Search engine optimization (SEO) can be an important tool in creating an effective digital marketing plan. SEO can help users find your products and services, build trust with your brand, and potentially increase your traffic conversion rates.
There are various approaches to using SEO as part of your marketing strategy, and you can combine aspects of SEO marketing with other approaches to marketing your business.
In this article, we’ll explore what SEO marketing is, why it’s important, how it works, and what types of digital marketing strategies can be combined with SEO marketing.
Table of Contents
- What is SEO Marketing?
- How Does SEO Work?
- Importance of SEO Marketing in Marketing Strategy
- Digital Marketing Strategy Using SEO
- Conclusion
What is SEO Marketing?
SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization and refers to the process of increasing the quantity and quality of organic traffic to a website.
Organic traffic resulting from implementing SEO strategies refers to website visitors who find your website. Through manual searches rather than through paid advertising on search engines. SEO also improves organic results by excluding paid visitor ads and direct traffic.
SEO can be used in a variety of ways to increase your audience reach and increase your website’s ranking on major search engines. Many strategies can also include on-page and off-page SEO to increase the quality of traffic to your site.
Types of SEO Marketing
On-page SEO
Is search optimization that you can control within your website and content. Keyword research, internal links, and creating effective site navigation are all elements of on-page SEO.
Using on-page SEO allows you to choose which pages and pieces of content you want your search engine results pages to find and rank for. And this approach can affect how and where your website will appear in user searches.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO can depend on the SEO you configure for your website, however, search engines usually control this element. For example, let’s say you contribute content to related business sites to promote your services.
You can include backlinks—links that direct visitors back to your site—on partner sites (backlinks). Here, you use off-page SEO and have little control over how search engines will rank and display partner websites in search results.
How Does SEO Work?
Search engine optimization serves to provide answers to user questions. A user’s query or search is referred to as a search query. Is made up of words and phrases entered into a search engine’s search field.
Search engines follow this action by fetching results in the form of website URLs. That is most relevant to the user’s query. The entire process that search engines go through to find and display. Results can consist of several key aspects that make SEO work.
Here are things you should know before running SEO marketing
Rating
Ranking refers to where search engines place your website on search engine results pages. A high ranking on the SERPs means that your website has demonstrated high content authority. As it relates to various searches that users perform, it also shows high relevance to your topic area.
Ranking high in the SERPs can also increase overall traffic to your website. Which can be beneficial for marketing campaigns and SEO implementation.
Usually, search engines rank website results based on the relevance of the content. This level of relevance is determined when search engines index your website.
Indexing
Search engines find website content and order each URL result according to its relevance. For example, a user searching for “sewing needle types” might expect to find a content URL that is directly related to their query.
In this case, search engines will rank your website low if your main topic is software development. This process is known as indexing.
Search engines look for the most relevant content and then rank them in order of least relevant. Which can affect where your website appears in the SERPs.
In addition, to index a website’s URL, search engines will find the individual piece of content. That best matches a user’s query in a process known as crawling.
Crawl
In the early stages of a user’s search, the search engine will find the content most relevant to the query, crawling the internet for the most suitable results. The time it takes search engines to crawl can depend on how you use SEO on your website.
The faster search engines can find your content URL, the faster your site will rank and appear in the SERPs.
Importance of SEO Marketing in Marketing Strategy
SEO can be a powerful marketing tool to use during a campaign. This is partly because SEO delivers quality traffic generated without paying for search advertising.
Quality traffic consists of readers or users manually searching for a specific product or service that your business provides. Quality traffic can also come from manually typing in keywords or phrases that are directly related to your business.
Generating quality traffic can be difficult, which is why an SEO strategy can be critical to the overall success of your marketing campaign. Several additional key factors can make SEO an important part of your marketing strategy:
Establish authority in your field or niche
Search engines will only rank web results with high authority and high relevance. When your website appears in the top percentage of SERPs, it means that you have established a level of trust and authority in your topic field or niche.
For example, if your goal is to earn revenue through SEO marketing campaigns, building authority within search engines can help you achieve that goal.
Provide a cost-effective marketing approach
SEO is also important because it can lower customer acquisition costs and help businesses stay within their campaign budgets. The higher you rank in search engines, the more traffic you can potentially generate without spending money on paid results and other approaches to reaching an audience.
Reduces manipulation of quality search results
Due to the algorithms that many search engines use to rank websites, it is more difficult for low-relevance sites to manipulate their rankings in the top SERPs.
This means that users searching through online content are shown only high-quality and relevant results. Ensuring your website provides only niche-specific content that builds trust and authority can help you rank higher in search engines, without risking bad content appearing in front of you.
Increase the chances of your website being found
SEO can also be an important tool to increase the chances of search engines finding your website. Including relevant on-page optimizations, such as quality content, ordered site navigation, and appropriate internal links, can all affect how quickly and effectively search engines can find and index your site.
Digital Marketing Strategy Using SEO
SEO can be an effective strategy when combined with other digital marketing strategies. Here are some common marketing strategies that SEO can implement:
Social media marketing
SEO is social media marketing that can be used by promoting your products or services and linking relevant content from your website to your social media platforms.
Since social media uses its algorithm, SEO can be used in keywords, names, or phrases to appear in the top social media feeds. Search engines can then crawl and index your social media pages, and users on social media or searching your profile through search engines can find your business based on your SEO implementation.
Content marketing
Content marketing is probably the most common use for SEO, as blog and article content typically includes phrases or keywords that users might search for information.
For example, a business that sells vitamins can create an informational blog on topics in its industry to help educate customers and visitors who may be looking for relevant information. So a business might implement content marketing to be indexed in search engines for popular words, phrases, or product names.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing employs people who have a large market reach to drive traffic to websites to convert prospects into customers. Using SEO in influencer marketing can be effective because your influencers can use certain keywords that point to your content. Influencer marketing is sometimes used in conjunction with social media marketing.
SEO in marketing can have a lasting impact when applied properly, and when you create quality content that is relevant to your target market, you can increase the likelihood that your content will appear in the top results of major search engines.
Conclusion
That’s a complete discussion of SEO marketing that you can apply to your business’s digital marketing strategy. Also, make sure you always record every expense you make in the marketing process on a bookkeeping system that is easy for you to access.