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What is SEM?

Defining exactly what SEM (Search Engine Marketing), or search marketing, means often generates discussion — mainly because there’s a difference between the “original” meaning of the concept and the way most people use it today.

SEM is a set of tools, techniques, and strategies used to increase the visibility of websites and web pages in search engines. In other words, the goal is to appear more often — and rank higher — in Google (and other search engines) when a user searches for keywords related to your business or the problem you solve.

Typically, Google (and similar platforms) show two main types of results:

1. Organic results
   These are usually displayed in the main body (center) of the results page. Search engines use an algorithm to determine which pages best answer the search query and then rank them accordingly. For example, Google’s algorithm considers factors such as relevance (content quality and topical match) and authority (signals like links from other websites).
   The set of practices used to improve organic rankings is known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
   
   

2. Paid results
   These results appear at the top and/or bottom of the page. Unlike organic listings, advertisers pay for visibility — most commonly through a PPC model (Pay Per Click), meaning you pay when someone clicks on your ad.
   To generate paid traffic, businesses use advertising platforms like Google Ads (and others). This is also referred to as SEA (Search Engine Advertising), PPC, or CPC (cost per click).

SEM vs. SEO vs. SEA — what’s the difference?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) traditionally includes both:

• SEO (organic visibility), and

• SEA (paid search advertising).
  
  

However, in recent years, many marketers use “SEM” to refer only to paid search (SEA/PPC). Why? Because SEO has grown massively in complexity and scale — with its own techniques, strategies, and best practices — leading many to treat SEO as a separate discipline.

Still, the key takeaway is simple:

✅ SEM = SEO + SEA
And both matter in a strong search strategy.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

As mentioned above, SEO refers to improving your visibility in organic search results.

It’s an accepted practice that search engines encourage. In many ways, SEO is like PR in the “real world”: good SEO can’t guarantee top rankings — just like good PR can’t guarantee a front-page article — but it significantly improves your chances of earning that visibility.

SEA (Search Engine Advertising)

SEA is the practice of driving traffic to a website through paid search ads, such as Google Ads or Bing Ads.

It typically works under a PPC model, where the advertiser only pays when someone clicks the ad.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

SEM is a powerful channel for building visibility and capturing demand through search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

SEM can be implemented in two ways:

• by earning traffic through SEO, and/or

• by buying traffic through SEA (PPC).
  
  

Because terms get mixed up, you’ll often hear people say “Paid Search” instead of SEA — or incorrectly use “SEM” when they only mean paid campaigns. It can be confusing, but what matters is this:

SEM includes both organic and paid strategies, and the best results usually come when they work together.

What are the benefits of SEM?

SEM can help you build a strong presence in search results — and support real business goals, from traffic growth to lead generation and sales.

Here are five key benefits:

1) Be present at the right time

One of the biggest advantages of SEM (organic or paid) is being visible exactly when someone is searching for what you offer — meaning the user is already in a problem-solving mindset and more likely to engage.

Example: a plumber can advertise on TV, but most viewers won’t need a plumber at that moment — so the message is easily ignored.
But when someone gets home and discovers their sink is clogged, what do they do? They Google it. And most people will contact the first results they see — paid or organic — instead of scrolling through multiple pages.

That’s SEM in action: showing up at the exact moment of need.

2) Total autonomy in your campaigns

Traditional media (TV, radio, billboards, etc.) often requires middlemen, negotiations, contracts, and long lead times — which means high costs and less flexibility.

With SEM, campaigns can be managed quickly and independently:

• no negotiation or contracts

• no intermediaries

• fast updates to ads, budgets, and targeting
  
  

If a product runs out of stock, you can instantly pause campaigns or even update messaging to reflect availability — something that’s impossible to do on a weekly basis with traditional media.

3) Smaller budgets that do more: less is more

Traditional media is often out of reach for small and medium businesses due to the high costs of production and placement.

Even for large brands, running a campaign only once or twice a year (for a few weeks) makes it difficult to maintain continuous visibility.

With SEM, you can:

• control exactly how much you invest

• decide the value you’re willing to pay per click or per conversion

• scale up or down based on results, seasonality, and business goals

4) Traffic selected for a purpose

A common problem in digital marketing is attracting irrelevant traffic.

SEM helps reduce that risk by targeting people who are actively searching for specific keywords directly related to your brand, product, or solution. When the user’s query matches your SEO strategy or paid keyword targeting, your company can appear right when they need you.

In SEA specifically, you can further filter your audience by:

• location

• language

• behaviours and intent signals
  
  

This makes paid search traffic more likely to be qualified — and relevant — than many other channels.

5) Measurable and in real time

One major advantage of SEM is that everything is measurable.

In traditional media, it’s extremely hard to prove that a specific TV ad generated a specific number of sales.

In SEM, you can track performance in real time and understand which keywords, ads, and pages are driving conversions. Tools like Google Ads and Analytics provide detailed reporting so you can optimise continuously and keep full control over performance.

Conclusion

SEM is about making your content highly visible in search engines like Google. It has strong potential to deliver instant results, conversions, and faster business growth.

SEM is most powerful when used fully — combining:

• a continuous SEO strategy (always on, long-term),

• and an “as-needed” SEA strategy (on demand, scalable, fast impact).
  
  

SEO should be ongoing — always running in the background. You can invest more or less depending on resources, but consistency is key.

SEA can be used whenever you need to accelerate results — whether seasonally, competitively, or during key commercial periods.

We hope this helped clarify the concept. There’s much more behind each of these strategies — and if you want support, we’re here to help. At Link37, we implement these strategies to grow your business and free up your time to focus on what matters most.

How is your SEM strategy today? Share with us — and we’ll help you improve it.