What exactly is SEO Marketing and what is it used for?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the most popular advertising activities chosen by companies that have their own websites. And there is nothing surprising about that, because as soon as we hear SEO, a great organic volume immediately comes to mind, along with the key but deeply mistaken belief that SEO is free. In the following article, we will take a closer look at what SEO in marketing actually is, why SEO revolves around Google, and for whom it will be a good choice.
In the simplest terms, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the strategic process of adjusting a website to meet the requirements of search engine algorithms, primarily Google, so that the site appears as high as possible in unpaid search results for specific user queries.
What is SEO Marketing?
SEO Marketing serves primarily to build long-term online visibility, acquire valuable and targeted organic traffic, and convert users into regular customers. Instead of paying for every single click on a paid advertisement (PPC), SEO activities allow you to create a lasting source of inbound traffic from audiences actively looking for products or services offered by a given brand, which directly translates into building authority, trust, and a higher return on investment in the long term.
What is SEO divided into?
Search engine optimization (SEO) can be divided into three main areas:
- Technical SEO: covers website code optimization, improving loading speed, mobile adaptation, and ensuring proper site architecture and indexing by search engine bots.
- Content SEO (On-page SEO): focuses on the development and optimization of text content, selection of appropriate keywords, header structure, meta tags, and delivering valuable and unique content to audiences.
- Off-page SEO: covers activities outside the website, mainly link building (backlinks) from other credible websites, which increases domain authority in the eyes of search engines.
SEO marketing is therefore an effective combination of these two elements, technical and content-based, to attract traffic that is relevant, meaning composed of people genuinely interested in a given topic, without having to pay for every click on advertisements.
It is worth remembering that most of the time, even half of the work toward a website's success is taken up by content and site activity analysis, as well as the preparation and implementation of optimization changes directly on the pages. Link building usually constitutes a complement to such well-conceived optimization.
How does a search engine work?
To best grasp what SEO means and how it works in the context of marketing, it is best to understand the lifecycle of a website in the eyes of Google:
- Crawling: Google uses automated explorers called crawlers or spiders that travel across the internet, following links and discovering new content.
- Indexing: Once a page is downloaded, Google analyzes its content (text, images, and video) and stores it in its huge digital library called the index.
- Displaying (Ranking): When a user enters a query, the algorithm searches billions of indexed pages in a fraction of a second to deliver the most relevant results on the SERP, which is the search engine results page.
This is why thorough analysis is so important, to write about what people are actually looking for. Only in this way do your contents have a chance to be noticed and to exist at all in Google search results.
Are we talking only in the context of Google?
For many people, the terms "search engine" and Google are practically interchangeable, and this is not just a matter of habit, but a faithful reflection of reality. Google currently controls about 83% of the search engine market share, so that is where customers most often look for answers to their questions. For this reason, it is worth following primarily what the Google algorithm indicates.
In recent years, however, artificial intelligence has entered the game; search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity are increasingly becoming an alternative to classical searching. This does not mean that a website needs to be optimized in a completely different way. The principles that have worked in SEO for years, valuable content answering user intent, a clear structure, and solid technical foundations, work just as well in the context of tools based on large language models (LLMs), such as the aforementioned ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity, as well as mechanisms like Search Generative Experience (SGE).
The difference lies rather in what happens to the content on the search engine side. AI no longer limits itself to matching phrases and displaying a list of links, it analyzes the content, draws conclusions from it, summarizes information, and independently generates an answer for the user. This phenomenon is termed GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) or LLM optimization, but in practice, it is rather a new name and a new context for good practices that are worth applying anyway, rather than a separate, parallel set of rules that need to be maintained alongside classical SEO.
Five pillars of a good ranking
Algorithms stopped looking for keywords alone a long time ago; otherwise, a page stuffed with the same repeating sentence over and over would easily take first place in the search engine. Today, such practices do not work. To achieve success in SEO and win high positions, we must take into account five key pillars:
- Meaning and intent: the algorithm checks what the user wants precisely, whether they have a purchase intent (commercial) or are simply looking for knowledge (informational).
- Relevance: meaning how directly and precisely the content on our page matches the words entered into the search bar.
- Content quality: Google pays attention to E-E-A-T signals (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness), preferring valuable materials created by specialists.
