO is pretty straightforward and that is to rank your business page at the top of the search engine results. This helps drive traffic from your website without you having to pay for it.

How will SEO benefit my website?

Successful SEO campaigns are beneficial if you want to sustain long-term success for your website. It takes a lot of time, patience, and investment to fully reap the rewards of proper search engine optimization, but if you’re willing to grind it out, then your business will be set for future success. The world of SEO is vast and complex, but most people can understand the basics very quickly.

Depending on your commitment and willingness to learn, you may decide to hire an expert SEO firm to do all the work for you. It takes time before your website reaches the top of search engine results. Most of your competitors are always investing their efforts to reach the top ranks of search engines. That’s why it’s a good investment to acquire the services of an SEO firm so you can save time and minimize errors as much as possible.

Implementing the correct usage of SEO will help propel your newly launched website and improve your visibility on the web. Google is continually updating its SEO measures to filter good quality websites to rank at the top of search results. This means that if your website’s SEO isn’t up-to-date, then your rankings might fall off and your business page will get buried at the bottom of the results.

As a startup owner, SEO is vital to the long-term success of your business. The quality of your content, the correct usage of keywords/keyphrases, and the use of other SEO tactics will help improve your website’s visibility in the online world and acquire free traffic without all the heavy, paid advertising.

Pros of SEO: 

• Improves website visibility
• Drives traffic to your website organically
• Higher brand credibility (since most people trust Google’s search results)
• Long-term success once your website reaches the top of the rankings

Cons of SEO: 

• It takes a while before you reap the rewards of SEO
• Can get a bit complicated

Using SEM for Startups 

What is SEM? 

Search engine marketing (also known as Pay-per-click) advertising, is another online marketing tool that entrepreneurs use to promote their business and acquire traffic via paid advertisements. SEM is a crucial marketing for startup owners to reach traffic to their website quickly and help gain traction for their business. Essentially, SEM is paid results on search engines. Just like with SEO, SEM is broad and it requires a learning curve before you reap its rewards. But if you want immediate traffic coming your way, SEM is the way to go.

How will SEM benefit my website?

Search engine marketing benefits small startups in many ways. First off, it provides your business with instant brand awareness through search engines which is great for delivering fast traffic in a small amount of time. SEO requires a lot of patience before your website ranks at the top of search engine results. Depending on your SEO strategies and tactics, it might even take a year.

SEM solves all of that by positioning you at the top or bottom of page one of the search results. This provides your business with immediate recognition. Once you’re able to convert this newfound web visibility into new customers, you will generate plenty of revenue. As a startup owner, proper implementation of SEM can go a long way in increasing your website’s visibility and effectively target your potential customers to your website.

The good thing about search engine marketing is that it’s very affordable compared to traditional advertising. You have full control over your ads because you can specifically target your intended audience to increase your conversion rate. If an ad isn’t performing well, you can pull it out immediately. Using digital marketing analytics will help you learn more about your customers and find out what ads work and what doesn’t. It’s really that simple.

SEM is a very scalable marketing tool that grows with your business, making it the perfect marketing strategy for entrepreneurs who are just starting out. There is a possibility for you to overspend if you don’t set the correct goals and budget so make sure to plan it out carefully.

Pros of SEM: 

• Increases brand awareness immediately
• Drives traffic to your website very quickly
• Full control over your ads
• Ability to advertise to an audience that’s interested in your business

Cons of SEM: 

• Adblock can hide your advertisements which decreases visibility and revenue
• SEM requires continuous investment in order to be successful

Conclusion 

Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are both effective online marketing tools that are proven to be beneficial for many startup owners. It’s not about choosing which one to use, it’s about knowing how to properly use them together to help grow your business. SEO and SEM work in tandem together provided that you’re well aware of how both of them work.

Take advantage of these online marketing strategies to increase your website visibility and generate revenue through organic traffic and paid search results.