How to use SEO in your digital marketing strategy

SEO belongs in your digital marketing strategy as a long-term traffic engine that complements your paid and content efforts. Rather than viewing SEO as a standalone service, integrate it into how you plan campaigns for clients. Start by identifying keywords your target audience actually searches for—not vanity terms, but the ones with commercial intent where you can realistically rank. Use tools like Google Search Console and keyword research platforms to understand what people want when they land on your site or your client's site. Then build your content, site structure, and technical foundation around these keywords. This means when you create blog posts, landing pages, or service pages, you're optimizing them for both users and search engines simultaneously, not treating SEO as an afterthought. Coordinate this with your paid search strategy—if you're running Google Ads for certain keywords, use that data to inform which organic keywords deserve your SEO effort. Sometimes the best ROI comes from ranking for keywords where you've already proven paid search works.

Link building and authority development should tie directly into your broader content and PR strategy. Rather than chasing low-quality backlinks, focus on creating content worth linking to and building relationships with relevant publications in your industry. This means your content calendar needs to account for SEO opportunities, your client outreach should consider link prospects, and your PR efforts should drive both coverage and backlinks simultaneously. Guest posting, interviews, and expert positioning serve double duty here.

Finally, measure SEO performance as part of your overall funnel. Don't get obsessed with rankings alone—track how organic traffic converts, how it compares to other channels, and what's actually driving revenue or leads. Set up proper attribution so you understand which keywords and content pieces deserve continued investment. Document everything you learn from each client's SEO performance so you can apply those lessons faster to new clients. This transforms SEO from a cost center into a predictable revenue driver that scales as you refine your process.