Most businesses are not advertising in magazines or newspapers, they are sharing their business online. But what is the point if someone is searching for a product or service that you supply, and your website is on the third page on Google?
Now, picture a world where your brand is entirely unseen, lost among countless other search results — scary stuff right? In today's digital age, visibility is not a luxury but a crucial requirement for your brand's survival.
This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. It optimises your website so that its ranking is improved on search engine result pages, also known as SERPs. SEO is therefore incredibly important for all your digital marketing endeavours.
Keep on reading as media update's Saads Abrahams explains why SEO is so important in digital marketing in 2025.
What Is SEO?
First off, let us take a deeper look at what SEO is. According to The Digital Marketing Institute, SEO or 'Search Engine Optimisation', is the practice of attracting visitors through unpaid, organic, editorial, or natural search outcomes in search engines.
It is also good to know that SEO is just as much about people as it is about search engines. Knowing what people are looking for and what they are inputting into their search engines, as well as how to answer their questions is how you will get connected with them online.
What Is Digital Marketing?
When businesses use digital channels to promote their product, services, or brand to carry out their marketing objectives it is known as digital marketing. In recent years, digital marketing has become more popular as more people are making their purchasing decisions on digital channels.
By using digital marketing, businesses are able to reach a much wider audience and have the ability to track and analyse their consumers' behaviours — allowing for a better marketing strategy.
Digital marketing techniques consist of:
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): The process of optimising your web page to get a higher ranking on search engines.
- Social Media Marketing (SMM): This is when brands promote themselves on social media platforms.
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): This is a type of digital advertising where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked on.
- Email Marketing: This involves targeted messages that are emailed to subscribers.
- Content Marketing: This is the process of creating and sharing relevant and valuable content online.
- Influencer Marketing: This is when brands get their products endorsed and promoted by influencers on their social media platforms.
Types of SEO in Digital Marketing
When working on your SEO digital marketing strategy there are a few types of SEO that you should focus on.
They are:
- On-Page SEO: This is everything that is happening on your website, from content to your HTML source code.
- Off-Page SEO: All the SEO that happens off your actual website such as backlinks.
- Technical SEO: This SEO consists of all the optimisations on the backend of your website.
- Local SEO: This is the practice of optimising your website to improve its visibility to your local audience.
- Keyword Research: This entails figuring out and examining the search phrases people use to look for information about your company or industry on search engines.
Importance of SEO in Digital Marketing
SEO is definitely an incredibly important aspect of a digital marketing strategy — it takes a lot of time and effort but it will pay off in the long run. These are some of the reasons why:
- Ranking and Visibility: Using SEO correctly assists you in ranking on the first page of a search engine.
- Increased Web Traffic: SEO will help increase the amount of organic traffic coming to your web page, and the more traffic on your web page, the higher your ranking on a search page.
- Trustworthiness and Credibility: When you have a high ranking on a search page, you are more likely to be viewed by the public as a trustworthy and credible source.
- Better User Experience: If you are using SEO correctly, you will ensure that your webpage has been optimised to answer any and all questions that a customer may have as well as having an easy-to-use website. This will ensure that your customers have a great experience on your site as well.
Key SEO Trends in 2025
Some of the key SEO trends in 2025 that marketers should pay attention to are:
- AI and Automation in SEO: The role of AI-powered algorithms and automated tools in enhancing search rankings.
- Google's E-E-A-T and Content Quality: The growing significance of expertise, experience, authority and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) in content evaluation.
- Voice and Visual Search Optimisation: The increasing need to optimise for voice inquiries and image-based searches.
- Core Web Vitals and User Experience: The influence of page speed, interactivity and stability on search rankings.
- Zero-Click Searches and Featured Snippets: The rise of search results that don't necessitate a click-through.
- Local SEO and Hyper-Personalisation: The necessity of optimising for local searches and providing tailored user experiences.
Do you think SEO is vital for digital marketing? Let us know in the comments section below.
*Image courtesy of Canva
**Information sourced from StartupNation, MOZ and LinkedIn