SEO & Digital Marketing: Two Main Pillars of Your Business

We live in a digital age where customers are just one click away from your business. But the online world is saturated with intense competition, so how will your business stand out? Don’t worry! Two allies can help you with this task: SEO and Digital Marketing. 

SEO will assist you in gaining visibility in the search results, whereas digital marketing will aid you in targeting the right audience with laser precision.

By the end of this blog, you will have a clear idea regarding how to attract new customers, build brand awareness, and ultimately achieve all your business goals. So, let’s get started. 

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Gain Better Online Visibility in the Search Results 

Throughout history, humans have devised ways to raise brand awareness and credibility for their businesses. 

For example, during ancient times, craftsmen often tried to get endorsements from nobles or wealthy people for their goods and services or receive a seal of approval from a king since both would generate massive brand awareness and credibility for them throughout the kingdom. 

People would flock to them for their goods and services as they believed that anyone getting the King’s approval or endorsements from nobles and wealthy people must be good in their craft.  

Things have remained pretty much the same; nowadays, in the online world, businesses seek the approval of Google as anyone who wins its trust would get ranked on the first page of the search engine, which would automatically generate brand awareness and lend to its credibility among 5.3 billion people who use the internet daily. 

However, getting Google’s approval is just as difficult as it was in the past with the kings. That’s where SEO can be your trusted ally in the quest to rank on the first page of Google.   

SEO can highlight your business at the exact moment when a customer is looking for a product or service that you offer. For example, imagine operating a bakery shop and a customer craving a cheesecake after dinner. What they will do is take out their phone and type “Bakeries near me.” 

SEO will ensure that your bakery shows up at the top in the Google search results, making the customer more likely to contact you as they need a product that you have on an immediate basis. 

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This way, your bakery will get better online visibility, which will help you acquire more customers in your locality. 

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Take Advantage of Generative AI With the Help of SEO

As a writer, I often find Google pretty frustrating to use. It doesn’t give me the exact answer I am looking for while researching my content. There is a lot of fluff to sift through, which wastes my time. 

With the rise of generative AI, I feel that people will increasingly use chatbots like Gemini to get specific answers to their queries. 

Gemini is connected to Google, so SEO will play a major role in deciding what answer this chatbot gives to the users. 

For example, if you own a coffee shop in the city of Dallas, and the user inserts the following query in the Gemini “Best coffee shops in Dallas,” then you have to ensure that the chatbot shares your coffee shop in its list. SEO can help you with that. 

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Similarly, in the future, I also foresee people putting queries in the form of images instead of plain text, as we do right now in Google. Here is an example of it: 

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Again, the list Gemini came up with was based on what it found on the first page of Google, so if your business ranks in Google, then it will get listed by chatbot, too, when answering queries related to the products and services that your business offers to the customers. 

To gain better visibility of your business in chatbot queries, here is your SEO checklist: 

• Optimize the images that you have uploaded on your website, as we are going to witness multimodal queries in the future. Images will have the potential to generate organic traffic for your business. 

• Compared to Google, chatbots are conversational in nature. So, I feel there won’t be the need to stuff keywords anymore like how we did in the past. So, ensure that the content of your website is fleshed out well so that chatbots can understand the context well. 

• Implement responsive design; since Google likes it, so will chatbots like Gemini.  

These are some of the ways your business can gain visibility in AI chatbots.  

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Reach Out to Specific Demographics Through Digital Marketing 

As a business owner, you must have a specific audience that you want to cater to. But how will you reach out to them? The answer lies in digital marketing, an umbrella term encompassing different ways your business can target a specific audience. For example, content marketing, affiliate marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing, etc. are all part of digital marketing that digital marketing companies provide. 

All these services can help you reach out to an audience you want as your customers. 

For example, let’s say that your business provides computer repair services and targets customers specifically looking for ways to troubleshoot the problems their systems are experiencing. 

So, here, with the help of content marketing, you can create a series of blog posts that provide solutions to the most common problems that a PC can experience, which will then show people which type of specific phrases or keywords are related to problems that you are providing solutions for through your blogs. 

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At the end of each content, you can advertise your services in case the reader can’t resolve their issues or is experiencing a problem beyond their ability to solve. 

Not just blog posts, but even videos work well, too. 

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Content marketing is one such way through which you can reach out to your target audience. 

Similarly, other digital marketing services too can help you target specific demographics. For example: 

• Affiliate Marketing: Team up with influencers who create content for your chosen demographic. For example, a fitness brand can partner with a health and wellness blogger to reach their audience.

• Email Marketing: Build an email list of subscribers who are part of your target demographic. Segment your list for even more precise targeting based on age, gender, behavior, and location in your emails.

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Most PPC platforms allow targeting based on demographics like age, location, income, and interests. You only pay when someone clicks your ad, so it's efficient for reaching specific demographics.

• Social Media Marketing: Every social media platform provides advanced targeting options. For example, your business can target users by age, location, interests, behaviors, and even life events. 

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To Conclude This Blog 

SEO and Digital Marketing are two essential pillars for any business looking to thrive in the online world. SEO helps you gain better online visibility by ranking higher in search results, whereas digital marketing allows you to reach out to a specific demographic with tailored campaigns. 

By implementing both SEO and digital marketing strategies, you can reach the right audience, generate brand awareness, and ultimately achieve all your business goals.