What is the conceptual difference between SEO and online marketing?

There is a misconception regarding online marketing and search engine optimization. People generally consider both to be the same, although they work very differently, and have different results. When you search for digital marketing solution and again for SEO solutions, you get to see ads for SEO and marketing experts and their services. And most of them specify that they are experts in SEO, off the page, on page, social media marketing, search engine marketing and so on. So what is the difference, and what exactly do you need for being visible online? Here comes the answer.

Where exactly you need to be visible?

You need to be visible online in search engine results pages. This means you need to be visible to search engines. There are so many millions and trillions of web pages, and every web page has a location which is identified by the search engines. Then what does it means to be visible? Well, visibility here refers to the prominent position where you should be so that the searches return your webpage at a place of the search results page, which others can easily see.

Like if your webpage is returned in a search result in the 5th position of the 70th page, then will you be located by the user? Do you think the user would bother to click through 70 pages to find you in the 5th position and feel blessed? Not! To be seen you have to be at the top or near the top. The web pages on the first 4 positions from the top get the most views and clicks. And the rest of the 6-page links after that also stands chances to get some views in case the first 4 did not cater to the need. In rare occasions, a user may flip to the second page to check through the results.

Hence, you can understand pretty well that there is no visibility and chance for the website on the second page even to get a click. And therefore visibility refers to be in the first page of the search results at a position as topmost as possible.

What is the role of SEO?

SEO means search engine optimization. This refers to a process where a webpage is optimized or made viewable in the eyes of the search engine. Elements and contents in the page are arranged and placed such that search engines index the page better in return to the search queries. And the apter the page is optimized, the better would be the position of the site in the search results page. To add to the effort, backlinks are built for that site. The job of the backlinks is to create many external links for the site/page, clicking on which would take the user to that webpage.

Such inbound links spread across the web, in various relevant pages which deals with the niche of the site, makes the role and niche of the site more prominent before search engine spiders. Therefore the site gets connected all the more in the eyes of the search engine to that specific search topic/term/keyword. And this is what increases the visibility of the site.

With the optimum visibility, a webpage must be listed in the first search engine results page. And the webpage on the first position of the first page is the best performer in getting optimized ideally against that search term or keyword. That is what SEO is all about. And the role of SEO is to make a site search engine visible in the best way against a targeted keyword so that without any effort or extra spending of money and advertising, the site stays there. This is merely a result of careful content management and link building for the webpage. And reviews of SEO services you may get on sites like Tayloright will better tell you which services are some of the most competitive in SEO.

What is the role of marketing?

The role of marketing is also quite important. You will always have a waiting period to climb the SERP (search engine results page) ladder. The site will not reach the top three positions in SERP right on the day one you start its SEO. It may take a month or more. And what do you do till then if you are running an e-commerce site, or if you need the site to be viewed very well for the cause? Advertising has its limitations because you spend the money knowing not if it will give you that many real clicks. But marketing on the right platform and social media bring those clicks and views you yearn for. And this contributes to the commercial success of the site too. Hence, online marketing helps there where SEO is still under process and lagging.

Finally- Which is more important?

The role of SEO is always a bit more important than marketing. Both form the pillars for success for the webpage. SEO is that method which helps the site gets the right exposure in SERP. And this happens in a much inexpensive way. You pay for the strategic plan and labor invested for this. Therefore you invest in marketing or not, and you cannot avoid SEO if you want to make a mark online.