{"id":2373,"date":"2013-10-12T10:36:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-12T14:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/?p=2373"},"modified":"2025-07-01T10:57:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T15:57:00","slug":"how-sem-seo-choose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html","title":{"rendered":"How SEM &amp; SEO choose your internet marketing company"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that search engine marketing and search engine optimization determine your choice of internet marketing companies?<\/p>\n<p>Most Houston business owners expect the internet to increase sales. They erroneously assume a website will skyrocket their bottom line overnight. When the phone doesn\u2019t start ringing or online sales go up, they find an internet marketing company to help.<\/p>\n<p>Business owners usually start their hunt for help online using terms such as search engine marketing (SEM), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/articles\/houston-search-engine-marketing-and-advertising-company.html\">search engine optimization (SEO)<\/a>, or internet marketing. These terms are used interchangeably by those outside the industry.<\/p>\n<p>The search engine results used your keywords deliver a list of results. If you tried different related keywords, many of the same companies appeared on the first page of your results, but in a different place.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the difference between SEM and SEO.<\/p>\n<h2>SEM, SEO, &amp; the broad and narrow<\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s already a whole lot on the internet about SEM and SEO.&nbsp; Suffice it to say that the difference is only as great as the definitions of broad and narrow.<\/p>\n<p>SEM is full blown internet advertising strategies and tactics. It includes SEO, pay per click (PPC), guest article writing, social media, and just about anything else you can think of to get your name out there in cyber land. SEM is the internet version of a traditional marketing campaign on steroids.<\/p>\n<p>SEO is narrower in scope than SEM. It is targeted methods to get a top search engine ranking when a user types a keyword into the browser. SEO is about website organization (layout) and content development.<\/p>\n<h2>How SEM and SEO affect your decision<\/h2>\n<p>If you really want to know how SEM and SEO chose the internet marketing companies that you wanted to know more about, ask yourself<\/p>\n<p>What did I want to accomplish?<\/p>\n<p>You might think that\u2019s a dumb question (duh, I needed an internet marketing firm in my area), but it\u2019s not. Really think about it.<\/p>\n<p>What really prompted you click on a hand full of companies?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Were the companies listed in the first page results?<\/li>\n<li>Was the description informative and intriguing?<\/li>\n<li>Did you click on an advertisement in the sidebar or the top of the page?<\/li>\n<li>Did you follow a link from another website?<\/li>\n<li>Did you go on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and ask?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s search engine marketing.<\/p>\n<p>Next think about what you did when you visited the websites.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Did you keywords return the results you needed?<\/li>\n<li>Were you impressed with the site\u2019s layout?<\/li>\n<li>Was the landing page informative?<\/li>\n<li>Was the site navigation easy and intuitive?<\/li>\n<li>Did you enjoy articles and blogs?<\/li>\n<li>Was finding contact information easy?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is search engine optimization.<\/p>\n<p>Answering these questions demonstrate how SEM and SEO affect your decision to shortlist internet marketing companies to contact. This process works in the same fashion, regardless of user search topic.<\/p>\n<p>The ultimate goal of internet marketing is to sell, or at least entice someone to make contact. The really knowledgeable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/\">internet marketing companies in Houston<\/a> are experienced in both SEM and SEO strategies and use them in conjunction to increase their clients\u2019 traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that search engine marketing and search engine optimization determine your choice of internet marketing companies? Most Houston business owners expect the internet to increase sales. They erroneously assume a website will skyrocket their bottom line overnight. When the phone doesn\u2019t start ringing or online sales go up, they find an internet marketing company to help. Business owners usually start their hunt for help online using terms such as search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), or internet marketing. These terms are used interchangeably by those outside the industry. The search engine results used your keywords deliver a list of results. If you tried different related keywords, many of the same companies appeared on the first page of your results, but in a different place. That\u2019s the difference between SEM and SEO. SEM, SEO, &amp; the broad and narrow There\u2019s already a whole lot on the internet about SEM and SEO.&nbsp; Suffice it to say that the difference is only as great as the definitions of broad and narrow. SEM is full blown internet advertising strategies and tactics. It includes SEO, pay per click (PPC), guest article writing, social media, and just about anything else you can<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[492],"tags":[63,619,926,928,927],"class_list":["post-2373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-search-engine-marketing-2","tag-search-engine-marketing","tag-search-engine-optimization-2","tag-sem-seo","tag-sem-benefits-for-business","tag-seo-vs-paid-search"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How SEM &amp; SEO choose your internet marketing company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SEM &amp; SEO determine your choices when you do an online search. Houston\u2019s best internet companies are experts at influence, and use both to drive traffic and conversions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How SEM &amp; SEO choose your internet marketing company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SEM &amp; SEO determine your choices when you do an online search. Houston\u2019s best internet companies are experts at influence, and use both to drive traffic and conversions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Search Engine Marketing &amp; Optimization Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-12T14:36:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T15:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/images.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"299\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"169\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip O&#039;Hara\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip O&#039;Hara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Philip O'Hara\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8\"},\"headline\":\"How SEM &amp; SEO choose your internet marketing company\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-12T14:36:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T15:57:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html\"},\"wordCount\":526,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/images.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"search engine marketing\",\"search engine optimization\",\"SEM &amp; SEO\",\"SEM benefits for business\",\"SEO vs paid search\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Search Engine Marketing | SEM\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html\",\"name\":\"How SEM & SEO choose your internet marketing company\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/how-sem-seo-choose.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/images.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-12T14:36:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T15:57:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8\"},\"description\":\"SEM & SEO determine your choices when you do an online search. 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