Understanding the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most fundamental components in any business looking to create an effective online marketing strategy.
But first…
What exactly is SEO?
SEO is a process to improve your online ranking organically. In other words, SEO increases the quantity of users that visit your site by improving the quality of where your site appears in search engine results. When searched by users, the higher your site is ranked, the more traffic your site will gain. This improves discoverability and increases brand awareness.
Just think of whenever you search something on Google, do you ever look at anything past the first three search results on the first page? Now, imagine if your site appeared on the fourth page of a user’s search result, people will simply not find you and you will be missing out on potential leads and sales. This is where SEO comes in…
Benefits of SEO for your business
#1 Target Quality Traffic to Your Site
SEO helps target quality traffic to your site by focusing on more than just a defined target audience. You can attract anyone, regardless of how deep of an interest they have, that has the intent of knowing more about your business. This is called inbound marketing. This method makes it easy to find your audience when they want information by adding resources and making the information more accessible. It brings in the potential of more qualified leads, and sales since you focus on attracting users who are actively looking for information related to your industry, products, and services.
#2 Build Brand Awareness & Credibility
Search engines such as Google and Yahoo, review website information and display the information that best matches the user search. Therefore, a site that has a high page rank listing is considered to be deemed trustworthy and of high-quality by search engines. This adds credibility to your business and builds on brand awareness. It is important to include quality content and KEY terms in your site to help gain a high ranking, and in turn, gain more exposure for your brand.
#3 Higher ROI
The goal is to use SEO to create quantifiable results and improve your return-on-investment (ROI). According to research conducted by BrightEdge, organic search is the dominant source of trackable web traffic and is conclusively the cause of 40% of business revenue. A successful business must value the details, with SEO you can observe different parts of your strategy and how each aspect affects your revenue. These insights will allow you to not only successfully grow your business, but fortify the grounds in which the business functions.
#4 Improve site usability
As previously mentioned, details are important. Creating a user-friendly site is fundamental. SEO goes beyond optimizing for search engines, but also improving user experience. The better and smoother your site functions, the more time a user is likely to spend on it, increasing engagement and ultimately increasing sales and leads. On this note, this adds to the importance of providing quality and relevant content to engage the reader and help them find what they are looking for. Be descriptive, keep your information up to date, you can even dive deeper and follow seasons or trends based on your industry. High quality information is valued by not only the user but the search engines as well.
#5 Standing Out From Your Competition
When we compare two businesses in a similar industry, with similar prices and products, how does one outrank the other? How does one attract more customers? Simply put, SEO is the optimal strategy you should take to outrank your competitors. If your competitors are doing SEO marketing, why aren’t you? And if they aren’t yet, then what’s stopping you from taking the step that will immediately put you above your competitors?
