SEO and SEM are terms frequently used in the Internet Marketing world. So what do they mean and how are they relevant to you? SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization". It simply means producing and marketing information that lets the search engines know that your content is relevant to certain search inquiries. Your content should be ‘optimized’ for the ’search engines’ so that they can display your content when a person searches for terms that are related. For instance, we hope the search engines will tell people about our site when they type in terms that are related to "Internet Marketing". But in order for the search engines to do this, we have to ‘tell’ them what it is we are producing content on. There are a number of methods to do this. One method is to ensure you are using good keywords and anchor text. Using the right keywords and anchor text says to the search engines, "hey, my site is about xxx keyword so show my site when people type in those keywords." Otherwise how can they know? SEM stands for "Search Engine Marketing". Some people use the terms SEM and SEO and interchangeably. Others would argue there is a big difference. SEM is marketing a site within search engines, frequently via SEO. You can also buy PPC ads (pay-per-click) like with Google Adwords or utilize another method of paid inclusion or paid ads which will put you on the search engines’ radar. SEM will generally cost you whereas SEO methods can be undertaken for free. Whether or not you utilize SEM, as described herein, you certainly need to utilize SEO and consistently build for it. If you don’t optimize your content for the search engines, your Internet property may not get the amount of visitors you would like. Karen J. for Contemporary VA