With 80% of all traffic on the Internet referred by search engines, and 90% of all users don't even look past the first 30 search results, you can see why search engines have become the single most important source of traffic for websites.
Is it the same as search engine optimization (SEO)? Not really, SEO is just one of many components of search engine marketing. You're probably already familiar with the two major components of search engine marketing (SEM): search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC).
Your webmaster might easlity optimize your website for search engines (SEO), but is it enough to get a high ranking from SEO alone? Probably not, you'll need to implement other aspects of search engine marketing in order to maximize your website's potential.

