How does SEO compare to other marketing channels and how does it integrate with them
SEO encompass many aspects of digital marketing; it is a very broad discipline. The reason is that over the years SEO has evolved to a point where it touches upon many other aspects of digital marketing channels.
Almost all of your other campaigns need to consider Search Engine Optimization for optimal results. Combined, though, all these can produce a complete and unstoppable online marketing campaign.
SEO Vs SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
One marketing discipline often intertwined, or at least very relevant to SEO is SEM. SEM is short for Search Engine Marketing. SEM involves paying for your spot in the search engine placement, and is a form of paid advertising. Though you may be tempted to consider SEO as a part of “Search Engine Marketing,” typically when talking to marketing professionals, they are referring to paid advertising, like Google Adwords.
One focus of SEO is on creating content that matches the user’s search queries. SEO is about earning your spot in the search engine results page (SERPS). SEM is about paying for your place in the search engine results page. The reason why SEO is often viewed as a higher ROI marketing channel is that, once you earn your rankings in Google, you will not have to pay for each click. Whereas with SEM, you always need to pay Google (or Yahoo, Bing, etc.) for every click your website receives for your listing.
The reason why SEO is often viewed as a higher ROI marketing channel is because, once you earn your rankings in Google, you will not have to pay for each click. Whereas with SEM, you always need to pay Google (or Yahoo, Bing, etc) for every click your website receives for your listing.
With a pay per click campaign using Google Adwords, you would bid on certain keywords. It involves setting up daily limits for your campaign as well. Then every time someone clicked on your advertisement listing, Google will charge you for each click.
SEO Vs PPC: Pay per click
There are many forms of PPC advertising, or pay per click marketing. For example there are pay per click networks on major search engines, social media sites, etc. But again, compared to SEO, you have to pay for each individual click to your website, whereas with SEO you don’t have to pay for each click.
Here are some of the popular PPC networks available:
- Google Adwords: This is where you pay for an advertising spot on the Google search engine, paid per click.
- Google Adsense: This is a network where individual website owners can choose to take a part in. You can pay for your ad placement, so you show up on the network of sites. Every time your ad gets clicked on from third party websties, you have to pay, the website owner gets a cut, and Google gets their cut as well.
- Bing Ads: This is similar to Google Adwords, but it is on the Bing search engine.
- Facebook ads: This is a PPC network on facebook. You can create an ad on facebook that targets your intended audience. You can pay per click or per impression (view).
- Twitter ads: This is similar to Facebook ads, but on Twitter.
- Chitika: this is another ad network where you can pay per click or by impressions (views).
SEO Vs Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing has gotten much more mainstream as a serious marketing channel over the years. Social media can be used to generate free exposure and traffic, along with boosting the power of your SEO efforts. It’s also often used as a paid advertising channel to generate paid traffic.
Social media is getting more and more intertwined with SEO these days. Google is starting to take notice of a company’s full online presence. They are looking at many factors to gauge a “brand signals,” which are considered signs of trust.
The online image of a company is very relevant in today’s SEO environment. Social media marketing is one way to show a brand’s presence, which can add strength to an SEO campaign. Also, it is a way to become an authority in your niche and to market your company’s content.
SEO Vs Content Marketing
Content marketing and SEO seemed to reside on two different islands not that long ago. Now they have joined forces. Essentially these days, the best SEO campaigns have strong content and content marketing strategies.
Content marketing is very intertwined with SEO because good content is really the foundation of SEO – So much so, that the term ‘content is king’ has become somewhat of a cliche in the SEO world.
As competition on the internet increases, more and more content is produced every day. Now, more than ever, there is a need for great content marketing to have an effective SEO campaign.
SEO Vs Public Relations
Public Relations is an essential part of SEO because it focuses on building relationships and promoting your content. Content promotion is critical for getting backlinks to your website. Backlinks act as ‘votes’ to your site that trigger a popularity signal for Google. The more backlinks you earn, the more Google will trust that you are an authority on any given industry, topic, or keyword.
The more editorial backlinks you earn, the more likely you with achieve great long-term rankings in Google (and other search engines). With good backlinks, you will have a much higher chance of ranking number one on Google. Since number 1-3 results (especially #1) in Google, get the lion’s share of traffic, a great natural backlink profile is incredibly important; a link profile is just the collection of your links, judged by quality and quantity, with a higher emphasis on quality.
Bringing it all together
I believe SEO is the most diverse marketing discipline there is because it covers such a broad range of subjects. This diversity is why SEO can be very exciting, yet very challenging. There is always a lot to learn, and what you learn is a moving target. SEO best practices are continually changing at a rapid speed because Google is always changing its ranking factors, search algorithm and thus the SEO best practices changes.
The various disciplines in the digital marking spectrum come together to produce a successful SEO campaign. To have an in-depth understanding of SEO you need to have an understanding of the digital marketing landscape as a whole.
Since SEO is an incredibly diverse field, some people chose to focus on an SEO specialization. For example, some people specialize in local SEO, technical SEO, link building, or SEO copywriting. Many others take a more general approach, and will focus on learning all aspects of SEO. These people tend to be very passionate about SEO, since learning all aspects of SEO can take years.
At Social Patterns, we are passionate about SEO and we are well versed in all areas of SEO. We know the ins and outs of SEO, from local SEO, Technical SEO, link building, to Content marketing and on-page optimization – we’ve got you covered.