SEO in marketing is the using of search engine optimization to be ranked in a higher position for specific search phrases, ultimately exposing that website to more potential customers. Marketing is the practice of using different techniques and mediums to raise awareness that a business exists, assuming that those people who are exposed will have a percentage of their population that becomes customers and purchases things. Marketing as a practice drives potential interested parties into a capture mechanism that is designed to convert them into paying customers, and top level marketing plans will also analyze the costs associated with each individual medium in order to understand if that medium is producing paying customers at a greater profit than the marketing itself costs. Putting a television ad on local television will cost money, in the form of the production of the commercial as well as the cost to run it on the station. It is assumed that because of the large audiences that television has, there will be a large amount of people that will convert to customers as a result. Over time, you can analyze just how many of these potential customers spent money in the business, and then compare that against the cost of the television ad campaign to see if it was worth it. SEO works much the same way, the costs being found in the amount of money that must be paid to the professional SEO company in order to create the higher rankings that are necessary to produce customers. If the campaign is successful, the amount of customers and the money they spend will outweigh the amount of money it cost to produce the higher rankings.
SEO is the manipulation of code and content on a website, as well as the creation of links back to that website in order to influence rankings for a search phrase. This means that you must create written content on your website discussing an issue, providing answers or information that people find valuable. The links that are created on other websites must do the same, also having specific and original content surrounding them discussing the subject being targeted. These articles link back to the page on a website that you are trying to improve rankings for. Over time, the website will become noticed by Google as an authority on that subject, and higher rankings will be the outcome. Once a website ranks in the top six results that Google displays for a search, the website owner should begin to see clickthroughs to the site as a result. There should be more clickthroughs the higher placement is achieved, with a number one ranking being the goal which will produce the most traffic to the website. There will be a percentage of these clickthroughs that will become paying customers as a result of this high placement, and profits will be seen by the business the same way that any other marketing medium provides. In the case of SEO, search engines are the medium and placements are the method of driving engagement. If done correctly, SEO should drive enough traffic to become paying customers that the profits outweigh the charges that the SEO company puts forth.
