What do u think SEO is better or SEM???

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They both have their place. PPC gives imediate results but costs money. SEO takes a lot more time but can cost money if you don't know how to do it or time which is worth money. If one company ranks for SEO and one ranks for PPC the company that ranks for SEO will get more traffic. If one company ranks for both ppc and seo they will get more traffic than the combined traffic of the two companies that just rank for only one.

ok I understand but wht difference between White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO??? why do we do Black hat seo??

They are both supplement with each other. You can go for one of them, but using both would be more profitable for you. I would recomend you go for both of them.

I would prefer both since both SEO/SMO could work hand to hand each other to harmonize online marketing process along the way..

Black hat SEO is done because people want to get things done quicker. You never want to do blackhat on a site you care about. Most blackhat is done on throw away domains. It all depends on your goals. They are both hard work. Blackhat can get some great results but you crash and burn often so you have to work on it constantly. Blackhat is a kamikaze run. Verry affective but self destructive.

I think a good campaign should include both!

I would prefer SEO because the long-term effect is worth the effort. Of course, we need hard work to please the search engines. In the end, we will reap what we sow.

I think SEO is son of SEM...!

seo and sem is basically the same. with sem its just easier to get higher position since its all about how much you are willing to pay per click on your ad. getting high position on search engine result page is much trickier using seo since in the end its up a independant factor, the search engine. you can optimize keyword density and gett backlinks, which will take alot of time and possibly money, but you can never be sure of what it will generate. SEM is an official marketing strategy, encouraged by its profiters, the search engines. SEO is more unaccepted by Google and Yahoo, considered to manipulate a website's relevancy in order to rank high according so earched keyword. Successful SEO will generate far more traffic and stickiness on your website than SEM will ever do.

Hi,
It is a very difficult question well it depends on if you want to get related traffic from pre-interested
clients for free (SEO).
Or
If you want to give monthly for sponsored links that only get clicked on by demographics of high school children’s (SEM). :)

you should check out affiliatetips.com's seo articles. they pretty much covers everything :-)
http://www.affiliatetips.com/seo-articles.html

I would say both. But for highly competitive industry (such as web hosting :) ) SEM can be rather costly. At the same time it is difficult to achieve first page ranking for web hosting related terms, especially if your site is new.

There is a limited number of search time you can achieve results for using SEO. SEM can help you get visibility for hundreds or even thousands of additional terms (such as search of competitors brand names, long tail keywords etc.) that you could not otherwise have gained using SEO. Furthermore, it brings you immediate traffic and it is easy to measure your ROI.

SEM can help you get visibility for hundreds or even thousands of additional terms (such as search of competitors brand names, long tail keywords etc.) that you could not otherwise have gained using SEO.

Then you are using a crappy optimizer. :P

Then you are using a crappy optimizer. :P

Really, tell me more :)

not an either/or

Really, tell me more :)

Seriously, if your SEO is not going after long tail as well as just the money terms, then they are doing you a disservice. Now, if you signed a contract for just a specific set of keywords, for a specific amount, then fine, but otherwise your SEO should be on a monthly retainer to make sure your keywords ranked for keep growing as well as your traffic. The idea is to grow, not sit in one place once you get there.

I would go with SEO. But if competition is really stiff and I really couldn't top the rankings - SEm would be my next resort.

Seriously, if your SEO is not going after long tail as well as just the money terms, then they are doing you a disservice. Now, if you signed a contract for just a specific set of keywords, for a specific amount, then fine, but otherwise your SEO should be on a monthly retainer to make sure your keywords ranked for keep growing as well as your traffic. The idea is to grow, not sit in one place once you get there.

So how many long tail keywords can a single website achieve rankings for?

Long tail keywords are just that, long tail. A site doesn't need to be optimized specifically for that (and be included in meta tags, title tags, anchor text for links etc.). In most cases, it just need to appear once on a page to achieve first page ranking, because nobody optimize for them.

But for any specific industry there are thousands of long tail keywords, and with SEO you just can't target them all. Then this is where PPC can help.

On the other hand, SEO is basically useless or at least not very effective for targeting:
-Competing brands
-Misspellings
and many more variation of the targeted keywords. But you will agree with me that traffic from those can result in high conversions. :)

So how many long tail keywords can a single website achieve rankings for?

How many long tail keywords are relevant to the website?


Long tail keywords are just that, long tail. A site doesn't need to be optimized specifically for that (and be included in meta tags, title tags, anchor text for links etc.). In most cases, it just need to appear once on a page to achieve first page ranking, because nobody optimize for them.

And when someone like the many optimizers who, like me, optimize for long tail keywords? Will you be ranking #1 for those terms still from a page mention? Of course not, you shot yourself in the foot.

But for any specific industry there are thousands of long tail keywords, and with SEO you just can't target them all. Then this is where PPC can help.

What exactly do you think SEO is? A couple links with each long tail keyword in them is optimizing the site for a long tail keyword generally. Of course an SEO can optimize for them all if they feel like it.

On the other hand, SEO is basically useless or at least not very effective for targeting:
-Competing brands
-Misspellings
and many more variation of the targeted keywords. But you will agree with me that traffic from those can result in high conversions. :)

Again, I have a very educated feeling that you do not know what SEO is. It is very easy to do the above in fact.

