Integrate SEO into a complete marketing strategy

In this guide, you’ll read all about search engine optimization, or Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and its relationship to other marketing channels. SEO is an important part of digital marketing. It increases your website’s visibility within search engine results and drives more traffic (traffic) to that page. SEO can also influence other marketing channels, such as SEA, social media marketing, email marketing and content marketing. Companies with an integrated digital marketing strategy can use SEO to improve the performance of their other marketing channels. By integrating SEO into the marketing strategy can get more out of this strategy.

How does SEO compare to the other marketing channels?

The term SEO refers to all the efforts you make to optimize a website. Its goal is to rank higher in the organic search results of search engines like Google.

SEO can also be thought of as one of the many marketing channels companies use to promote their products and/or services. Other marketing channels they can use for that purpose include:

  1. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads: placing ads on search engines and social media platforms. When a user clicks on the ad, you as the advertiser pay a certain amount for it.
  1. Social media marketing: promoting products and services on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
  1. Email marketing: sending targeted emails to a specific audience to promote producer and/or services.
  1. Content marketing: creating relevant, valuable content to attract and retain customers. Content can include blogs, videos and infographics.

SEO is an essential part of digital marketing because it helps improve a website’s visibility. It also allows you to generate more organic traffic(1). Applying SEO alone is not enough. For a complete marketing plan, integrate search engine optimization with other marketing channels. By combining SEO with other channels such as PPC, social media marketing and content marketing, you can increase the reach of your business. With a complete marketing plan, you can reach and appeal to your target audience in a variety of ways.

Full review

ChannelInfluence of SEO
Content MarketingSEO insights can help identify topics and keywords relevant to your target audience, which can help shape your content strategy. Good SEO practices can also increase the visibility and reach of your content.
Social MediaAlthough social signals do not directly contribute to SEO, sharing content on social media can lead to increased visibility, traffic and backlinks, which can ultimately improve your SEO.
PRPR activities can help generate high-quality backlinks, which is an important factor for SEO. Conversely, SEO insights can help identify relevant publications and influencers for PR efforts.
Email MarketingSEO can help drive more organic traffic to your site, which can result in more signups to your email list. Conversely, email marketing can be used to increase the reach of your content and generate more traffic and backlinks.
Paid Search Advertising (SEM).SEO and SEM can complement each other. For example, keywords that perform well in SEO can be used in paid search campaigns, and vice versa. Moreover, a combined SEO/SEM strategy can lead to increased visibility in search results.

How does SEO compare to SEA?

SEO and SEA (Search Engine Advertising) both focus on search engine marketing, but work in different ways. Both SEO and SEA have some advantages and disadvantages.

SEO is used to improve the organic visibility of your website in search engines. You optimize the website and its content to achieve higher positions in the organic (free) search results of search engines such as Google. SEO is a long-term strategy that requires consistency and perseverance. It takes some time for the effect of your efforts to show up, but SEO has a big impact on your organic findability. It is an efficient method of generating traffic cost-effectively.

In contrast, SEO focuses on paid advertising in search engines. You will create and place paid search ads on platforms such as Google AdWords. SEA is used to generate short-term traffic. In addition to increasing a website’s conversion rate, SEA also helps increase its brand awareness. It is important to be aware that SEA is expensive and the immediate effect ends at the end of a campaign. That means a constant investment is needed to keep generating traffic.

In short, SEO is aimed at improving a website’s organic visibility. Proper search engine optimization can generate cost-effective traffic in the long run. SEA involves advertising in search engines and can generate traffic quickly. However, it requires constant investment and can be more expensive. To take advantage of the benefits of both channels, apply both strategies to optimize your search engine marketing.

In what ways do SEO and SEA campaigns influence each other?

SEO and SEA are closely linked and can influence each other in a variety of ways.

A well-executed SEO campaign can have a positive effect on an SEA campaign. Through increased organic visibility, a website can generate more traffic. This can increase the conversion rate of the SEA campaign. Moreover, an SEO-optimized website can result in a higher quality score for the SEA campaign. This can reduce the cost per click (CPC).

