Member Avatar for MktgRob

I freely admit, as my screen name points out, to being a marketer more than I am an SEOer. I began educating myself on SEO for two reasons. The first being that one can never have enough knowledge so that they can make themselves as valuable as possible to their bosses and clients. The second is that SEO has become a large subset of marketing.

Before I dove into the SEO pool I worked with SEO pros, both freelance and large firms. And the one thing that struck me was that while they really grasped the importance of what they did they barely acknowledged that their services were part of a larger marketing initiative. I have seen a similar mindset from marketing pro's who do not acknowledge their part in the sales cycle.

Having said all of this, I am curious to know the following:
1. How many SEO pros on this board view themselves as part of a larger marketing function/initiative?
2. How many of the posters here worked in marketing prior to moving to the SEO side of the ledger?
3. Does anyone here view what they do as being the most important part of a marketing initiative or a major part along with other activities?

Beyond these answers, any other input is welcome. Please take this as an honest attempt to understand the mindframes of everyone and nothing more. In my consulting I help my clients screen and hire marketing personnel, web designers and SEO providers (for the jobs that are too big for me right now) and one of my challenges is to make both the client and the prospective employee/service provider understand the big picture. Thanks in advance for your input.

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Short expert note: the posts show varied entry paths into search work and a recurring friction point — search efforts that are not tied to business outcomes. and illustrate non-traditional career routes, brings long marketing experience, and raises the common problem of mismatched client expectations.

A screening checklist for hires and vendors includes measurable case studies (traffic and conversions), an audit template that prioritizes fixes by impact and effort, a keyword map tied to buyer intent, and a 90-day roadmap with explicit quick wins. Process evidence matters: documented content workflow, dev handoffs for technical fixes, ethical link-building methods, and examples of cross-channel coordination with paid, email, or CRO teams. Reporting should show business metrics (organic conversions, assisted conversions, revenue per visitor), not just rank tables.

Expectation management requires a baseline and a single primary outcome metric (leads, revenue, LTV). Short-term wins usually come from technical remediations and low-competition content; authority and link-building are longer-term. Measurable improvements often appear over months rather than weeks, with timing driven by competition, site health, and resource investment. Favor vendors who propose experiments and CRO tests and who decline to guarantee fixed lead counts without conversion-tracked proof.

A practical phased workflow: discovery and goals, technical remediation and quick fixes, content and information architecture mapped to the funnel, authority-building outreach, then CRO and iterative measurement. Each phase should produce concrete deliverables (prioritized audit, content calendar, outreach list, test plan) and business-focused reporting. For concise technical and strategic reference see Google's SEO starter guide and the Moz Beginner's Guide to SEO.

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Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

Hi

Very good question. I got into SEO not through the marketing end but via the research route. Back in my non-profit days, I ran the data research and information division and I had to do whatever I had to do to: 1. get information on what patients expected; 2. lead visitors to the medical library. Thus, I discovered the power of keywords and optimizing content/website design to increase the visits of targeted visitors.

Member Avatar for ArvindSharma

sane here ..

i will start my carrier as a seoer and then move the marketing part..and now after becoming an internet marketing strategic....i am still thinking that whatever me and my team does is not recognized..as we are still a part of complete marketing startegy

Member Avatar for SEOExpert India

Having worked in the marketing world since long before the advent of the SEO world, I see it as an aspect of one’s overall online marketing strategy; an increasingly important aspect (if used with high standards of content/product), but only an aspect. Simply relying on the success you might get from an SEO campaign is not what I’d suggest.

Member Avatar for MktgRob

Having worked in the marketing world since long before the advent of the SEO world, I see it as an aspect of one’s overall online marketing strategy; an increasingly important aspect (if used with high standards of content/product), but only an aspect. Simply relying on the success you might get from an SEO campaign is not what I’d suggest.

Absolutely agree. I am in a position right now where I am advising a client on their digital marketing plans and they seem to think that by improving SEO they will get more hits and generate 3 to 4 closeable leads a week! Managing there expectations is a chore and after 5 months of pushing the are starting to get into social media marketing.

So you and I are in the same mindset and we understand the challenges. I am hoping more SEO pros who are making the move into marketing understand the challenges from their side.

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