Well, after reading your reply I also have a very educated feeling that you know even less about what SEO is :)

I don't know the size of projects you company handles, but the SEO dept of the company I work in have been optimizing and promoting for the last few years sites where long tails conversion have been critical, including massive e-commerce site or sites targeting markets accross different countries and languages, and SEO just doesn't get it done :)

but the SEO dept of the company I work in have been optimizing and promoting for the last few years sites where long tails conversion have been critical, including massive e-commerce site or sites targeting markets accross different countries and languages, and SEO just doesn't get it done :)

You just contradicted yourself twice over. A few years? I have been marketing online for over 10 now. SEO is what you do with the available tools. If you are lazy, or just do not know what to do, then no, SEO won't get the job done. It really is that simple. I can optimize for any given subset of keywords be it long tail or short, as can many other good SEO's. If you can't, then maybe it is time to look at what you call SEO, or start paying more attention to what is happening in the sphere instead of trying to teach when you do not have the capability.

It seems you are just writing just to win the argument without actually taking the time to reply to what is being discussed. Nowhere did I say that we CAN'T optimize for long tail keywords (which actually would be too easy, therefore my example of a single line in a page), the whole discussion may be about your definition of long tail. There are projects where if you are going to optimize for ALL the long tail keywords then your job would be a never-ending one. Unless as I mention earlier "Mr Good SEO" has never had to deal with complex projects.

I say our team has been optimizing sizeable projects for the last few years and you reply that you have been marketing online (?) for 10 years, as if both propositions can even be compared. I would not even waste my time on replying to that :)

Nowhere did I say that we CAN'T optimize for long tail keywords (which actually would be too easy, therefore my example of a single line in a page)

SEM can help you get visibility for hundreds or even thousands of additional terms (such as search of competitors brand names, long tail keywords etc.) that you could not otherwise have gained using SEO.

Ahem.

There are projects where if you are going to optimize for ALL the long tail keywords then your job would be a never-ending one.

I do believe this was already covered with:

otherwise your SEO should be on a monthly retainer to make sure your keywords ranked for keep growing as well as your traffic. The idea is to grow, not sit in one place once you get there.

Unless as I mention earlier "Mr Good SEO" has never had to deal with complex projects.

I would say ranking in the injury, ringtone, and real estate spheres is complex enough. Somehow I seriously doubt I see you in them anytime soon.

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But for any specific industry there are thousands of long tail keywords, and with SEO you just can't target them all. Then this is where PPC can help.


So, you are saying that in the time you can type a long tail keyword in to your PPC add keyword panel, someone else could not just as easily add an anchor text link for that same long tail keyword?

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I say our team has been optimizing sizeable projects for the last few years and you reply that you have been marketing online (?) for 10 years, as if both propositions can even be compared.

I would agree with this one. I have a feeling your idea of complex and mine are 2 different things. Why dont you let us see one of your complex projects. I would say that would take the arguement away rather quickly. I also note that I have never heard of sinohosting at any search industry convention, you know, SES, SMX, pubcon, or on any of the real search industry forums for that matter. You must keep a really low profile in the SEO/SEM sphere for someone handling complex marketing.

SEM can help you get visibility for hundreds or even thousands of additional terms (such as search of competitors brand names, long tail keywords etc.) that you could not otherwise have gained using SEO.

You seem to overlook the number element of this quote. Is it that hard to understand, or you're just doing it on purpose?

I would agree with this one. I have a feeling your idea of complex and mine are 2 different things. Why dont you let us see one of your complex projects. I would say that would take the arguement away rather quickly. I also note that I have never heard of sinohosting at any search industry convention, you know, SES, SMX, pubcon, or on any of the real search industry forums for that matter. You must keep a really low profile in the SEO/SEM sphere for someone handling complex marketing.

Now you are getting pathetic. Did it actually occur to you that not every SEO is living in the US? So attendance to the SES, SMX etc, is now the key to SEO supremacy? And what does it have to do with our web hosting site (which is less than a year old and have achieved the rankings needed for the keywords relevant to our specific NICHE market)? Is this a personal argument about who is the best SEO? What about starting a SEO contest by the way?

It is midnight where I live and I will leave you here with you self-conceit.

You seem to overlook the number element of this quote. Is it that hard to understand, or you're just doing it on purpose?

How so exactly? Are you now saying it is impossible to get a couple links for each of 100 or even 1000 long tail keywords? What has the number to do with anything? It doesn't.

Now you are getting pathetic. Did it actually occur to you that not every SEO is living in the US?

Actually I assumed you lived in china. Oh, what do you know: http://searchenginestrategies.com/sew/china07/

What about starting a SEO contest by the way?

Why? The 50 that have been and gone in the past few years are not enough goofs giving up their link networks already?

It is midnight where I live and I will leave you here with you self-conceit.

Knocking down utterly misleading and incorrect statements is not conceit, it is called helping people with real information, although admittedly this debate has grown in directions it probably should not have. I grow weary of all the shills in this industry that feel they have to convince people of things that are simply not true to make their jobs easier.

What do u think SEO is better or SEM???

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SEO is a part of SEM, however, when it comes to comparison, I believe, seo is better than sem. It is a human nature to click on the organic part of the serp. SEM is quite costly and it remains for short duration also. on the other hand, once a site starts ranking well, it remains there longer. For a stable business, we should always go for seo of our site except on some occasions.
The growing number of our client for seo service also shows that, now companies prefer seo to sem.:)

What do u think SEO is better or SEM???

Personally I don't think that we should rate SEO or SEM. They are equally important for my personal blog and I think that they go hand in hand when you want to create a good website or blog.