As a business owner, you need to invest in Search engine optimization (SEO), it will grow your website's search engine traffic and conversions.
With SEO you don’t need to spend much money on ads to generate traffic and sales for your website.
If you haven’t invested in SEO, you need to know that you are losing lots of potential traffic to your competitors because the majority of online users find ads annoying, they prefer to click on websites that show up on search engine organic results because they believe those websites have the best solution to their problems.
SEO is a key marketing investment when it comes to your business's online reputation.
When you optimize your website, you inform search engines about the content of your website, and your industry.
Search engine optimization (SEO) will increase your website's search engine visibility.
This visibility will increase your website's organic traffic.
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.
A search engine is a software system that is designed to carry out web searches for online users.
In simple term, it can also be defined as an online software that enables online users to search for information that is beneficial to them.
People go online to search for information, they visit the homepage of search engines like Google, or Bing, and they ask their desired questions and hope to find answers to the question.
Search engine processes these questions and responds to them with the best available answers that are available on the web.
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.
Now that you have a clear understanding of what 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 the intention of generating organic traffic on search engines.
The website optimizations that are done to increase your website's organic traffic can be done by;
- 1Increasing your website loading speed.
- 2Making your website mobile-responsive.
- 3Writing blog posts to attract your potential customers.
- 4Writing long-form content, and so much more.
let’s take it further to understand 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;
- 1Crawl: Search engines bot crawl the World Wide Web (www) to search for content they will provide to any online users.
- 2Index: Search engines store, and organize any content they discover on the web during the crawling process. Indexed web pages are web pages that are liable to show on search engine results pages (SERPs) for the right target keywords.
- 3Rank: 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 the growth of your business?
Why is SEO Important?
Search engine optimization (SEO) will increase your website ranking and visibility on SERPs, this means that you will notice a huge volume of traffics 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 you’re your target customers, search engines, and third-party websites.
When you regularly publish high-value content, you will have a strong foothold in your industry and be seen as an authority, this will make search engines to give you credibility, and search engines' credibility means your website will be visible on the first page of 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.
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 your potential customers.
The goal of most businesses that invest in search engine optimization (SEO) is to increase their organic traffic and conversions.
This increase in traffic can be achieved through the incorporation of target keywords in your web page content.
Target keywords are user intent keywords that your target customers are using to search the internet for services, and products that your business offers.
By conducting keyword research, you will have a clear understanding of what your target customers are searching for, and how you can help them with valuable information on what they are searching for.
Websites that are lucky to earn the top spot on the first page of SERPs 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 (SERPs), you will see an increase in;
The reason for this is that online consumers that perform searches on search engines have a problem they are trying to solve; this means that there is a higher chance that they will make a purchase if your website is visible to them.
2. SEO Increases Your Business Conversion Rates
To get to the top of Google SERPs you need to publish valuable content on your website.
Search Engines will serve this valuable content to online users based on their search query, or based on the problem they are trying to solve.
When you provide your target customers with valuable content on how to solve their problems, they will trust you, and will likely purchase 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 requires you to push your products or services to online users even if they are not interested.
With an effective SEO campaign, your target customers will locate you easily without you investing in paid advertisement.
By following an inbound marketing technique, you will create valuable, engaging, and useful content that your target customers are most interested in reading, then search engines will increase your website rank so your target customers can see it when they needed it.
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 the valuable content you published.
The linking between third-party websites is called backlinks. Backlinks stand as a vote of authority and credibility that a third-party website passes to you through your website content.
Online consumers also trust search engine organic results more than paid advertisements.
Most online shoppers find paid advertisements annoying,
They prefer to visit search engines before buying any product because they know search engines will provide them with the best results available on the world wide web
SEO investment is the only marketing technique that can provide you with long-term results.
4. With SEO You don’t need to pay for Ad Space
Apart from consistent traffic one of the importance of SEO for many businesses is that it doesn’t require you to pay for Ads.
Paid ads are expensive and they can only drive you traffic as long as you are willing to pay, your traffic stops immediately your money stops, but with SEO you will continue to get traffic even after you are not more paying for an SEO campaign.
When you create evergreen content on your website through your SEO campaign, the content will continue to bring quality traffic to your website; this translates to more opportunities to sell your products or services to ready buyers.
Apart from the fact that paid ads are expensive, online users don’t mostly like to click on an ad page that appears on the search results, they know it is a paid space so most online users choose to ignore it and go to the organic results.
They will prefer to click through the website that earns a top spot through organic search results than the one that is paid for.
Online users believe that for Google to show the website on the first page of search results it means the website has answers to their question and they are the best fit to help them.
