What is SEO Marketing? Definition, Importance and Types
SEO marketing is a type of digital marketing that optimizes web pages for search engines like Google so that they can be found more easily by your target audience. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has come a long way since the days of keyword stuffing and clickbait (copy).
To rank high in search results from Google and other major search engines, your website’s content needs to be relevant to the intent of your potential visitors. Optimizing your site for SEO is all about understanding how search engines work and how people use them. Here, we’ll look at the different types of SEO marketing and how to improve your online store or website’s search results.
What is SEO Marketing?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a marketing strategy to increase the visibility of a website on search engine results pages (SERPs). Techniques include keyword optimization, creating quality content, link building, improving site speed, and making it mobile-friendly.
Why is SEO marketing important?
Search engines are the primary way users find websites. So whether you’re creating informative content or selling a commercial product, making sure users can find your site in searches is a big part of running a successful website.
For commerce, 59% of shoppers use Google Search to research products they want to buy offline or online, and nearly half of consumers use Google to discover new products.
With that in mind, eCommerce SEO is a crucial element in ensuring that your site appears early and often in search engine results for search terms related to the products or services you offer. The simple truth is that no matter how great your website is, if your search rankings are low, it will be difficult for visitors to find it.
Types of SEO Marketing
SEO activities can be broadly divided into three categories. Let’s look at each:
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Technical SEO
1. On-page SEO
As the largest category of SEO marketing activities, on-page SEO involves optimizing your website’s content (including text, images, and videos) so that visitors and search engines can understand and navigate the information you post.
Search engines look for on-page factors that help determine the quality of your content and use these factors to rank your site on search results pages. Examples of on-page SEO factors include topic relevance, metadata, and the slug in your page URL.
Topic relevance
Web pages that rank highly in search engines contain content that closely matches the user’s search intent. That is, they consider what the searcher is looking for when they type in a query and provide the information or service they are looking for.
Best practices for creating SEO content include providing original information, updating facts regularly, and covering topics within your website's area of expertise.
Metadata
Metadata is not visible to the average website visitor because it does not appear on the web page. Instead, meta information is embedded in the HTML code of the page, which tags and labels the content so that search engine bots can easily understand it when they crawl the site.
Keeping your metadata comprehensive and up-to-date increases the likelihood that your content will rank. Metadata includes details such as:
- Title tags, specify the name of the web page.
- Meta descriptions summarize the content of a web page.
- Heading and subheading tags structure content and signal topic depth.
- Robot tags: Tell search engines whether to index your page or follow links.
URL slug
A webpage's slug identifies that page within the website's directory. The slug appears after the backslash ("/") in the website's URL. For example, this page's slug is "seo-marketing."
Search engines and visitors read slugs when trying to understand what content is on a page, so you should choose a slug that is close to the keywords that are relevant to the content of your web page.
2. Off-page SEO
SEO marketing is something you can do to improve the rankings of your website as well as other websites.
Off-page SEO is primarily about building backlinks, which increases domain authority. This means creating links to your site from other websites.
Backlinks
Examining links between websites is part of Google’s algorithm, PageRank . This ranking system was one of the first ways Google determined search engine results, and it is still an important part of SEO marketing strategies.
Getting links from trusted websites increases your topic authority and ranking ability. Basically, the more quality backlinks you have, the more search engines interpret your site as trustworthy.
This is based on the assumption that content from high-quality websites will be naturally linked and shared.
Domain Authority
As you create content, build links, and increase organic search traffic, your website's domain authority will increase.
Domain authority is a measure of a site's credibility from the perspective of search engines. Older websites with high domain authority are more likely to rank higher on search engine results pages for keywords related to their specialty.
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO involves making internal changes to your website to improve its search performance. Technical SEO ensures that your site is fast, optimized for search engine crawlers, and mobile-friendly.
Follow these 4 SEO Marketing Strategies
Whether you’re planning SEO for your Shopify store or another website, here are some key SEO marketing strategies to help you rank higher in search results.
