You must already have a robust marketing effort to benefit from SEO.
In today’s world, SEO should optimize tangible assets. This often means supporting content, web development, and PR teams. Good SEO uses deep knowledge of how search engines work to help other specialists… that perform their roles better than any SEO ever could.
Here’s an example… applying URL breadcrumb trails within organic search results improves clickthrough rates due to an organized hierarchy and Title Case.
If you run a local consulting practice, this tiny change across your pages will have almost no effect on organic traffic. However, if you are a multi-location business with tens of thousands of daily impressions, this change across many pages adds up. SEO applies little tweaks for a big result.
For SMBs, focus on more important steps like having professional websites and sharing value. However, for enterprise-level companies with substantial keyword demand, good SEO is a competitive edge that leverages all your marketing efforts for better organic results too.