Inbound Marketing Part Two - SEO

Last week we discussed the meaning of inbound marketing; now that we know what it means, how does it affect and improve SEO? In order to make certain we’re moving forward with a good foundation, let’s first answer this question - what is SEO?

The acronym SEO is most commonly used to stand for “search engine optimization,” a broad overall term that describes any practices designed to improve a site’s ranking with search engines. Sometimes SEO will refer to a “search engine optimizer,” someone whose job it is to monitor search engine rankings and evaluate the steps necessary to either improve them or maintain their strength, whichever the case may be.

So if SEO practices are meant to improve search engine rankings and inbound marketing is meant to draw your customers in, how do the two work together?

First off, inbound marketing on its own will increase traffic to your site by delivering quality content directly to your audience without the need to use a search engine as a middle man. Don’t lose sight of the fact that SEO is a means to an end, not a goal in itself. The real goal is getting your customers to your site, and quality inbound marketing will accomplish that.

However, inbound marketing does also benefit your SEO, making it doubly important to your marketing strategy. One of the factors search engines use in determining your site’s ranking is authority. The search engine makes a judgment of how important your site is based on, among other factors, how many links back to your site it can find throughout the internet.

The more interesting, relevant content you provide, the more your audience will want to link back to your site, and your rankings will benefit from those links. For example, if you write a blog post that provides your customers with content that they enjoy, they may share that post on Facebook - and yes, links posted on social media can affect your authority. Better yet, share the blog post onto your business’s Facebook page, thus making more of your followers aware of it and making it more convenient for them to share it themselves. As your post gets more shares, more links are generated, which improves your search engine rankings and draws more people to your site to view your content. Do this on a regular basis and your online visibility will steadily increase as your followers begin to see you as a consistent source of quality content.

Inbound marketing is generally considered to be an important part of SEO, and given the multiple ways it can benefit your business’s visibility it’s definitely worth a regular time investment!