5. SEO Makes it Easy for your website to become visible to your target customers.
With a solid SEO strategy, you will be able to become visible to your target customers who are actively searching for information related to your business.
They have issues that your business can help them solve so they are online actively searching for how to solve this issue and who can solve it for them.
Almost everyone these days have access to smartphones and they begin their day on Google searching for different queries on how they can solve the various problems they are facing.
Google Search Engine process more than 500 Million searches a day, this is a huge opportunity for you to take advantage of and expose your business to millions of people online.
More than 62% of Online Users visit the search engine to research about businesses, products, or services they are interested in and 41% of these searches are from users that are ready to make a buying decision.
So, if you want your business to become an option to online users while they are still in their research stage, you need to invest in an SEO campaign so that your website will appear for keywords that are related to your business, industry, products, or services.
Having a strong online presence will help you reach your marketing goals and make you appear to your target customers anywhere they are online.
With a strong marketing campaign, you want your target customers to remember your business from their sub conscience mind when they want to make a purchase.
6. With SEO you will stay ahead of your competitors.
Business is war and it will be better if you treat it as such, you should know better that you are not the only one in your industry you also have competitors that are looking for customers as you are also looking for customers.
So, to get ahead of your competitors, you need to invest in an SEO campaign.
Organic traffic is not the result you can get from an SEO campaign.
You can also move ahead of your competitors in the search engine with a robust SEO and Content marketing strategy.
You need to create quality content about various problems that your target customers are facing and gain authority in your niche.
You want to become the first business your target customers remember when they have decided to make a purchase.
7. SEO will Improve the User Experience of Your Website.
Better user experience is part of the major search engine ranking factors. Google attributes great importance to websites with good user experience.
This ranking factor will also let you focus on your website UX and do better if you are lacking behind.
Google only cares about providing the best search engine experience to online users so they can always come back, because of this you can not ignore the UX of your website by not making it better.
Your website should be able to be easy for online users to navigate.
Apart from the great content you have on your site, the experiences your target customers face when they visited your website should not also be ignored.
To create a better user experience for your target customers you should do the following;
- 1Provide Quality Content.
- 2Your website should load faster.
- 3Your website must be easy to navigate.
- 4Your website must be mobile friendly.
- 5Your website should be well structured.
Your website conversion rate will also increase if your website UX is great, your target customers will be happy to always visit your website, and this translates to more opportunities to sell which will increase your ROI.
8. SEO is Measurable and Easy to Adjust
Generally, one of the advantages of digital marketing to traditional marketing is the ability to measure and adjust your campaign effort.
SEO also provides you with this advantage, it is easy to measure and adjust your marketing effort when it comes to SEO.
If your SEO campaign is not delivering results as expected you can easily adjust it and get it right after.
SEO also makes it easy to measure your result as it provides you with the necessary data of online users that visited your website and the actions, they took on your website.
You have the accurate data of online users that visited your website and the ones who call to make inquiries or decided to make a purchase without calling.
Free analytics tool like Google Analytics gives you the opportunity to monitor your website traffic and conversions and make adjustment if necessary.
Google Analytics provides you with data that is essential to the growth of your business-like Traffic Source, the number of users and sessions, average session duration, average pages per session, the ratio of new returning visitors, bounce rate e.tc.
With this important data provided to you, you will be able to evaluate your campaign to see how it is performing and how you can do better if you are not getting the desired results.
Can Businesses of all Types Benefit From SEO?
This question is an important question that I need to answer because as a business owner you might be wondering if SEO is really important to your type of business.
Your business might be in an industry with little to no competition, you might have earned the first page on the search results, or you may be struggling to become visible and earn a spot on the search results.
If the question ever comes to your mind if you need SEO to become visible online, or if you can invest in other online strategies instead of SEO to become visible.
I need you to know that no matter what industry your business is, or no matter the type of business you are involved in once you have a website SEO is essential to the growth of business online.
It doesn’t matter if your business is old, new struggling, successful, or if it is small or large.
Once you already built a website SEO is crucial to the visibility and growth of your business.
Even if you are the only player in your industry, you still need to have an SEO strategy to become successful.
Below are a few examples of industries and businesses that can benefit from having an SEO strategy:
The reason why you need to invest in SEO strategy for your business is that you can control it and adjust it to get your desired results.
There are various things you can’t control about your industry.
You can’t control the emergence of new industry competitors, you also can’t how aggressively your competitors will invest in their marketing campaigns.
Meanwhile, SEO gives you the opportunity to control your search engine rankings, what this means is that to some extent you can control how visible your website will be and the number of online users that will visit your website.
