Marketing is flooded with abbreviations, so let's all start on the same page. Let's clarify what SEO, SEM, and SMO mean, and while we're at it, SEA and Search Marketing for good measure. 

SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is a technique to attract online traffic for 'free' on search engines like google and Bing. Sometimes people use 'organic,' 'editorial,' or 'natural' in place of free, but this all means the same thing. 

SEO is a slow-burn tactic that takes effort and patience, but the effects are often long-lasting. It can have you consistently ranking well for a particular search term for years if it's done well. 

SEM

Search Engine Marketing is typically used to describe paid ads on search engines. It is sometimes used interchangeably with SEA, which means Search Engine Advertising. 

Compared to SEO, SEM is quicker and more straightforward; you create a good ad and get the corresponding traffic to your website, viewing your product or service. 

Search engine ads' benefit is the potential for rapid results considering you can turn the ads on and off as you please. This, however, also means the effects are not long-lasting; once you turn off the ads, you stop the traffic you receive directly from them. Search Ads can get expensive and require close monitoring to ensure the performance isn't dipping. Of course, the additional cost of running these ads will eat into your profit margin.

SMO

SMO, or "Social Media Optimisation," is increasing the awareness of new products and services and connecting with customers across social media platforms. This can be Organic SMO, meaning content you post and share without paying for, paid ads, where you pay the platforms to run ads, or, more recently, influencer marketing, which means paying influencers and not the platform themselves to run ads and share content. 

Search Marketing

Search Marketing is the overall umbrella term for SEO and SEM. It encompasses both paid and organic search engine marketing activities. 

Now let's compare SEO, SEM, and SMO.

For a startup, the idea of long term effort without immediate reward (in the form of customers) is insanity; focusing on SEO would seem somewhat useless. However, the fact of the matter is that there is a place for all of these in small business marketing, social media and search marketing, paid, and organic.

Initially, starting up will require advertising; your brand is new, and though people may want what you're offering, they don't necessarily know where to go to get it or that you offer it. 

This is a key benefit of running ads as a whole but particularly SEM; it allows you to advertise to your customer base, people who are currently searching for what you are offering; it's intent-based.

When it comes to Search engine advertising, your adverts only show (at least if done correctly) when potential customers search a keyword or key term to trigger your ad. So you're only spending on people who are in the market for your product or service. 

This solves the immediate issue of identifying a method of increasing sales. The simplicity of knowing how much it costs to bring customers in through this method (Cost per Acquisition or CPA) allows you to zero in on your profit margin and benchmark what you're willing to accept in costs. 

SEM can form the basis of benchmarking the performance of other marketing methods. You'll know how much you're willing and able to spend through each channel and what you will class as good or great performance. 

The long-term nature of SEO means it's a necessity; though initially your focus may be on growth and SEM can deliver this quickly, you will need to grow organically also to avoid becoming overly reliant on advertising spend.

SEA brings you to the attention of customers who know what they want. SEO brings you to the attention of potential customers who may not have been aware that they need your product or services. As a small business, the focus here should be on showcasing your expertise and making it clear and obvious that you exist in that space. 

Not every click will have purchase intent, but building awareness will help your business grow, both online and off. 

Social media marketing provides the benefit of being able to directly interact with your potential customers. The focus here is to shape people's perceptions and awareness of your brand and turn them into repeat customers. There's no hard and fast rule. The focus of your digital marketing goal will depend on your industry, but regardless, there will need to be a mix. You cannot depend solely on one channel or one strategy for your business. 

The best advice for any small business for digital marketing, if not marketing as a whole, is to find the right mix of SEO, SEA, and SMO that meets your long and short-term growth goals. 

A simple suggestion that will work for most startups with limited resources would be to limit how much SEA you use, though the temptation would be to push your budget on advertising, it's easy to become dependent, and for the only means of increasing growth to be an equal increase in advertising spend. 

You'll need a little of everything. SEO, SMO, and SEM are so tightly connected that they should be seen as three sides of the same triangle. To do one without the other would be imbalanced and limit your marketing strategy's effectiveness as a whole. Of course, placing slightly more focus on one over the others is only logical and would naturally happen.