One of the most common question website owners have when embarking on an internet marketing campaign usually sounds something like ‘Which should I do Google SEO or Google SEM?’ It’s a tough question to answer in a few words, but if you take the time to analyze the pros and cons of each you can at least understand the differences and plan your attack.

Google search engine optimization is typically more expensive than Google Search Marketing and Yahoo Search Engine Marketing combined… and some. This is definitely one of the drawbacks to SEO vs SEM. Search Engine Optimization usually takes time, 3-6 months minimum before results can be seen and felt. On the other hand, each visitor you drive with Google Pay Per Click using Google Search Engine Marketing is cheap, pennies!

However, the long-term benefits of SEM are not there as they are with Search Engine Optimisation, whereas having solid SEO rankings can offer tons of free traffic down the road on a daily basis. It’s a bigger investment indeed, but it’s a long-term investment rather than paying for each customer who clicks your ad through Google Adwords. The proper technique, in my opinion, is to drive traffic with a healthy blend of SEO and SEM, justifying your distribution breakdown based on your short term and long term goals.

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