In turn, an SEA campaign can also have a positive effect on an SEO campaign. Through SEA campaigns, a company can generate revenue quickly. With targeted marketing and keyword testing, it can improve the ROI of the SEO campaign. In addition, you can use data from SEA campaigns to measure the effectiveness of certain keywords and ads. You can factor the results into determining the most efficient SEO strategy.

However, it is important to remember that SEO and SEA are two different channels. Both have their own goals and practices. For that reason, you need to carefully integrate and optimize them. This is how you achieve an integrated digital marketing strategy that maximizes your results.

How does SEO relate to social media marketing?

Social media marketing is also an important digital marketing channel. When you compare these to SEO, you can conclude that the goals and practices differ.

SEO, as mentioned earlier, focuses on the optimization of a website. Its goal is to rank higher in the organic search results of search engines in Google. This generates more traffic and increases the visibility of your business and brand.

In contrast, social media marketing is used to achieve engagement from and interaction with your target audience. To do this, use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. The goal of social media marketing is to grow a brand. Specifically, this is done through likes, shares and comments. The ultimate goal is to use this to convert more customers. In most cases, conversion refers to making a purchase.

Although SEO and social media marketing serve different purposes, they can complement each other. By posting relevant, valuable content on social media channels and promoting it with SEO techniques, you increase the visibility of your business and brand on both channels. You can also use social media channels to generate backlinks to your website. High-quality backlinks contribute to a website’s authority and reach in search engines(2).

In short, SEO and social media marketing are two different digital marketing channels that can complement each other. Combined, they are capable of increasing your brand’s visibility and your target audience’s engagement with that brand. It is important to apply an integrated marketing strategy in which both channels play a role.

In what ways do SEO campaigns and social media campaigns influence each other?

SEO and social media marketing are closely linked. The two digital marketing forms can influence each other in different ways.

A well-executed SEO strategy can positively affect the performance of a social media campaign. Do you apply SEO techniques when creating content for social media channels? Then this increases the visibility of that content in search engines. This can include identifying keywords that are relevant to the topic of the content. You then strategically integrate these into the website’s content and metadata. Chances are this will bring more organic traffic to your website and a higher ranking in search results.

Conversely, a well-executed social media campaign can also have a positive effect on SEO strategy. Through your social media channels, you can share links to your website and generate traffic that way. This can increase the authority of the website and improve the quality of backlinks, which usually results in better rankings in search engine organic search results.

As with the other channels, SEO and social media marketing have different goals and practices. Therefore, integrate the two carefully into your digital marketing strategy to achieve maximum results.

How does SEO relate to email marketing?

Email marketing is another value-added digital marketing channel. In what ways its goals and operation differ from those of SEO, you’ll read below.

With SEO, you try to generate more organic traffic to your website by optimizing it. Thus, your website obtains a higher position in the organic search results of search engines such as Google. Email marketing, on the other hand, focuses on promoting products or services through targeted emails. You send these emails to a specific target audience. By approaching customers directly, you can alert them to relevant information and offers. Your ultimate goal is to increase conversion.

Although SEO and email marketing serve different purposes, they can complement each other. For example, an email campaign might include a link to your SEO-optimized website. This increases organic traffic to it. SEO can also help build an email list. By getting potential customers to visit the website, you can interest them there to sign up for an email list.

In short, SEO and email marketing can be used simultaneously to increase your company’s reach and conversions. Make them both part of an integrated marketing strategy to achieve maximum results.

In what ways do SEO campaigns and email marketing campaigns influence each other?

SEO and e-mail marketing are closely linked and can affect each other in different ways.

A well-executed SEO strategy contributes positively to an email marketing campaign. By applying SEO techniques when creating content for the website and emails, you increase its visibility in search engines. By identifying keywords relevant to the topic and integrating them into your website content, you create more organic traffic. This leads to higher rankings in search results and thus more traffic to the landing pages you mention in your emails.

Conversely, a well-executed email marketing campaign can also have a positive effect on SEO strategy. By making sure you include links in your emails to valuable content on your website, you generate more traffic. You thus improve the quality of backlinks as well as the authority of your website. That will get you an even better position in the organic results of search engines.

Because SEO and email marketing have different goals and practices, it is important to carefully integrate and optimize them. By making them part of a complete digital marketing strategy, you manage to achieve even better results with them.

How does SEO relate to content marketing?

