SEO Professionals Must Become Full Marketers
This article was published on February 12, 2026
Categorized in: SEO, AI Marketing
One thing we have learned is that SEO and digital marketing are often thought of as separate entities. Now with AI entering the scene, it’s largely being thought of as a separate entity, as well. None of this is true. We are living in an age with SEO professionals, those who are adept at AI marketing, and digital marketing, should all be considered part of the same thing.
Both SEO and AI marketing are branches of digital marketing, and these days, AI Search and the traditional search engines tend to occupy the same category. This means that digital marketers need to have big picture knowledge. SEO professionals need to learn AI marketing and digital marketing as a whole, and vice versa. It is where modern digital marketing is headed.
Buyers Don’t Make a Distinction Between Channels
Much of this thinking originates with your audience, and it is members of your audience that will eventually become buyers. They don’t make a distinction between channels, which means that you shouldn’t either. All they see is your brand, mentioned across channels. This elevates you in their eyes. Remember that your audience is the reason why you market in the first place!
This is why taking a big picture perspective in digital marketing is so important. Taking a siloed approach to digital marketing won’t give you the cohesiveness you need between channels to really gain momentum with your audience. This is why it is important to focus on your brand first. Build your brand across marketing channels, and then refine your brand over time.
This takes a digital marketer well versed in all topics, included SEO, AI, social media, content marketing, and every other discipline that is part of digital marketing. This is the best way to make sure the objectives are met – it’s because all the disciplines of marketing work together.
Make Business Goals the Center of Your Marketing Strategy
Where digital marketing has gone wrong is that it has too often been considered a separate discipline for the rest of business operations. Digital marketing isn’t separate from the business, just as the different disciplines within digital marking shouldn’t treated as separate entities. Everything works together to embrace the big picture. For a business, the big picture is to improve business as a whole.
This is why digital marketers need to embrace the big picture. Aligning the marketing strategy with the business goals is the best driver of success, and for some reason, businesses don’t often realize this. They continue to separate the two. If business goals are the center of the marketing strategy, then it should also be true that you need trained marketing personnel who are well versed in all disciplines of digital marketing.
As you can see, we are no longer in an age where it makes sense for digital marketers to become too specialized. SEO professionals need to learn about the rest of digital marketing. Digital marketing professionals need to learn about all branches of the discipline. It will help improve long term results.
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About the Author: Brick Marketing President, Nick Stamoulis
Nick Stamoulis is President of Brick Marketing and has over 25 years of digital marketing experience. He works directly with clients on strategy and implementation, helping solve complex challenges through SEO, AI Search Optimziation (GEO), content marketing, social media, PPC, and conversion optimization. Nick Stamoulis has worked with over 500 companies across virtually every B2B industry and also provides digital marketing consulting and training classes, helping companies improve performance and achieve the digital marketing outcomes they are looking for.


