What is SEO in Marketing?

When you launch your business on the internet, you want it to be easily found by others during their online searches. You also want to increase the number of visitors to your website, establish your brand, and convert them into loyal followers.

Here’s where SEO comes in. You may wonder, what is SEO in marketing? This article simplifies SEO for beginners and provides all the information you need to start your digital marketing journey.

What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, involves strategies to enhance website visibility and ranking on search engines like Google.

SEO helps your website appear on the first page for relevant searches, increasing traffic and potential conversions.

The key SEO types include On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, and Technical SEO, each targeting different aspects to optimise site discoverability and user experience.

If you want to learn more of the basics about SEO and some of the jargon, check out Intellar’s SEO glossary of terms. For just the basics on how SEO fits into marketing, read on!

The 3 Main Types of SEO

SEO exists in different forms, depending on what you want to optimise. Here are three main types of SEO that target the various search engine ranking factors.

1. On-page SEO

On-page SEO tells search engines and users about your site. It helps them know your website better and if its content is helpful to the end user. Some of the key elements of on-page SEO include:

• Creating high-quality and valuable content
• Placing relevant keywords in the right places
• URL optimisation. This includes url structures and grouping
• Creating unique and keyword-rich meta data to improve landing page targeting
• Enhancing user experience by using the correct content formats, mediums, header tags and calls to actions
• Implementing a sound internal linking structure to link relevant content together
• Optimising external links on your website to link users to relevant external resources that add value

2. Off-Page SEO

They are activities outside your website that increase brand recognition and authority so that users and search engines can trust your site. This includes:

• Building high quality backlinks (link building). You can earn backlinks by using social media to drive traffic, conducting digital PR, and outreaching to relevant websites.
• Creating citations to improve your local SEO
• Building reviews and managing them
• Leveraging social media. While social media does not directly impact SEO and keyword ranks, it is great for increasing views. With more views and shares, there’s a higher chance you may earn a link and increase your brand searches

Basically, you want to get visitors from other sites because people are talking about your brand, which is what SEO in marketing will help you achieve.

How off-page SEO fits into marketing:

• Link building is a great way to improve your brand presence. Press coverage and links from highly trafficked domains can bring users and conversions.
• Citations improve your discoverability at a local level. People may find your business via local directories such as Yelp and Yellow Pages.
• Website content pushed on social channels, like Pinterest and Instagram can bring you a lot of traffic and brand exposure.

3. Technical SEO

Technical SEO has more to do with your website’s structure and backend factors that enable users and search engines to navigate your website. Technical SEO contributes to things like user experience, crawlability, and page speed. Elements of technical SEO include:

• Improving your website speed
• Making your site mobile-friendly
• Enhancing website security
• Fixing redirects, broken links and duplicate content
• Including appropriate Schema markup on your page
• Improving how your website is discovered, crawled and indexed

• Your website is your homebase. Without a properly working site, no amount of traffic will help your business. Without an optimised site, the traffic you do receive may not content or flow on to other pages.
• Schema markup influences how your content appears on other platforms too. If someone shares a blog article from your site, proper OpenGraph tags will ensure the image and naming conventions you have set for that article populate correctly on the likes of Facebook and X.
• A fast and secure website helps ensures trust your brand.

Why SEO is Important in Digital Marketing

The digital space is highly competitive, with numerous websites that offer the same products or services as you do.

SEO helps you stand out by increasing your visibility and getting your offerings in front of your target audience. It does this by ensuring your website appears among the first page in search engine results for keywords you optimise for.

With a higher ranking, more people will find your website, which leads to increased website traffic. The more traffic you get, the higher the chances there are for conversions and potential revenue.

Besides visibility, SEO stamps authority on your brand. When you appear frequently in online searches, you earn trust from online users as an authority in your niche. These users are highly likely to turn to your website for information, products, or services and stay loyal when they believe you offer value and are an expert in your field.

Lastly, organic search is often the biggest marketing channel for a business. This goes for local business and enterprise businesses. In fact, organic search is often the biggest “store” when compared to large brick and mortar retail locations.

Endnote

If you are a beginner in digital marketing and want to create an online mark for your business, you have to consider doing SEO for online success. Bear in mind that SEO is an ongoing task that has to be adjusted continuously to the changing search engine algorithms as well as their requirements.

SEO is an investment that snowballs. If you’re looking to build your brand online, book a call with Intellar.