I recently heard from another SEO specialist about a disagreement that he had had with a client concerning the promotion of a marketing campaign’s landing page within the larger framework of search engine optimization. The story illustrated the misplaced expectations that clients sometimes have when dealing with an SEO specialist or web marketing agency.

What the service provider had to explain in this case was that the tactics for promoting an overall site are often different from the tactics involved in promoting a specific page that is associated with an isolated or short-term campaign. If an SEO specialist attempts to tie these two elements together, he or she runs a risk of actually de-optimizing the main site in the interest of boosting a page that might otherwise be located at a separate sub-domain.

In other words, a good SEO specialist knows that when it comes to search optimization and web marketing, what you do for the whole is not the same as what you do for the sum of its parts. Clients should have the right expectations when entering into a relationship with an SEO specialist, and they should understand that campaigns may often be approached in a piecemeal fashion. This does not necessarily mean that any aspect of the site or its campaign is being left behind.

SEO and content marketing certainly go hand-in-hand, but they require different emphasis, as well as proper attention to the bigger picture. This latter feature is most likely to be found in your service provider when the SEO specialist and content marketer are able to work closely and coordinate their activities. But in that case, both they and the client must recognize that coordination does not always mean perfect overlap.