Do you know why search engine optimization is important? Your answer should include the main benefits it offers. There are numerous ways SEO helps businesses increase their revenue. The key is knowing exactly how to implement them.
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to optimizing web pages to increase the number of visitors who land on those pages via online search queries. SEO helps a site appear higher in organic search results. This results in increased traffic and, thus, more potential customers.
SEO is the practice of optimizing a web page or blog to improve its visibility in search engines. This means finding keywords and phrases to match those words with your article. For example, if you write a post about dogs, you’ll want to focus on the term “puppies.”
Here Are Reasons Why Search Engine Optimization Is Important
Optimizing your website with keywords is essential because they are the best way to get visitors to your site. This is important if you want people to find you online.
Organic Search Is Your Main Traffic Source
Organic search is a massive part (if not the primary source) of most businesses’ website organic traffic and a critical component of buying funnels and eventually completing conversions or engagements. According to Experian Marketing Services, organic search accounts for about 70% of total searches. Even though there are plenty of ways to improve search engine rankings and increase traffic, you’re still missing out on many potential customers unless you optimize for organic search rankings.
Google owns a significant portion of the search market, which means that it has a lot of influence over how people find information online. As a rule of thumb, you’ll need to understand what makes Google tick to optimize your site for search.
Makes You Understand Your Customer More
The purpose of SEO tactics is to understand prospective customer needs and wants. This is done by analyzing how people use major search engines, interact with brands online, and behave in real life. When you look at the world through the lens of SEO, it becomes obvious why consumers are steadily turning to voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, Cortana, etc., and why mobile apps are becoming the preferred method of shopping.
It’s a Good Indicator of an Optimal User Experience
Positive user experience has become every marketeer’s number one priority. Everyone wants better organic rankings in search engine and maximum visibility. However, few realize that optimizing for both is a big part of achieving those ultimate goals.
Google has been learning to distinguish between a good or poor UI (interactive) design and a positive or negative one, which has now become essential for a website’s success. Google’s Page Experience Update (PEU) is something that marketers in almost all industries will need to comply with and is part of their long-standing focus on the customer experience; it’s no longer just about search-engine-friendly keywords. Users know what they want. They’re looking for a site that provides information quickly and easily. You’ll lose out on traffic and sales if you don’t provide that.
For Increased Local Engagement
Local search is becoming increasingly important for SMBs and online business owners. In fact, according to recent research conducted by Searchmetrics, almost half of all searches are now performed within a city limit. This is why investing in local SEO makes sense. After all, it allows brands to reach a targeted audience and engage with potential customers.
With local SEO, brands can increase engagement rates among existing customers, attract new ones, and convert leads into sales. A study by Moz found that local search is responsible for nearly 30% of conversions on Google. So to grow your revenue, you must ensure that your brand is visible in local searches.
Directly Affects the Buying Cycle
The buying process is evolving. Consumers increasingly seek online information about brands and products before making decisions. In fact, according to Forrester, consumers now spend nearly half of their total media consumption time watching videos, listening to the audio, reading articles, and browsing sites like YouTube. This trend is expected to continue as video viewing increases and mobile devices become more popular.
In addition to consuming digital media, shoppers also turn to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to learn more about companies and products. As a result, companies must provide a consistent experience across channels.
Local SEO helps to address this challenge. By optimizing local listings, companies can enhance their brand awareness and increase sales. In addition, with over 2 billion searches performed annually via Google, local search is one way to reach potential customers.
Builds Brand Awareness
The power of SEO goes beyond just getting noticed. You’re building equity for your brand. When someone sees your name in the SERPs, they’ll remember it. They might even look up your site again later. And if your product or service is what they’re looking for, they’ll make a purchase.
Google wants to provide relevant information to searchers, including a rich user experience. In addition, 60% of consumers say they trust reviews, ratings, and recommendations from friends and family. So why wouldn’t you use this data to help improve your brand’s visibility?
You Can Quantify It
The best part about SEO is that it is quantifiable. You can see exactly what happened during a certain period of time and pinpoint causes and effects. In addition, you can use data to make better decisions in the future. This is why it is so helpful to have someone else set up the system for you. If you’re doing everything yourself, you’ll never know what works and what doesn’t.
Improves Web Traffic
The power of your SEO efforts lies in how easy it makes for you to create a better digital presence. If potential customers can’t find you, chances are they will not buy anything. A good way to ensure this doesn’t happen is to ensure that your informational content is visible across multiple channels. You’ll want to optimize your piece of content for mobile devices and desktop computers, ensuring your brand name and logo are prominently displayed.
