Most business owners don’t know the importance of Search engine optimization (SEO), and how it can help their business because they are used to spending money on ads to generate traffic and sales for their website.
If you haven’t invested in SEO, you need to know that you are losing a lot of potential traffic to your competitors because the majority of online users don’t like to click on ads, they prefer to click on search engine organic results because they trust the search engine to provide them with the best results.
SEO is a key marketing investment for your company's online presence, trust, credibility, and brand reputation. Optimizing your website will inform search engines about the content of your website, and the audience you are trying to serve.
Search engine optimization (SEO) can increase the visibility of your website on search engine results pages (SERPs), which will generate organic traffic to your website through your potential customers who are actively searching the internet for you.
Before we go further, let me explain what a search engine is to you.
What is a Search Engine?
Understanding what a search engine is will let you make an informed decision on why you need to invest in SEO for the success of your business. According to Wikipedia, a Search engine is a software system that is designed to carry out web searches for online users. In a simple term, I can define a search engine to be an online software that enables online users to search for information that is beneficial to them.
To search for information online users visit a search engine homepage, like Google or Bing homepage, and put their desired question into the search field. Then search engines responded back to them by providing them with the best answer to their questions.
More than a billion people make use of the search engine daily and I am sure you also make use of search engines to search for information that you need.
After we are done understanding what a search engine is and how it works, let’s go further to learn more about search engine optimization (SEO)
Definition of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of improving the quality of your website through optimization with intention of generating organic traffic on search engines. Increasing the quality of your website will expose your website to become visible to your potential customers.
The website optimizations that are done to increase your website's organic traffic can be done by
Now let’s get down to how search engine optimization (SEO) works.
How Does SEO work?
Search engines work in a complex way because of their algorithm, and frequent changes, but they have three simple primary functions, which are to crawl, index, and rank.
Let me explain what these three functions do;
- Crawl: Search engines bot crawl the World Wide Web (www) to search for content they will provide to any online users.
- Index: Search engines store, and organize any content they discover on the web during the crawling process. An indexed web page will appear in search engine results pages (SERPs) for the right keywords.
- Rank: Search engines provide online users with the best information based on their keyword query. The results that show up on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) are the most relevant results. So why did you need SEO, and why is it important for your business?
So why did you need SEO, and why is it important for your business?
Three Important Ways SEO Can Help Your Business Grow
Search engine optimization (SEO) will increase the rank of your web pages on search engine results pages (SERPs), this means that you will huge volume of traffic coming to your website from your target customers.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is content oriented so your website will be filled with high-value content, that will earn you the trust of your target customers, search engines, and third-party websites.
When you consistently publish high-value content, you will be seen as an authority in your industry, this will make search engines give you credibility, and search engine's credibility means your website will earn the top spot on search engine results pages (SERPs), resulting to higher sales, and conversions for your business.
1. SEO Increases Your Website Organic Traffic
Search engine optimization (SEO) generates organic traffic from your potential customers to your website. SEO exposes your website to online users who are actively searching the web for information on what your business offers.
Constant publication of high-quality, and valuable information that solve online consumers’ problem will enable search engines to increase your website ranking, and expose your website to online users.
The goal of most businesses that invest in search engine optimization (SEO) is to earn the top spot on the first page of search engine results, and most of them earn this top spot by incorporating target keywords in their web content.
Target keywords are keywords that your target customers are using to search the internet for services, and products that your business offers. By doing keyword research you will be aware of what your target customers are searching for, and how you can help them with the valuable information on what they are searching for.
Websites that earn the top spot on the first page of search engine results generate more organic traffic, and they also generate more sales, because they are the first option for online consumers.
When you rank higher on search engine results pages, you will see an increase in;
- 1Organic Traffic
- 2Sales, and Conversions
- 3Calls
- 4Meeting
- 5In-store visits, e.tc.
The reason for this is because online consumers that perform searches on search engines have a problem they are trying to solve, this means that there is a higher chance of them making a purchase if they found your website.
2. SEO Increases Your Business Conversion Rates
You must be providing valuable information to online users before you can get to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), this valuable information is what search engine serves to online users based on what they are looking for, or based on the problem they are trying to solve.
When you provide your target customers with information that will solve their problems, they will trust you, and love to buy from you because they acknowledge your potential of knowing how best they can solve their problems.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an inbound marketing technique that attracts online users through valuable content they themselves are looking for, it is different from an outbound marketing technique that will require you to push information to online users even if they are not interested in what you offer.
With an effective SEO strategy, you don’t have to pay to get your message across to your potential customers. By following the inbound marketing technique, you will create valuable, engaging, and useful content that your target customers are most interested in reading, then search engines will improve your website rank to become visible to your target customers.
3. SEO Increases Your Brand Credibility
When you publish high-quality content on your website, third-party websites that are in the same industry as you will link to your content from their web page because they want their website visitors to benefit from your content.
This linking is called backlinks, and apart from the fact that backlinks will increase your website ranking on search engines, it will also increase your brand credibility, which means that online consumers will trust your brand because they see you as an authority in your industry.
If you are a business owner that is interested in building trust, and credibility for your business, SEO is the best digital marketing technique you can invest in. Search engines have the capacity to increase your business credibility, and shares.
Online consumers also trust search engine organic results more than paid advertisements. Most online shoppers find paid advertisements annoying, so they prefer to perform their search on search engines as search engines will provide them with the best results.
SEO investment is the only marketing technique that will provide your business with the best long-term value, and results as it gets your website to become visible to your target customers.
If you can dedicate your time and resources, SEO is capable of achieving and maintaining your business's success.