Difference Between SEO SEM SMO
It’s been a long time since content marketing became widely accepted, and many companies are now implementing measures such as owned media and social media management. I’m sure that your company is taking one of these measures as well.
By the way, can you briefly explain these three marketing terms, “SEM”, “SEO”, and “SMO”?
Most of you probably have a vague idea of what they mean, but not the details. There is no shame in this, as many marketing terms are similar and even marketers who deal with users on a daily basis can confuse them.
However, knowing the Difference Between SEO SEM SMO and not knowing the difference may affect the development of future measures, so let’s review the differences between the three terms.
What is content marketing anyway?
Before explaining “SEM,” “SEO,” and “SMO,” you may be wondering, “What is content marketing? I’m sure some of you are wondering.
Content marketing is “a marketing method that aims to deliver content (articles, videos, etc.) that is useful to users, for the purpose of corporate branding and new user acquisition.
Content marketing is a marketing method that aims to deliver content (articles, videos, etc.) that is useful to users, for example, for corporate branding and to attract new users. On-demand media operated by companies and social media operated by corporate accounts are common measures.
In addition, content marketing requires a certain amount of content and a long-term perspective in terms of building a relationship of trust with users.
Although it is not a measure with immediate results, it is a marketing that is worth operating in order to aim for increased profits in a year or two.
SEM and SEO
Let’s move on to the main topic, but first I will explain SEM and SEO, which are strongly related.
SEM is an acronym for “Search Engine Marketing,” while SEO is an acronym for “Search Engine Optimization.
The relationship between the two terms is that SEM is a marketing strategy that encompasses SEO.
In other words, SEM refers to measures that include listing ads in addition to SEO, and refers to all marketing that is developed through search engines.
What is listing advertising?
Listing advertising is also called PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, and is a style of advertising in which costs are incurred when a user clicks on an advertisement.
The reason why listing advertisements are included in SEM is because they are advertisements that are displayed on the user’s search result screen.
When you search for a keyword on a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, you will probably see ads displayed at the top of the search results.
In general, the ads displayed are determined by bidding in an auction format.
Let’s say that Mr. A sets a price of 100 yen if a user who searches for a keyword such as “delicious watermelon” clicks on his ad.
On the other hand, if user B sets a price of 200 yen for users who search for the same keyword, the ad of user B with the highest bid amount will be displayed.
(Other factors such as quality score also come into play).
Since listing ads can lead users to your website depending on the ads you place and the cost, they are suitable for short-term operations, unlike content marketing, which I explained earlier.
About SEO
Now that we’ve covered listing advertising, let’s delve a little deeper into SEO.
Search engine optimization” is a measure to get a high rating from the crawlers (a system that evaluates websites and contents) of Google and Yahoo!
In the past, SEO was recognized as “if you increase the number of links to your website, it will appear at the top of the search results,” but with repeated improvements such as the Penguin update and Panda update, it is now difficult to appear at the top of the search results using links alone.
Also, be aware that malicious links that are only intended for high rankings will be penalized.
However, this does not mean that links are no longer effective for SEO.
The more good links you have, the higher your website and content will be rated, and the easier it will be to rank higher.
By the way, good links are links shared by ordinary users on social media, links on other websites, etc.
In addition to links, you can also take the following measures for SEO.
Include keywords in the title.
Keep the title to 28-32 characters.
Include keywords in your content.
Optimize the structure of your website.
Use meta tag settings
Include keywords in the title tag
Use long tail keywords to boost your reputation
There are many other measures that can be taken.
Incidentally, Google’s algorithm has more than 200 metrics, and the specifics are not disclosed to the public.
However, it is certain that by continuing to distribute good quality content, you will appear at the top of the search results, so SEO needs to be developed from a long-term perspective.
There are also times when you may have implemented SEO strategies by mistake. We have compiled the following eBook for you to review as well if you are interested.
What is the Best SEM?
With SEO being a long-term strategy and listing ads being a short-term strategy, the best way to manage SEM is to develop both strategies simultaneously whenever possible.
Although SEO is a relatively inexpensive marketing method, it does not have an immediate effect and it takes time before it becomes profitable.
In the meantime, you will need to use listing ads to attract users.
The key is to find a balance and Difference Between SEO SEM SMO the three, and by gradually shifting away from listing ads as SEO becomes more effective, it is possible to develop effective marketing with minimal cost.
What is SMO?
In content marketing, where information is distributed from the service/product provider side, search engines are not the only ones that are important.
When you think, “How else do users visit a website? When you think about it, social media probably comes to mind immediately.
Yes, SMO is “Social Media Optimizaition” and it is a measure to efficiently lead users from social media to your website.
It also includes measures to expand awareness of services and products by word of mouth through social media.
Current mainstream social media platforms
When you hear the term “social media,” which services immediately come to mind?
Currently, the mainstream services are Facebook, Twitter, and LINE for communication.
For content distribution, Youtube and Nico Nico Douga are the most popular.
What is important in SMO is first of all to decide which platform to use.
It is important to understand the characteristics of your service or product and ask yourself, “Do I need to focus on communication with users? Or, “Is it important to transmit know-how through videos and other content? or “Is it important to transmit know-how through videos and other content?
There are many ways to communicate with users, and SMO requires more diverse marketing than you might think.
Differences from Stemming
SMO is often equated with “Stemma” (*1), but it is not a deliberate manipulation of word of mouth.
SMO is user-driven marketing, and it has a strong meaning of measures that are developed in line with the user-driven marketing.
However, there is no problem in partnering with affiliates to introduce services and products on social media.
1: Stemming is an abbreviation for “stealth marketing,” a method of advertising in which a company controls word of mouth by posing as an ordinary consumer. The “Penioku Incident,” in which many celebrities were involved in stealth marketing, is a famous example.
SMO is connected to SEO
Finally, there is a connection between SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization), and SMO can lead to SEO and affect the top rankings of search results.
This is because I explained that social media links are effective as one of the SEO measures, but by doing SMO, you can increase the number of links to your website by gaining content shares.
In other words, it is effective to do SEO and SMO at the same time.
In other words, you can manage owned media and social media at the same time.
Also, when listing ads are added to the mix, triple media (*2) management is realized, and it is said that more effective marketing development is possible.
2: Triple media is a marketing strategy that consists of owned media (corporate blogs, etc.), earned media (social media operations), and paid media (listing ads and other ads).
Conclusion
What do you think? In this article, I have summarized the explanation and relevance of “SEM”, “SEO”, and “SMO”.
I hope that this explanation has helped you to sort out the marketing terms that tend to confuse you.
All of these are essential to modern web marketing, and understanding them is essential if you want to acquire and monetize users on the web, regardless of your business model.
It is easy to explain that “SMO leads to SEO, and SMO encompasses SEO,” but the reality is that there is a lot more to it than that, and many marketers are struggling with these measures every day.
I hope that you will take this opportunity to deepen your understanding of each of these areas and use it to develop your own strategies for the future.
We have also prepared an e-book on inbound marketing. If you are interested, please take a look at it as well.
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