What Is SEO Marketing?

Digital marketing dates back almost to the commercialization of the internet. However, the rise of smartphones and other technological advances have pushed it to the forefront of the advertising industry in recent years. SEO marketing, along with its allied practices, lies at the heart of this evolution.

If you’re unsure what this term stands for and its importance for modern ecommerce, read on. From answering questions like “What is SEO marketing?” to listing popular SEO techniques, this article covers everything you need to know about this thriving sector.

What Is SEO Marketing?

To answer the question, “What is SEO marketing?” you must understand the meaning of SEO. This popular acronym stands for “search engine optimization,” the practice of enhancing the visibility and reach of your website online.

Every time a potential customer searches for a term related to your line of business, their search engine provides a list of websites. These search engine results (SERPs) are ranked according to how closely they answer the searcher’s query. 

In this view, SEO digital marketing can be thought of as a selection of strategies and tactics aimed at restructuring and reformatting your digital content so that modern search engines like Google or Microsoft Bing place it high in search results.

Types of SEO Marketing

Now that you know the answer to “What is SEO in digital marketing,” you’re ready to learn about its subcategories and their roles. To help you understand and distinguish between them, the following sections discuss the most essential types of SEO in digital marketing:

• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO
• Technical SEO

On-Page SEO

As its name suggests, on-page SEO focuses on the content on your website. It reconstructs the content so that it serves two purposes:

1. It helps users find and comprehend the information they’re looking for
2. It optimizes pages so that search engines recognize them as relevant to the searched topic

1. Content Optimization for Users

User-geared content optimization in what is SEO marketing comprises a few simple rules. It must cover the topic it targets by answering questions in a concise but comprehensive way. Moreover, it must be compelling and engaging enough to hold the readers' attention from start to finish.

Website SEO marketing carries out these tasks through a list of tactics:

• It scatters relevant keywords throughout the text to grab readers' interest and help them find the answers they’re looking for, hassle-free.
• It uses a voice and tone that appeals to its target demographic and facilitates comprehension.
• It includes multimedia and helpful HTML elements, such as images, tables, bulleted lists, and subheadings, to reinforce understanding and information retention.

2. Content Optimization for Search Engines

Search engine-geared SEO marketing strategies focus more on the format of the text than its contents. To that end, they rely on the following:

• Meta title — A shortened and catchier version of each page’s title
• Meta description — A short summary of the contents of each page, explaining why it is worth visiting
• Keywords — Words relevant to the topic distributed through the text for web crawlers (online information sorter mechanism) to recognize and consider when ranking your pages
• Image alt text — Short inscriptions attached to the images in the text, containing relevant keywords and descriptions about each image
• URL — Web address of your page, referencing the contents of the page in a simple and concise manner
• Internal links — Hyperlinks that lead to other related pages on your website, signaling that each page is part of a bigger and more significant topic

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to advertising practices outside the confines of your website. For the sake of better understanding, you can think of it as a referral program. It's like a word-of-mouth approach to what is SEO marketing today. 

This branch of digital advertising relies primarily on two practices — backlinking and reviews. However, experienced SEO marketers use a raft of other helpful tactics.

1. Backlinking

The most effective off-page SEO online marketing occurs through backlinking. This approach refers to the process of other websites linking to your pages. 

As you can imagine, this isn’t a walk in the park. Your web pages must be either relevant enough for the topic they cover to be referenced so frequently or valuable or convenient for other websites to want to link to them. However, if you manage to establish a good backlinking network, you’ll reap plenty of benefits.

Link building from authoritative or well-known websites can help your brand gain recognition and boost its reputation. It’ll also drive more traffic, improving your overall reach and conversion rates. In turn, search engines like Google will recognize your products or services as popular, reliable, and highly regarded and rank your website higher in related SERPs.

2. Reviews and Ratings

Another commonly used off-page internet marketing SEO technique involves ratings and reviews. These can be formal reviews from reputable sources or direct customer testimonials. 

The former include web pages devoted to product and service analyses and assessments to help customers find the most suitable solution. The latter involves individual customer feedback and comments on third-party sites like Yelp, TestPilot, Google Business Profile, and similar. 

Whatever the case, the quantity of reviews directly impacts your brand's perceived relevance to customers. The more of them there are, the more relevant your brand will appear on the market. This is, of course, assuming that the reviews are favorable. Negative reviews, as you might expect, would have the opposite effect.

3. Other Relevant Tactics

Outside of link building and reviews, you can improve your off-page SEO through the following methods:

• Social media marketing — Posting consistent high-quality and engaging content across multiple popular networks
• Listing management — Keeping company data featured on other digital platforms accurate, relevant, and informative
• Content marketing — Using diverse, relevant promotional forms, from research studies to podcasts, to advertise and keep your brand in the public eye

Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the design and architecture of your website. It demonstrates your dedication to providing an efficient and effective customer experience. Additionally, it ensures that web crawlers can properly search and index your pages.

Here are the tactics that can make what is SEO marketing used on your website effective from a technical standpoint:

• Make your website load faster by using an appropriate hosting solution, implementing browser HTTP caching, minifying JS and CSS files, limiting the number of HTTP requests, and so on.
• Optimize your website for mobile devices through code without sacrificing your design choices or the site’s usability.
• Create and maintain a site map by structuring data so it’s comprehensive to crawlers and customers alike.
• Invest in a high-quality customer management system and security protocols to accommodate users, add value to your content, and improve your brand’s reputation.

Conclusion

Simply having a website is no longer sufficient to sell products or services on the internet. You must leverage search engine optimization to run a successful online business. 

With the ever-evolving marketing climate and rapid tech advancements, this isn’t an easy task. Nevertheless, if you regularly ask yourself, “What is SEO marketing?” you should be able to keep up with industry shifts and remain competitive. In return, you’ll reach your target demographic faster and more accurately, drive more traffic, improve conversion rates, and boost your returns.

FAQ

What is SEO marketing, and how does it work?

SEO marketing is an advertising strategy that reconstructs and optimizes your digital content to improve your online presence, reach, and conversion rates.

What is an example of SEO?

Examples of SEO marketing practices include keyword distribution, compelling meta titles and meta descriptions, internal and external linking, and more.

How do I start SEO marketing?

You can start SEO marketing on your own by researching and acquiring the right tools online. However, you’ll get the best results the fastest if you hire a digital marketing agency with extensive experience in the field.

What is SEO for beginners?

SEO for beginners comprises a simplified set of strategies designed to help them get their foot in the door of the digital marketing sector. It involves methods that enable businesses to attract and engage audiences more effectively.