- Usability: covers page experience signals, such as loading speed, security, and full adaptation to mobile devices.
- Context: search results change dynamically depending on the user's location and search history to deliver the most tailored answer possible.
How to measure effects in SEO marketing?
Work on SEO is a long-term process that should be monitored in both the short and long term. The effectiveness of activities conducted within SEO marketing depends primarily on the market environment, meaning our competition, which is also positioning itself for similar phrases, as well as constantly changing algorithms and novelties in search engines, such as AI Overviews.
Constant factors that directly influence effectiveness include any activities associated with content, such as text development or regular blogging, and technical website reconstruction.
To properly measure effects in SEO and build an effective strategy for your own website, it is necessary to plan regular performance evaluation and analysis of periodic reports, on the basis of which we can correct and improve our activities on an ongoing basis. SEO is not a one-off task, but a closed circle of repeating activities: analysis -> content and technical optimization -> link building -> re-analysis.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in SEO
To measure whether our activities bring intended results, the following indicators work best:
- Growth of organic traffic year-over-year (YoY) or month-over-month (MoM). In this case, it is worth closely considering the seasonality of our industry, if for example we compare September to August, and in September we naturally record a jump in interest, we must take this into account so as not to distort the reporting logic.
- Growth in the number of phrases in TOP100, TOP10, and TOP3 over a selected period.
- Growth in the number of phrases closely related to our industry in the same brackets (TOP100, TOP10, TOP3), which shows whether we are building expertise in appropriate niches.
- Growth in conversions originating from organic traffic (e.g., purchases, submitted contact forms, or newsletter sign-ups).
- Visibility and search market share (Search Visibility / Market Share): an indicator showing what percentage of potential search traffic actually hits our page compared to the competition.
- Average position and click-through rate (CTR): data from Google Search Console telling us which places our queries average to and whether users eagerly click them after seeing the page in search results.
- Number and quality of acquired backlinks: the growth rate of unique domains linking to our site, which directly translates into building domain authority (Domain Authority).
How long do you have to wait for results?
It is impossible to state unequivocally how long the wait for results will take, because every website is different and starts from a completely different level. Most specialists will agree, however, that in the case of sites that previously applied no improvements or optimization activities, the first effects usually appear from 3 to 6 months. During this time, the site should already begin to note noticeable increases. Very often it is enough to implement even basic recommendations to quickly see how positively they influence the reception of the site by users, and consequently, also by search engine bots.
At the same time, it is worth stating openly that cooperation in the scope of positioning involves relatively large financial and organizational outlays right at the start and a complete lack of immediate return on investment. This initial phase of "silence", in which costs rise and business results are not yet visible, can be extremely frustrating for many people, which is why it requires patience and long-term budget planning.
Should every business exist on the internet?
Not every business has to immediately possess an extensive website, but presence on the web is a powerful support today, without which scaling activity is difficult. Traditional promotion methods, such as distributing flyers, have a strongly limited reach, we simply will not reach every potential customer this way, and printing and distribution costs nowadays are high and rarely bring adequate results.
Interestingly, even those businesses that operated for years solely based on a traditional approach and recommendations, such as local craft workshops or small shoe repair shops, are appearing on the internet today. Increasingly, they can be met on TikTok or Instagram, where short videos build their reach. It is worth remembering that these social media platforms are not free from algorithms either, they are also subject to greater or lesser content optimization so that users can find a given profile more easily.
The internet is above all a gigantic base of recipients, giving the opportunity to go far beyond the local market and reach customers from all over the country and even the world. Before we decide to open a website or invest in a marketing agency, however, it is worth conducting a business analysis. One should ask oneself whether the site is actually needed by our target group and whether the costs of its continuous management and appropriate optimization will not exceed the expected return on investment (ROI).
Summary
Effective SEO in marketing is a long-term process that combines solid technical foundations, valuable content, and well-thought-out link building to acquire relevant and naturally free organic traffic. Although these activities require patience, initial financial investments, and time, usually from 3 to 6 months for the first visible effects, they build lasting online visibility, trust, and brand authority. In the era of Google dominance and the growing importance of tools based on artificial intelligence and LLMs, the key to success invariably remains responding to the real intents and needs of users.