- Keyword research
- Competitive Analysis
- Active link building
- Image Optimization
1. Keyword research
Every page on a website that appears in search engine rankings is associated with one or more keywords (also known as search queries). The first step in any SEO project is to determine what keywords visitors are using to find your site.
As a seller, your product may be innovative, but if you don't target the right search keywords, customers may not be able to find it online.
To conduct keyword research, use SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner , Ahrefs , or Moz . These tools will show you which keywords are generating traffic to your site. Use this data to determine which of your existing keywords are most important to your website, and which new keywords you should pursue.
Ideally, your keywords should be popular enough to generate significant traffic, but not too competitive. Overly popular keywords will compete with websites and businesses whose marketing resources exceed your budget.
Use these tools to narrow down the list of keywords that are right for your site and can win.
2. Competitive Analysis
Once you know which keywords to target, the next step is to research your SEO competitors who are already ranking highly in search engines for those keywords.
By understanding your competitors’ SEO strategies, you can develop tactics that will help you rank higher and outpace your competitors. With high-quality, relevant, and comprehensive content, even small businesses can use SEO to outperform larger competitors and reach customers first.
A good starting point for competitive analysis is to find out where your competitors are performing best and where their organic traffic is coming from. For example, if your competitor is driving a lot of traffic through informative blog posts, you can use those posts as inspiration for developing your own content. You can use the keyword research tools mentioned above to do this.
3. Active link building
Although it can be time-consuming, link building is a well-known way to improve your search engine rankings. Getting links from authoritative sites to your website signals to search engines that your content is worth visiting.
To implement a link strategy, it is a good idea to establish a presence on social media platforms and local business directories. Primary links generated from these influential sites can give you a boost in search engine results.
Next, promote your business or product on relevant websites or news outlets that your audience uses. If you are a subject matter expert, consider offering a blog post that links back to your website. If all else fails, you can also start a PR campaign and pay for it.
4. Image Optimization
Search engines like Google primarily focus on the text content of a website, but they also crawl images and media . Optimizing your website’s images can improve your on-page SEO while also adding accessibility benefits to your web page visitors.
First, include descriptive keywords in your image file names and write useful alt text for every image on your site. This gives search engines another tool to determine if your content is relevant and valuable.
Next, make sure your images are the optimal size and file format. If your images are too large, they will take longer to load, which will affect your site visitors’ experience. Large images can also cause Google and other search engines to lower your rankings.
SEO Marketing FAQs
What does SEO mean in marketing?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a measurable and repeatable process used to signal to search engines that your page is valuable and worthy of ranking in Google search results.
What is SEM?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves writing relevant content on your website to attract your ideal customers through organic search results and driving traffic through compelling paid search engine advertising. SEM aims to increase traffic by creating new web pages or optimizing existing pages.
What is SEO in Digital Marketing?
In digital marketing, SEO refers to the practice of increasing organic traffic by optimizing the pages of a website to improve search engine rankings, creating new content that targets specific keywords, and improving the overall structure and content of the site to make it more understandable to search engine crawlers.
Is SEO a marketing technique?
Yes, SEO is a marketing technique. It involves optimizing the content of your website and increasing traffic through strategic actions. To master SEO, you need to understand keyword research, optimization techniques, and the technical elements of aligning your website with search engine algorithms.
What are some examples of SEO marketing?
An example of SEO marketing is writing blog posts that target specific keywords relevant to your target audience. This strategy increases your chances of ranking higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and increases conversion rates by attracting customers who are looking for information or solutions.
How do I get started with SEO marketing?
- Find keywords with high search volume.
- Understand the search intent of your keywords.
- Create page content based on keyword research data.
- Optimize your page's meta title and description.
- Publish the page.
- Build backlinks to your page or website.
Is SEO marketing paid?
No, SEO marketing is not paid. This is because SEO focuses on improving organic search rankings instead of using paid advertising.
What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
The main difference between SEO and SEM is that SEO focuses on increasing organic traffic through non-paid methods such as optimizing website content and structure. SEM, on the other hand, includes SEO techniques to increase organic traffic and also includes paid advertising to drive additional traffic.