The term “SEO” is synonymous with inbound marketing. Many tech-savvy companies have embraced this cohesive strategy, developing the dynamic duo that is SEO and content. 

SEO is one of the core building blocks to any successful inbound strategy. Why? It helps you increase your visibility online. Inbound marketing is all about making yourself accessible to your customers, earning their attention. Let’s unpack the most effective ways you can incorporate it into your inbound campaign.

How does SEO work?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In layman’s terms, it’s the process of improving your site to increase its visibility. 

Search engines like Google or Bing use bots to comb the web, from page to page, collecting information and storing it in an index. The algorithms take hundreds of ranking factors or signals into account, determining the order pages should appear relative to particular search terms. 

Various factors affect your SEO. These include on-page elements like content quality, thorough keyword research, meta title, meta description, and off-page details like backlinks, social media, and online directories. 

Designed to surface relevant, authoritative pages to consumers, SEO algorithms provide an efficient search experience. Unlike paid search ads, you can’t buy your way to the top. The only way you’ll improve your organic ranking is by improving your SEO. It’s a practice you’d be silly not to embrace. 

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing is a business methodology designed to attract customers. You can do this by creating valuable content, tailored to their experience. It means you’re attracting the right consumers, creating what they’re looking for online. 

A cornerstone of any in-depth inbound marketing strategy is SEO. It’s the perfect marriage of brand-focused content with a customer-focused approach. By incorporating SEO best practice into your plan, you’ll make your brand as visible as possible online.  

5 Effective Ways To Incorporate SEO Into Your Strategy 

1. Create A Blog

Blogging is one of the best ways to incorporate SEO into your inbound strategy. It’s an excellent tool for engaging with your customers from a content marketing side, building brand love. From a technical point of view, it’s one of the best ways to improve your SEO. 

A few tips to consider:

• While you need to write from keywords, remember you’re writing for humans. It needs to be engaging and exciting to read.
• Prioritize your meta title and description. It is often forgotten and is one of the critical elements of successful SEO.
• Use your content to create answers. Allow long-tail keywords to generate questions your content addresses. 
• Use plug-ins like Yoast to help you remember the little things.
• Keep it updated with longer-form articles. Quality will always take preference over quantity but don’t wait too long between your posts. SEO takes time, and you need to keep building on it to optimize your content continually.

2. Optimize Your Social Media Marketing

Any marketing efforts you conduct through your social media channels will directly affect your SEO ranking. Link directly to social media pages with high credibility, and you’ll boost your page’s ranking. By using hashtags and tagging influencers, you can make your social content more visible.

You can post optimized content on your channels to improve your position even more. You can do this by including the right keywords and incorporating high-quality links. 

Invest some budget in growing your followers; it has a direct impact on your SERP. If you’re competing for a spot, the account with the higher following always takes precedence. 

3. Bring SEO Into Your Email Marketing

Most marketers forget about SEO when it comes to email marketing. A high-quality email campaign requires personalized content. The more you personalize your content, the more targeted it becomes, which means you’re already operating in the realm of SEO.

Use emails to drive traffic to your site, linking to your blog posts or articles. Instead of housing the whole piece in your newsletter communications, give them a teaser and send them to your site. Include your social media links – it’s another way to build search traffic. 

Generating leads is one of the main objectives for an inbound marketing strategy, so once they’re in your funnel, maintain that relationship. It’ll allow you to build up a list of engaged users. 

Another perk of email marketing is A/B testing. You can use your subject lines to test keyword performance. That way, you can learn how to optimize your content across the board.  

4. Incorporate Keywords Everywhere

Using keywords has always been an essential element of SEO, but many companies fail to do it across the board. Don’t just worry about keywords on site. Roll out the same attention to detail across all your content touchpoints. Everything needs to be included in your keyword strategy, from emails to content, copywriting, and social media. 

Create a list of keywords through your research and consistently maintain it. Take note of search volume and keyword competition but always look back on this list before embarking on any content creation. 

5. Leverage Your Knowledge

Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of SEO and inbound marketing is the volume of information you share. A solid inbound strategy means you’re attracting customers by providing them the information they’re after online. Most brands worry if they give too much away, customers won’t need their product. 

It’s a risk worth taking. Don’t hold back on the knowledge you have and concentrate on driving traffic to your site. The sales will come, and you’ll build up your brand reputation simultaneously.    

There’s No Inbound Without SEO

Inbound marketing focuses on converting traffic into leads, offering consumers the right content or experience. SEO focuses on attracting more traffic to your site, improving your ranking. The better your position, the more traffic you’ll have, the higher your conversions. 

Perfecting SEO is vital to the success of any inbound marketing campaign. It’s intimidating at first, but you can feed it into all your communication touchpoints. It’s a skill worthy of your attention.