A common question I’m asked in the business world is whether SEO is the same as digital marketing. The simple answer? Yes, SEO is digital marketing—but with a specific focus on your website. And when I run SEO campaigns I use other digital business entities such as Google Profiles and YouTube to boost the SEO performance of the website.
What is SEO, and How Does It Fit into Digital Marketing?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is a key part of digital marketing. While digital marketing covers a wide range of strategies—like social media, email marketing, and paid ads—SEO is all about improving your website’s visibility in search engines like Google. How many of the right people are seeing your website.
Think of SEO as the website-focused aspect of digital marketing. It’s about making sure your site performs well, ranks highly for relevant COMMERCIALLY VIABLE keywords, and delivers an excellent user experience. This includes:
- Technical SEO: Making sure your website is fast, secure, and mobile-friendly.
- Content Optimisation: Crafting high-quality, keyword-optimised pages that provide value to your audience.
- Off-Page SEO: Building credibility through backlinks and other external signals.
When I do SEO, I use the strategies that are needed for your specific website and industry. That could mean focusing on technical improvements, refreshing your content, or boosting your off-site presence. SEO isn’t one-size-fits-all—it’s tailored to what your site needs to thrive in your market. This is a challenge sometimes when I’m asked “what are you actually going to do each month in an SEO campaign?” While there are core strategies that must happen each month, after that it is a case of collecting and analysing the data and then making data backed decisions about what needs to be done.
How SEO Complements Other Digital Marketing Efforts
SEO works hand-in-hand with other digital marketing strategies. While it focuses on the organic search visibility of your website, it supports the broader goals of digital marketing, like driving traffic, generating leads, and increasing leads & sales.
For example:
- A well-optimised blog (SEO) can fuel your social media strategy.
- Improving your website’s ranking with SEO can reduce your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) costs. Often my clients actually cancel their PPC campaigns and throw the money into more SEO work.
- SEO data on keywords and user behaviour can guide your email campaigns or content marketing.
When your website is optimised, all your other digital marketing efforts become more effective.
Why SEO is Vital in Digital Marketing
Your website is the foundation of your online presence. Whether someone clicks on an ad, reads your blog, or discovers you through social media, they’re likely to end up on your site. That’s why SEO is such a crucial part of digital marketing—it ensures your website is performing at its best, both for users and search engines, with USERS b
With SEO, you’re building a long-term strategy to grow your visibility, attract organic traffic, and convert visitors into customers. Yes, it’s an investment but you might not need to invest in any more marketing tactics once you start SEO.
Conclusion
Yes, SEO is digital marketing—just with a strong focus on your website. And when I handle SEO, I focus on what your site actually needs, using the right strategies to achieve the best results for your business.