Using SEO, you optimize your website to make it rank higher in the search results of search engines like Google. This will generate more traffic to your website. Content (content) plays an important role in this. Content marketing focuses specifically on creating valuable and relevant content. Examples include blogs, videos, white papers and infographics. The purpose of this content is to inform and engage the target audience(3) . With this form of marketing, you are trying to build a relationship with your target audience and get them to take a certain action. This could involve the purchase of a product or service, but could also be signing up for an email list or sharing certain content.

If you apply SEO techniques when creating content, it will increase its visibility in search engines. It is important to research relevant keywords and strategically integrate them into your website’s content and metadata.

Using content marketing, you can improve the relevance of your content. Your target audience thus becomes more strongly involved with your brand or company. This leads to a higher ranking in search results and an increase in organic traffic to your website. So by using SEO techniques in your content marketing, you can significantly improve your company’s ranking.

In what ways do SEO and content marketing campaigns influence each other?

From the above, you have realized that there is a close relationship between SEO and content marketing. The two can influence each other in different ways.

Applying proper SEO techniques when creating content will increase your visibility in search engines. In doing so, it is important to research relevant keywords and then strategically integrate them.

In addition, a well-executed content marketing campaign can also have a positive effect on SEO strategy. With valuable, relevant content that you have optimized for search engines, you can generate more organic traffic. This way you also improve the quality of your backlinks and the authority of your website. These factors also contribute to improved rankings in search engine organic search results.

Both channels have different goals and practices. Maximum results are achieved by carefully integrating and optimizing both into your digital marketing strategy. By applying SEO techniques when creating content and improving its relevance through content marketing, you as a business owner can generate even more organic traffic to your website.

The benefits of an SEO campaign to the other marketing channels

A well-executed SEO campaign provides several benefits to other marketing channels. Below I give some examples of this:

  1. Increased visibility: SEO campaigns focus on optimizing a website. Its purpose is to rank higher in search engine search results. This allows the website to attract more organic traffic. That, in turn, leads to more visibility for other marketing channels such as SEA, social media marketing and email marketing.
  1. Improved quality score: SEO techniques help improve the quality score of an SEA campaign. This can be explained by the fact that websites optimized for SEO can receive a higher quality score. This often results in a lower cost-per-click (CPC).
  1. Better targeting: are you applying SEO techniques when creating content for other marketing channels? Then you improve targeting and know how to reach potential customers even better.
  1. Higher ROI: A well-executed SEO campaign can improve the ROI of other marketing channels. This is because it generates more traffic and conversions.
  1. Increased brand recognition: by ranking higher in search engine search results, a company can increase the visibility and recognition of its brand. This can result in more traffic to the website through other marketing channels.
  1. Better UX: SEO campaigns also focus on improving the user experience, or user experience (UX), of a website. Higher user experience can also contribute to the quality of other marketing channels. By providing a better UX, a website can attract more traffic. In addition, you can increase the time a visitor spends on your website and improve conversions(4).
  1. Greater authority: a well-executed SEO campaign helps build a website’s authority. This can lead to better performance from other marketing channels. This is because potential customers see companies with higher authority as more trustworthy and knowledgeable.
  1. Better competitiveness: by ranking higher in search engine search results, you can improve your company’s competitiveness. This can also lead to other marketing channels performing better. After all, potential customers prefer your company to competitors.
  1. Improved user intent: through keyword research and optimizing a website’s content for search engines, you can better focus on user intent. This allows you to create more targeted marketing campaigns in other channels, including social media and email marketing.
  1. Better knowledge of the target audience: SEO campaigns help gather information about the target audience. This could include the search terms they use to search for certain products or services. You use this information to create better marketing campaigns in other channels.
  1. Better branding: with a high ranking in search engine organic search results, you improve your company’s branding. you can so position them as an authority on a particular area. This can also yield better performance in other marketing channels as customers prefer your company.
  1. Increased engagement: a well-executed SEO campaign can increase audience engagement with other marketing channels. One way you achieve this is by integrating keywords into your website content that are relevant to social media campaigns.
  1. Lower costs: investing in SEO means attracting long-term organic traffic without paying for it. So you face lower costs than with other marketing channels such as SEA, where you pay for clicks or views.
  1. Improved measurability: a well-executed SEO campaign can improve the measurability of other marketing channels. For example, by tracking the performance of certain keywords in search engine results, you can better understand and optimize their performance in other channels(5).
  1. Improved reputation: a high ranking in organic search results makes it more likely that you will build a good reputation with potential customers. That reliable and professional appearance can lead to better performance in other marketing channels.
  1. Higher conversions: by optimizing a website for SEO, you can improve conversions from other marketing channels. For example, you do this by optimizing landing pages for certain keywords that are relevant to the content of marketing campaigns from other channels.
  1. Increased authority: with the right SEO techniques, you increase the authority of your website. As a result, potential customers see your company as trustworthy and knowledgeable. This, in turn, can lead to better performance in other marketing channels.
  1. Increased engagement: well-executed SEO campaigns can increase audience engagement with other marketing channels. This is done, for example, by optimizing website content for certain keywords that are also relevant to social media campaigns.
  1. Improved customer experience: SEO campaigns also focus on improving the user experience (UX) of a website. Potential customers generally rate an easy-to-use website as more professional. This can also positively affect the performance of other marketing channels.
  1. More data insight: by running SEO campaigns, you collect more and more data about your target audience. Using these to improve your future marketing campaigns in other channels such as social media or email marketing.