It would help if you also consider optimizing your website for local searches. Local businesses often rely heavily on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to promote themselves. By leveraging those networks, you can help boost the visibility of your business. In addition, many tools allow you to track which target keywords are driving online traffic to your site and identify what types of relevant content generate the most interest.
Establishes Trust
The better your SEO score is — how well-optimized your site is for specific keywords — the higher and better your rankings are on search engines like Bing and Google. This is part of building trust. This is why it’s important to ensure you optimize your site and informative content correctly for those key search terms. But there’s another reason high rankings in search engine matter: people tend to defer to the information generated by a search engine. So if you rank highly for a keyword term, you will appear on the search results list above the paid ads.
According to Searchmetrics, nearly half of searchers use the first five listings in their organic search engine results as a starting point. So while the number one listing might be sponsored, it still carries weight.
For Scaling and Growth
There’s no doubt that SEO is important for the success of your business. When growing your online presence, you’ll want to focus on optimizing your website for search engines. Hiring an expert to do this work is unnecessary; plenty of free tools can guide you when optimizing your website for search engines such as Moz Pro, Screaming Frog, and others. What’s important is you know to utilize keyword analysis.
Once you start ranking for relevant keywords, your organic traffic will increase. This will lead to increased conversions and, ultimately, more leads and sales for your business. Also, make sure you create original content on your website.
For Relevancy
As a contemporary business owner, there are many things you must do to make sure your website gets noticed. One of those things is to produce high-quality online content constantly. This includes both text and images. If you don’t do this, you risk being left behind by competitors producing more relevant online content than yours.
However, setting up a business website and providing basic information about your product or service is not enough. That’s one of the worst means to promote your business.
You need to add value to your customers’ lives. And you need to do that by providing them with useful, insightful, interesting, and engaging online content.
To Stay Ahead of Your Competition
You probably know how it feels to see your competition getting better rankings in search results while you struggle to keep pace. Of course, you don’t want that to happen again. But what do you do about it? You could try outspending your competitors, but that doesn’t always work. Or you could try to outsmart them, but that takes time and effort. What if there was another way?
Optimizing your site means you’re doing much more than just improving your rankings on search engines like Google. You’re also moving above and beyond your competitors. When someone types a long-tail keyword into Google, the search engine displays the first few results. These are called “organic listings.” Organic listings include everything from news sites to shopping websites to blogs. They’re ranked based on relevance and popularity. So, the first listing on any given results page is generally the most relevant and popular site.
It Saves You Money
Traditional advertising isn’t just about buying ads. You should consider many things, like where your audience lives, what type of device they use, and even the day of the week they tend to check out your site. But there’s one thing most people overlook: the cost associated with running an ad campaign.
Advertising costs money. A lot of money. And while some companies choose to go the route of paid advertising, many don’t. Instead, they rely on free social media marketing, influencer outreach, email marketing, and search engine marketing. However, none of those options come without a price tag attached.
What’s great about SEO is it doesn’t require you to pay for search advertising space. Instead, you can leverage the power of organic search traffic to generate leads and sales.
Helps You Create Your Community
Local SEO is about building relationships with your audience. It’s about ensuring everyone who sees your listing knows exactly where to go. It’s a way to ensure your target market doesn’t just stumble across your business — it finds you.
The best local SEO strategies focus on creating a strong online presence and taking advantage of today’s tools. This includes everything from optimizing your social media profiles to setting up a mobile app to having a responsive web design.
Improves Customer Experience
You must improve your customer experience to increase sales and grow your brand. A good SEO strategy will help you do just that. By making sure your site ranks well and provides relevant information, you’ll give customers what they want — a positive buying experience.
Customers demand high quality for their purchases. Therefore, they prefer to purchase from companies that offer excellent customer service and top-notch products.
You must deliver excellent products and services to keep up with competitors. In addition, you must ensure that your brand is trustworthy and reliable. Customers want to know that you provide high-quality products and outstanding customer service.
Your customers want to interact with brands they trust. Your social media posts and blog articles must include clear calls to action. You should encourage interactions with your brand by asking how people use your products. Make sure you respond promptly to comments and concerns.
To End
Having an effective SEO team in position is critical for the success and growth of any online business venture. ITD Web Design is here to help you grow your brand across multiple channels, whether you’re only starting up or already an established online business. Our goal is to provide you with strategic advice, creative solutions, and best practices that build upon each other to increase your visibility and drive sales.