Search Engine Optimization, often abbreviated as SEO,       is an important part of content marketing on the Internet. It is defined as writing content in such a way that the page on which the content appears will appear as close as possible to the beginning of the search results when certain search terms are typed into search engines, thus directing traffic to the site which contains the content.

Almost any kind of written material can be used in content marketing, and this type of marketing can even take the form of images or videos; any type of written, visual, audio, or audiovisual content that directs traffic to your site and draws attention to your product counts as content marketing.

When writing SEO content, it is a good idea to consider all types of content as potential leads for your product, not just content that fits the narrow definition of advertisements. Blog posts, how-to articles, and even the frequently asked questions page of your website can be optimized to get noticed by search engines.

A tactic many people use when writing SEO content is to start by choosing keywords, which are sometimes phrases of varying length rather than just individual words, that they think the potential audience for their product would use as search terms.

Simply incorporating potential search terms into your content as keywords is sometimes called organic search term optimization, because it leads to your website being found naturally by the search engines, as opposed to when website owners pay to have their sites displayed at the top of the search results.

Writing content that is optimized to be found by search engines is an important part of content marketing, but simply having your page displayed on the first page of the search results is not an automatic ticket to increased sales.

It is also important to have informative, readable content on your sites. An exception to this rule is if you are making money just by people clicking on your site. If all you want is the greatest amount of traffic and the greatest number of clicks, then feel free to stuff your content with keywords at the expense of clarity or information, but if you want people to buy your products or subscribe to your services, then you need more than just keywords.

Getting people to visit your site is just the first step; you must then use the content itself to convince them of the value of your products or services.