Hello Members

SEO (search engine optimization) is the act of optimising the HTML  and other content of your website for relevant, targeted key phrases so as to attain the higher natural listing than competing websites. SEO provides a cheaper long term solution for increased traffic and generates customer inquires that ultimately convert to sales.

Whereas SEM is a broader term which includes SEO and other areas to improve a sites visibility in search engine results page like paid inclusions.

One more difference:
SEO is the cheaper to do and best for the website Optimization.

SEO -Search engine optimization is part of SEM(Search Engine Optimization).SEM is a vast term .

SEO and SEM both are the Internet promotion tool.SEM is for the Search engine marketing,it includes the paid  programmes for the promotion.SEM is improves the website visibility in SERP.

Good posts from everyone. On my websites I always concentrate on SEO first and foremost. The rest seems to take care of itself.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines.Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion.

SEM stands for search engine marketing and SEO stands for search engine optimization. As per my knowledge SEO is free service and SEM is paid. Both of these are designed to drive traffic to one's website for the purpose of selling things, or drawing attention to things.

There are a lot of terminology thrown around when it comes to Internet marketing. And called on the two we will look at today's SEO and SEM. Are the same thing? What is the difference between the two? The short answer is that they are very similar and have similar purposes. Designed each of these to drive traffic to one site for the purpose of selling things, or draw attention to things. Differences in implementation, and how to go about reaching a certain types of people.

both are equal

hello...

JohnMatthew, Thanks for informing the basic difference between SEO and SEM.. It is useful  for all of us , specially for those who are new in this forum...

Often users confuse SEO and SEM and use these terms interchangeably, ignoring the major differences in both the terms. The most used term among internet marketers SEO (search engine optimization) is an element of SEM (search engine marketing). An act of optimizing a website, SEO is used basically for natural and organic search engine listings and is among the most cost-effective functions of SEM.

Search engine marketing or SEM, refers mainly to the text advertisements which appear at the top or on the right hand side of search engine results pages.Now SEM is broader than SEO. It includes SEO and other areas to improve a sites visibility in search engine results pages, like paid listings and paid inclusions.

SEO : Search engine optimization is focused on the "organic" rankings of a website within a search engine. Organic rankings are rankings that are not paid for and are placed in the center of the search engine webpage. Search engine optimization attempts to optimize the website to increase the ranking of that website within these organic search results.

SEM: Search engine marketing promotes websites on search engines through paid avenues such as paid placement, paid inclusion and contextual advertising. In most definitions, the main reason that search engine marketing differs from search engine optimization is that search engine marketing focuses on the paid aspects of gaining rank on a search engine.

SEO:- Search Engine Optimization has different techniques to increasing traffic on our site. It has some free techniques so it is very popular.  SEO is tool, that used to make more popular your website. It has many tools to promote your business and helpful to earning online. By using it you can increase more traffic on your site, increase your search engine page rank.

SEM:- Search Engine Marketing. Search Engine Marketing technique is also used to increase traffic on our site from the other sources not from SEO techniques. It will display our site link on different sites and advertised it but site holder can pay for it.

According to me Search engine optimization is a branch of search engine marketing. In my point of view SEO might involve optimizing the website making use of all methods available , where as SEM would include extensive use of marketing methodologies used for marketing any entity over the web.

SEO is the act of optimising the HTML and other content of your website for relevant, targeted key phrases in order to attain higher natural listings than competing websites.

SEM is broader than SEO. It includes SEO and other areas to improve a sites visibility in search engine results pages, like paid listings and paid inclusions.

SEO stands for Search engine optimization while SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. SEO is based on success in the long term natural search engine and SEM through sponsorship, advertising, banner and pay per click, which will help website owners to create immediate results recognizable.

thank you all guys ...

Both are the ways to promote your business online. SEO makes the site better for both search engines and users, whereas SEM include promoting a web site and increasing its traffic, by doing paid inclusion, PPC and many more.