An inbound marketing plan that is well thought out and executed, like a winning baseball team, has many moving parts. And, as pitching is to baseball, SEO is to your inbound marketing strategy. So, my question is, “Who is managing your SEO?”

As an inbound marketer, it is critical to understand the importance of a sound SEO strategy, see how it complements your overall SEM (search engine marketing) strategy, and put the right people in charge of managing and executing it. SEM is the process of gaining traffic from search engines. While SEO is a part of this process, Search Engine Marketing encompasses many other tools including Google AdWords and Pay-Per-Click advertising. It is the paid component of the entire campaign. Do not fall into the trap of thinking a sound SEO strategy is less important than your paid SEM activity. In many ways, it is even more important.

The chart below clearly illustrates the significance of a strong SEO strategy. Over 90% of all activity on the web begins on a search engine. Close to 87% of that traffic in the U.S. begins with Google (that percentage is even higher internationally).

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search,academic search,[1] news search and industry-specific vertical search engines. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number ofbacklinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.” (From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization)

SEO is part of an overarching SEM strategy as well as one of the most cost-effective and powerful components of an inbound digital marketing campaign. Effective SEO increases your ranking, thus increasing your brand awareness and traffic. If your SEO is sound, you will be found. Make sure you have one of your most trusted marketing partners managing it.

Questions for you:

• Are you engaging in SEO?
• If so, who manages it?
• How do you know if your SEO is working?