As a business owner, you’ve probably heard the term SEO, or search engine optimization, hundreds of times. Whether you’ve been researching the best methods of digital marketing or finding ways to drive traffic to your website, SEO is a popular solution.
But why does your business need it?
We’re here to answer all your questions. Read on to find out the top nine reasons you need it.
1. Increased Organic Traffic
Organic traffic to your website are visits from users who haven’t been directed by a paid advertisement. SEO is the king of organic traffic.
By creating a blog on your website, you can significantly increase your SEO rankings due to keyword density. Each blog article should take advantage of effective keywords:
- Industry based (keywords relevant to your products and services)
- Long-tail (specific keyword phrases)
- Short-tail (basic keywords)
- Locally based keywords (specific to your area of operation)
- AI keyword usage (based on AI searches)
Use your website as an all-inclusive platform to answer questions, share information, communicate with consumers, and provide products and services.
2. More Leads and Sales Conversions
Business SEO is also important for generating more leads.
Nearly 88% of consumers research a product or service online before buying. The SEO coding on your website dictates whether or not consumers will see your brand when they conduct these searches.
The better your SEO is geared toward your industry, the more people looking for your products and service will find you. This will lead to more sales and higher profit margins.
3. Brand Awareness
If you’re asking yourself, “Do I need SEO, even as a small local business?” the answer is still yes. Over 72% of Americans are on social media and optimized social media profiles help SEO rankings. It’s where people go for news, business, socializing, and more.
Like it or not, we’re living in a primarily digitized society. If you want people in your local community to recognize your brand, you must use SEO. Cater to consumer trends and habits.
Consumers driving by your storefront, hearing radio ads, and seeing printed fliers are no longer enough to have a strong presence.
4. Improved Credibility
SEO importance also extends to credibility. It’s one thing for people to recognize your brand, but quite another for them to trust your brand. SEO established through content marketing can build your reputation amongst consumers.
The more valuable articles and content you publish with the needs of consumers in mind, the more you’ll gain credibility. Your articles should serve to:
- Address consumer concerns
- Focus on what your target audience is interested in
- Provide tutorials and how-tos
- Solve problems
Prove to your target audience that you’re invested in their well-being. Though your company, like any other, exists to make money, consumers cannot view you as entirely self-serving.
5. Better Search Engine Rankings
The SEO coding website owners incorporate affect their SEO ranking. A website’s SEO ranking determines how quickly the site comes up in search engine results pages (SERPs).
To help you understand the importance of rankings, the first page of results account for up to 90% of link clicks. In other words, if your website doesn’t come up on the first page, you have a very low chance of driving traffic to your website.
6. Content Exposure
As noted above, you want to lead people to the content on your website. You can use social media to help drive your followers to your site. However, this won’t be incredibly effective until you grow your social media account.
In the beginning, you’ll need to rely on SEO or paid advertising to get people to your pages. Use relevant and effective on-page SEO to drive traffic to specific articles and/or product and service pages.
7. Stay Up-To-Date With Consumer Trends
Using business SEO is vital for keeping up with the ever-changing trends and habits of consumers. You may not realize it, but every new advancement in technology or in your industry will affect how people search for products and services.
With the progression of artificial intelligence technology, keyword searches are changing. Devices like Siri and Alexa allow people to conduct voice-activated internet searches. This may not seem like a big deal, but it completely changes the verbiage used when searching for products, services, or information.
For example, a traditional keyword search sounds something like “best Energy Star appliances.” A voice-activated search, however, will sound more like “Siri, what are the best Energy Star appliances to save money?’
When using voice-activated searches, people tend to use more words and ask more specific questions.
8. Improved Quality of Traffic
Not all website traffic is created equal. In fact, some traffic can be bad, by increasing your bounce rate. Users who come to your site by mistake or can’t find what they’re looking for will leave quickly, which is bad for your SEO ranking.
SEO can help ensure you’re driving quality traffic to your site. These will be the users who seek the information you provide and are genuinely interested in your products and services. They’ll spend more time on your site and will visit multiple pages – all of which improve your SEO ranking.
9. Cost-Effective Longevity
One of the best benefits of SEO is that it’s relatively inexpensive to maintain, improve, and update. While you may need to hire SEO services to get you started, it’s among the most affordable digital marketing services.
Most importantly, SEO is a long-term solution. Keeping your site up-to-date is necessary for maintaining a high ranking, but SEO coding doesn’t necessarily expire. The articles and keywords you publish will have a lasting effect.
Do You Want to Boost Your Website’s SEO?
If you’re new to the business world or are inexperienced in the digital arena, we can help.
Our company is dedicated to helping business owners like you to thrive in today’s digitally driven marketing landscape. Check out our digital marketing services to see what we can do for you.
Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
