The Most Effective Ways to Incorporate SEO into Your Inbound Marketing Efforts

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is a fundamental digital marketing strategy that any savvy marketer knows and is putting to use. It’s an organic way of increasing traffic to your website in order to drive up sales, boost brand awareness, and build trust amongst your target audience. It’s also one of the most important aspects of any inbound marketing plan because, without it, your audience wouldn’t be able to find your business online when they are searching for a solution. 
 
What is inbound marketing?
 
It isn’t just another buzzword – inbound marketing is a trend in digital marketing that’s here to stay because it works. If you are unfamiliar with the term, the definition of inbound marketing is an organic strategy that attracts leads to your business when they’re looking to make a purchase or are searching for direct information to solve a need or want. 
 
Its counterpart outbound marketing is a more traditional form of marketing, and what most people are likely to think of when you say ‘marketing efforts’. These can include strategies like outdoor marketing on billboards and bus stations, print ads and radio ads, and even cold calling. The internet has changed how marketers operate, so outbound marketing has now taken more of a backseat because of the cost, how impersonal it is for consumers, and how difficult it is to target audiences properly. Inbound marketing solves all of these issues because it essentially flips the script and offers a much more intuitive advertising experience for both brands and consumers. 
 
The main difference between the two is that outbound marketing demands your audience pay attention to your message, while inbound marketing personalises the content and offers a high-quality advertising experience that’s available to your audience when and where they need it. 
 
Now that you’re familiar with the term, it’s important to include an SEO strategy with your inbound marketing efforts so they can be successful. Here are the most effective ways that you can do this for your business, no matter how big or small your organisation is. 
 
Blogging
 
Every company can benefit from blogging, regardless of what size the organisation is. A blog is the best way to improve SEO and boost organic traffic, plus build trust amongst your target audience and solidify you as an industry leader in your niche. Blogs also help provide insights into your business, whether it’s informing them about your brand or about your products or services, and it’s quite easy to promote your blog without having to spend any money. 
 
Keyword Optimisation
 
Keyword optimisation is no longer about simply placing keywords in content, but rather about what kind of intent the user has when searching and reading through content and how you can answer their questions. Search engine algorithms are always adapting and learning how to better understand their users, so it’s imperative that as a marketer, you stay on top of the changes and how it affects what kind of keywords to use and how you use them. 
 
Social media activity
 
Social media is a major inbound strategy that shouldn’t be overlooked. It can be more labour-intensive, as social media efforts require original and high-quality content to help grow the number of followers and build on the impact it has. SEO is influenced by how many followers you have—an account with 500 followers will always lose out to an account with 50,000—as well as the number of external links your company shares and how many times your content is shared.