The differences between SEM and SEO?

or How to differentiate SEM and SEO?  Top SEO Services in Singapore
Until now, I guess anyone with a glimpse sense of Internet marketing would find the two term SEO and SEM familiar. There have been endless debates on whether SEO or SEM is a better tactic. How different are SEO and SEM, or are they even that different? Hence, to distinguish these two terms is the topic I would like to cover today. First, we need to do some review on SEO and SEM.
The differences between SEM and SEO?
What is SEM?
According to Wikipedia, “Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involved the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPS) through optimization and advertising.” SEM includes various marketing tactics. Other than search engine optimization (SEO), SEM includes the use of paid search, such as pay per click (PPC) listings and advertisements. For some specialists, SEM strictly includes PPC campaigns and activities. Still, if you use SEO and paid search at the same time, that mixed- method also falls under SEM definition.
What is SEO?
Simply put, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an Internet marketing method designed to better optimize a website to help it get higher rank in Search Engine Results Page (SERP), hence leads to more customer conversion rate. An SEO plan would include both On-site and Off-site optimization techniques. How On-site and Off-site optimization techniques help enhance the website performance is a topic we will dig deeper in other articles.
How is SEM different from SEO? Top SEO in Singapore
Through the review of SEO and SEM, some of you might understand the difference between these two methods already. Yes, the main difference between these two terms is that search engine optimization (SEO) is simply a component of search engine marketing (SEM). As mentioned above, SEM includes components of paid search, such as PPC and SMM (social media marketing) also.Therefore, you have to remember that you cannot use the two terms SEO and SEM interchangeably, because although they work hand in hand, they are not the same term. SEM is the bigger categories of SEO, yet “which one is better?” is the question only practice and experience can answer.
Source: Consolidate from many SEO resources.