In short, a well-executed SEO campaign can have several benefits for other marketing channels. These can include increased visibility, improved targeting, higher quality score and improved ROI. An integrated digital marketing strategy that combines SEO with other marketing channels is essential for online success.

The impact of SEO on your website’s conversion rate

SEO can significantly affect the conversion rate of your website. Below I describe some examples of ways SEO can affect conversion:

  1. Better quality traffic: SEO techniques allow you to target keywords that are relevant to your target audience. This results in more targeted traffic to your website, which in turn results in higher conversions.
  1. Better user experience: a well-executed SEO campaign also focuses on improving the user experience (UX) of a website. You can think about reducing your website’s load time, optimizing content for mobile devices and improving navigation. A higher user experience usually leads to more conversions.
  1. Improved visibility: by ranking higher in search engine search results, you gain more visibility with potential customers. Increased visibility can result in more traffic and more conversions.
  1. Increased trust: a high ranking in the search results of search engines like Google creates more trust with potential customers. Customers are more likely to convert when a company appears trustworthy and professional.
  1. Lower bounce rate: using SEO techniques, you can reduce your website’s bounce rate. By bounce rate, we mean the number of visitors who leave your website again before they have clicked through to other pages on your site. Reducing your bounce rate is done by optimizing content for keywords relevant to the target audience, for example. Improving the user experience is also an important contribution. A lower bounce rate can lead to higher conversions. This is because potential customers spend more time on your Web site, creating a greater propensity to take an action (conversion).

In short, SEO can play an important role in improving a website’s conversion rate. It does this through better quality traffic, a better user experience, improved visibility, increased trust and a lower bounce rate. It is important to realize that SEO is an ongoing process. Continuous attention and optimization are required to achieve and maintain maximum results.

Conclusion

SEO is an essential part of digital marketing and can provide significant benefits to other marketing channels. Well-executed SEO campaigns can deliver improved visibility, authority and reputation. You can also improve the quality of your website traffic, increase the engagement of your target audience and increase their conversions. SEO and other marketing channels are closely linked. It is important to note that you need to combine these with each other to speak of a strong, integrated digital marketing strategy. By using SEO and other marketing channels efficiently, you improve your company’s online presence and make it easier to achieve your business goals.

Senior SEO-specialist

Ralf van Veen

Senior SEO-specialist
Five stars
My clients give me a 5.0 on Google out of 78 reviews

I have been working for 12 years as an independent SEO specialist for companies (in the Netherlands and abroad) that want to rank higher in Google in a sustainable manner. During this period I have consulted A-brands, set up large-scale international SEO campaigns and coached global development teams in the field of search engine optimization.

With this broad experience within SEO, I have developed the SEO course and helped hundreds of companies with improved findability in Google in a sustainable and transparent way. For this you can consult my portfolio, references and collaborations.

This article was originally published on 22 March 2024. The last update of this article was on 22 March 2024. The content of this page was written and approved by Ralf van Veen. Learn more about the creation of my articles in my editorial guidelines.