Before discussing the role of SEO in online promotion, we must explain that SEO is part of digital marketing, namely SEM (search engine marketing - marketing in search engines, along with PPC promotion). And especially in recent years, SEO has played an increasingly important role in the promotion strategy of brands that want to increase sales and revenue.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of making a web page easy to find, easy to crawl, and easy to rank for product and service keywords. SEO specialists are engaged in bringing in organic traffic and search engine rankings, while digital marketers look after the total online existence (of a company) that encompasses the SEO side.

Why and how does SEO influence the entire online marketing strategy, but also the results from online promotion?

• SEO has techniques, principles, and tools that help create accessibility (on mobile, tablets, and other devices) - when customers are looking for certain products or services, SEO ensures that the majority of potential customers reach your site and fulfill their needs.
• SEO improves the user experience - UX (User experience) and SEO are closely related. Namely, the SEO expert is the one who raises the alarm signals when the site has problems on the user-friendliness side, namely: when the contact forms are too complicated and long, when certain buttons do not work, when the information architecture is poorly thought out, when the site does not load on certain browsers, etc. All these corrections help to improve visitors' perception of our site.
• SEO improves a website's loading speed - it's probably no secret to you that the harder it is for a site to load, the more money it loses. Statistics do not forgive. World trends say that if your website takes more than 4 seconds to load, 79% of visitors will never return.
• You get better content on your site - yes, SEO and content marketing go hand in hand now more than ever. Basically, without good content on the website, it becomes complicated to appear in the charts for keywords relevant to the business.
• SEO delivers qualified leads that can be converted through remarketing/retargeting - did you know that one in three users discover new brands specifically on search engines? SEO can help you get in front of potential buyers when they are searching for your products or services themselves. Once attracted to the site, these new users can be converted into newsletter or social media subscribers, and from there, make a few additional touches with the brand to build trust and make the sale through email marketing and remarketing. So, the role of SEO is to capture quality traffic, which can then be converted through a robust digital promotion strategy.
• Improved brand credibility - if Google believes in you, it means you're a trusted brand. That's the belief of nearly 74% of consumers using search engines to find information about local businesses. What's more, you should also know that one in three smartphone searches are done before visiting an offline store.

So the role of SEO is to increase the company's exposure to potential customers on search engines. SEO offers an opportunity to get a lot of free publicity if you respect the quality standards imposed by the search engines and if you invest time in the necessary optimizations. You help your customers discover your business from thousands of other companies.

The changing role of SEO in recent times

Increasingly in recent years, the use of SEO has become important to the overall success of digital marketing. But why?

• First of all, thanks to SEO optimization you can create the portrait of your ideal client - the portrait is created with all the relevant information about how your clients navigate the website, what pages they visit, what queries they write in Google to reach certain pages of the site, how much time he spends on one page or another, etc.
• SEO optimization has a lower price than offline advertising - in SEO you invest less than in street banners, TV, or radio advertising, it has some more sustainable costs and focuses only on the best prospects. However, in SEO, compared to any other marketing channels, you can only pay for site optimization for keywords relevant to your business (whether for brand awareness, information, or transaction purposes).
• SEO optimization has a much lower amortized cost than Google Ads-type advertising - from those 6 months, SEO starts to bring results on a conveyor belt, which can be maintained even for years.
• The presence in search engines is non-stop - compared to offline promotion, which jumps into the eyes of the general public when they are on the streets, or in stores, online is non-stop. You can browse the site you are interested in at any time, at any time of the day or night.

The link between SEO and knowing consumer psychology

• SEO and neuromarketing are getting more and more related lately. Neuroscience can help increase engagement with website content by helping to create an intuitive website that is extremely easy to interact with.
• Another way we can authentically interact with our users is through used keywords. Namely, Long Tail keywords (keywords made up of 3 or more words) define user behavior. In general, long-tail keywords have less competition and show more specific search intent. Keyword success should be measured by ROI (return on investment).

The Link Between SEO and Online Sales Funnel

A sales funnel represents the sequence of stages through which a visitor passes from the first interaction with a brand to becoming its customer.

• Stage 1. Awareness - At the top of the sales funnel, through SEO, you can help create user awareness of the problem/need/pain, this is where you could try to capture your potential customers.
  Stage 2. Research - at this stage of the funnel, users start to get serious about buying something. Including detailed product descriptions or even blog posts targeting relevant search queries can provide valuable content for users.
  Stage 3. Conversion – At the bottom of the funnel, you should make sure buyers have everything they need to convert. This could include testimonials, case studies or reviews. Statistics say that every day, almost 80-90% of customers check online reviews before finally buying any product. All these elements are also part of a well-designed SEO campaign.

Advice! Map customer pain points with keywords along the customer journey from the first interaction to a decision. Thus, with SEO you can find suitable keywords for any stage of the sales funnel.

Conclusion

As online customer behavior has changed, search engines have also developed different policies. For this very reason, there is no static SEO system that stays forever, because "SEO is a never-ending process." But you need to think realistically about your target audience, their likes and dislikes, the usability of the site, and well-thought-out optimization plans.