The visibility of your website to your target customers on the search engine will have an effect on your sales, and leads, which will have an impact on your bottom line.
When you invest in your business SEO strategy, you are directly investing in your website visibility and profitability.
So no matter the obstacles your business may face tomorrow, if you are consistent in your SEO you will be assured that your SEO effort will drive you visibility and bring growth to your business.
That is why it is essential for you to invest in SEO strategy for your business no matter the industry you find yourself.
And based on the fact that people have problems they want to solve and they visit the search engine daily to look for how to solve these problems, it is unlikely that SEO will lose its importance in years to come.
Is SEO More Important and Essential to the Growth of Some Businesses Than Others?
You may be asking yourself if it is really important for you to invest in your website SEO campaign?
You may also be wondering if SEO is more important to some businesses or industries than others?
The truth is Once SEO is involved there are different needs for different websites, these needs can’t be determined by you nor your business, or the industry you serve, the factors that determine these needs are as follows:
- 1Industry keywords the business wants to rank for.
- 2The volume of competition for those keywords.
- 3How online users are reacting to the website.
- 4If the website domain is new or old.
- 5The stage of the website.
- 6If the website has any backlinks or not.
- 7Whether or not SEO has been done on the website in the past.
The only impact your industry can have in your SEO campaign is on issues of your competitors.
If you are an attorney that owns a law firm and you are determined to rank for the keyword “Best Law Firm,” your SEO is going campaign will be more expensive in terms of both monetary and time, than an SEO campaign for a law firm that wants to target the keyword “How much does it cost to hire an attorney?”
This is because the volume of the competition on the first keyword is higher so it will require more effort to get the top position and rank higher than competitors.
The explanation I did above doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest in SEO because it requires effort, what it means is that it is more challenging to reach a certain stage.
SEO is important and essential to every business with an online presence, irrespective of your industry.
You should invest in SEO today to expose your website to millions of your target customers that are already searching for how to solve their problems.
Invest in SEO and earn the trust of your target customers so they can always patronize you.
Is It Right for any Business to Stop Their SEO Campaign Once They Are Successful Online?
Let’s suppose few years from today, your business achieves great success from your SEO campaign.
Your website is bringing you consistent quality leads, you are earning backlinks from other websites, and your sales are increasing steadily.
Will you stop to think about how great your SEO campaign is increasing your success once all is going well?
The Short answer is Never, you will not stop thinking about your SEO campaign no matter how successful you may have become.
It is never the right thing to stop an SEO campaign once it has started delivering the expected results.
Even large corporations in the world still take advantage of SEO.
Most of them invest heavily in their SEO and Content marketing strategy, and after they have achieved some level of success from their SEO campaign, they evaluate the number of resources they have invested and change their tactics.
Let me shed more light on what I just said; if your website is a brand-new website with no marketing history, and you want to gain authority and make your website become a Go-to resource website in your history, you will aggressively create long-form quality content and build links to it.
However, in a few years’ time, you will likely earn a huge volume of links from third-party websites naturally.
This doesn’t mean that you will stop investing in your SEO campaign by creating Content and earning links, but what it does allow you to do is relax the amount of time you spend on link building.
You should also note that SEO is not certain, because search engine algorithms change frequently.
As of today, search engine giant like Google with the largest market share places huge importance on the quality and number of backlinks a website has.
You might wake up tomorrow and Google will declare that backlinks are no longer a ranking factor and the amount of content you have on your website plays an important role in your website search engine rankings.
After knowing that search engine algorithms change frequently, you now see that it is not good to assume that your website in its current state will always bring your leads and sales.
Search engines also prefer fresh content over old content, you need to update your content and earn new links so that your website will not lose relevance in the eye of the search engine.
Search engines are changing frequently and your competitors are also working to outrank you and gain visibility and authority.
So, you need to always optimize your website to maintain your online success, and also gain more success.
The short and direct answer is NO, you must not stop investing in your website SEO campaign even if you are successful through it.
If you stop investing, your online success will be short-lived and your competitors will gladly take your position.
Are You Ready to Invest In SEO?
The SEO industry is an industry that evolves constantly, and it is important you stay ahead of the latest trends to maintain your website's search engine rankings and visibility.
You need a trusted SEO partner that fully understands your business and industry and works with you on the implementation of a custom SEO strategy that is designed to help you outrank your competitors, gain authority in your niche, reach your targeted customers and increase your bottom line.
PRICING ISSUE?
Price should not be a major deciding factor if you want to work with an SEO professional.
Although you may not have an open budget, you will be given an SEO pricing list to choose from.
You get what you pay for so be careful if any SEO professional promises you cheap SEO services, you are likely to sacrifice quality over price.