I’ve seen a number of marketers’ claim they are succeeding WITHOUT
search engines. I laugh at the absurdity of that claim because it isn’t entirely true.
Email Marketing
Email marketing doesn’t seem to have anything to do with search engines does it? How was the list built? If traffic was purchased, it probably came from a supplier that used search engine marketing plus other techniques to get that traffic. Adwords and other pay per click services are usually associated with search engines so your ad can be shown on a relevant site or as sponsor listings on search engine results pages.
Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth marketing is one friend telling 2 or 3 friends about a website they just saw. How did the original person find the website? The chances are VERY good that you’ll find a search engine at the end of the line.
Search Engine Marketing (This includes direct and indirect methods.)
Search engine marketing is a collection of onsite SEO factors and offsite techniques. The onsite methods you use may be as basic or as complex as your technical skills or budget allow. The offsite methods open to you are wide ranging and a variety of tools services and options may be employed.
Reciprocal linking
Article writing and submissions
Classified advertising
Blog commenting
Forum posts
Directory submissions
The above list is just a few of the things you can do to create inbound links to your site AND some of them are extremely effective if you have some basic skills needed to optimize for the search engines.
