On the last podcast, I mentioned that SEO is the core of all digital marketing channels.
Bold statement. I acknowledge this is a bold statement but it’s one I truly believe and have believed for a very long time now.
I’ve been fortunate to have had this realisation very early on in my career.
I share this opinion with everyone I work with and I wanna explain why I believe that SEO is the core of all digital marketing channels.
SEO helps you to improve your website.
The common regard of SEO is that it’s optimisation for search engines.
SEO is actually optimisation for users, not search engines, users.
You optimise your website for users. You acquire the users via search engines – namely Google.
This isn’t just a play on words. There is a difference to these two ways of regarding SEO. Accepting this way of thinking about SEO will take you very far.
Why?
Because it will have you focused on users. It will have you focused on continual improvements for users. It will have you focused on continual improvements of your website for the users you aim to acquire.
When you regard your SEO as a channel that helps you improve your website for the purpose of serving the users you aim to acquire, you’ll realise that the improvement of your website goes beyond search.
You’ll realise that your optimisation goes beyond SEO, as a channel.
You’ll realise that the improvement of your website because of SEO serves all other channels.
For example, when we advocate for a fast page speed, the benefit of this improvement is for more than the benefit of search.
Yes, search engines want you to have a fast page speed.
This is a need for them to serve their users (searchers) with the best web-pages that match what the searchers are seeking.
So yes, having fast web-pages benefits search – organic search.
It also benefits Paid Search. It benefits Social. It benefits Display. It benefits Email. It benefits all digital marketing channels.
All improvements on your website that comes from SEO benefits all digital marketing channels.
By improving your website for SEO purposes you improve the performance of all marketing channels that are utilised to generate traffic to the website.
And this is because of the work carried out by SEO.
This is one of the reasons why SEO is the most unique marketing channel there is.
It’s a channel that has a touchpoint with other channels, other departments, and requires the collaborate with other channels and departments to really generate results.
SEO, on its own, cannot get you growth-based results.
There is only so much the channel can do before other channels and/or departments are required in order for the channel to perform for itself, for other channels, for the business.
This is why it takes more than SEOs for SEO to be a success.
It is also why you should integrate SEO with other channels and departments.
The more integrated SEO can be with other channels, other departments, the better the results you can yield. Why?
Because SEO, at its core, is a journey of improvements.
There is no end to improvements, there is no limit to what can be improved.
You put SEO with Developers, your website will be improved from a technical point of view.
You put SEO with Creatives, your website will be improved from a content point of view.
You put SEO with PR, and the promotion of your website will be greatly improved – not just digitally but offline as well.
This is the power of SEO. This is what this channel can do for your website.
If you still consider SEO to be a channel of keywords, links and rankings, you have no idea what this channel can do for your online business.
There are levels to this here SEO thing.
There is optimisation of your website, on your website.
There is optimisation of your process, for your website.
There is optimisation of your workforce, for your website.
This is why the awareness of SEO across your business should be an always-on agenda – for as long as you have a website that generates you revenue.
Optimisation, you see, goes way beyond the realm of search engines.
When you view SEO through a wider scope, you’ll see that the channel truly has no limits.
It’s only limited by you, the person who wields the channel.
Wield it appropriately and your website, your business, will continually grow.
You’ll continually see improvements.
Whether the improvements are small iterations or big bold changes, you’ll see better performance – with all channels.
This is what SEO brings to the table.
Even the biggest websites out there, the biggest brands, the likes of Apple, the likes of Amazon, view SEO as a core channel that drives business growth.
I should know. I’ve worked for some of these big brands.
Whether they have SEO covering one pillar – say, technical or on-page – or they have all 3 pillars active, they have their SEO as an always-on agenda.
This agenda goes beyond their presence on search engines – this is only a portion.
The extended benefit for them to continually invest in SEO is to manage the risk of losing the status quo of their traffic as they grow and serve more users.
You gotta realise, your website is a massive asset.
Your web-pages are also assets.
SEO is a channel that helps you manage these assets by growing them and, simultaneously, ensuring they do not become liabilities.
Doesn’t this seem like a reflection of your business?
Isn’t an ecomms site, having business units, PLPs and PDPs, similar to having departments, teams, individuals in one’s business?
It kinda is, isn’t it?
So, you see, awareness of SEO, in some ways, in many ways, is awareness of your business.
SEO is not that foreign, afterall. Is it…?
