Your website needs to be visible to the right audience. Understanding Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is key to getting found online.
What is SEO?
SEO is Search Engine Optimisation. Search engines want to provide the best results for user queries. These results are known as organic results. SEO is about making your website easy for search engines to find, understand and index, so you can be included in their best results.
What is SEM?
SEM is Search Engine Marketing. This is about purchasing ad space so your website will appear in relevant search results. You choose the search terms, set a budget and pay each time someone clicks your ad. The ad runs for as long as the campaign runs and stops when you stop paying.
Why we start with SEO
To achieve the best and most cost-effective outcomes, the goal is to get SEO foundations right, then boost with effective, planned and cost-effective SEM when required.
A well-designed digital presence considers SEO from the outset, rather than adding it later. A page that ranks organically effectively provides the first half of visibility. Advertising to boost that page will provide the other half. It’s more cost-effective to boost a well-optimised page than it is to promote a brand new, un-optimised page.
AI has also changed the landscape. Tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Perplexity, and the AI summaries at the top of Google, generate responses from existing pages. Pages that are original, well written and well formatted with full sentences, descriptive headings and direct answers to common questions are more likely to get an “AI boost” than those that don’t.
How we set up SEO foundations
When we deliver a new website for an organisation, SEO foundations are planned and implemented as part of the build. This includes:
- Page structure, so every page has a clear title, headings and description that search engines can read
- Clean, readable web addresses
- HTTPS, which secures the site and is a ranking signal
- A responsive design, because Google ranks the mobile version of your site first
- A sitemap submitted through Google Search Console, so Google finds every page
- A Google Business Profile for local searches
- Content written in plain, complete sentences that answer the questions your customers ask, which is the focus of content marketing
If your website was built with these SEO basics, your site will have been successfully indexed and future efforts can be focused around improvements and new features.
How long does SEO take?
Implementing SEO as a foundation is the most effective way to get started, but it is important to understand that it can take time to be really effective. Search engines need time to find new pages and decide where they belong, and the effect of a new site or a batch of new content shows up gradually in Search Console. Paid SEM efforts begin immediately, which is the main reason people turn to it.
When does paid search make sense?
Paid search suits a few situations: you want terms that are hard to rank for organically, you’re launching a new service, you’re promoting a seasonal offer, or one new customer is worth a lot to you. Send the clicks to a page that explains the offer and has an obvious next step, because an ad that lands on a confusing page costs you for every visitor who leaves.
We focus on organic SEO because it gives most small and medium organisations a better return over time. If you want to try paid campaigns, we can point you in the right direction. Our article Is Google Ads still worth it for your small business? sets out the questions to ask before you spend.
Where to go next
Our Communications & Marketing service covers search visibility, content and measurement for organisations that want a plan to follow. The FAQs on Google Search Console and Google Business Profile cover the two tools that make the biggest difference to a new site.
