Well, this depends. We know clients would like a straightforward, go-for-this-thing type of answer but it all depends on your main goal and how much is your budget.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long-term investment (and don’t be confused, it definitely isn't free unless you intend to be a one-man army) which is focused on ranking your website in a better position naturally. Still, this will take some time to achieve and to increase the return on investment (ROI).
Google Ads (SEM, Pay-Per-Click) offers you a way to reach exactly the traffic you are searching for. Still, in some cases, it beats leaving your online presence dead in the water while you strive to rank it well and get that organic traffic. In some situations, doing Google Ads (SEM) can help you get the best queries you might want to attempt to rank for naturally by using SEO.
If you would like us to declare a clear winner, we would have to go with SEO just because it is an essential and SEM is an optional approach. Still, SEO isn’t superior to SEM; it does different things at a different speed and the fact that it is still very much a popular marketing method is a clear indicator that it provides value to the people using it. Being that SEO and SEM focus on getting traffic from search engines Such as (Google, Bing, Yahoo), if one was superior, one would definitely have become obsolete by now and put out of use.
We hope we can help you understand the differences between SEO and SEM as well as their uses, strengths, and weaknesses. Feel free to contact us. If you have the time, contact us in order to explain to you more about our services in JorMall. It would mean a lot to us! Have a great day!