9 Reasons Your Business Needs an SEO Strategy Now
Many business owners know that an SEO strategy is something that they need, but few could actually tell you what SEO actually does for their business. SEO will help improve your business’s website’s overall searchability and visibility.
But, what does that mean? And, why is SEO so important?
This article will try to shed some light on the topic of SEO regardless of the industry or size of your company. Here are 9 reasons why your business needs an SEO strategy to take you to the next level.
1. Organic Search is Crucial to Businesses
Organic search is a huge part of the way most business websites gain traffic. Traffic to the website ultimately leads to conversions or engagement. Therefore, organic search is crucial to helping your business make sales and engage with potential customers.
Google owns the majority of search engine use; 91.75% of all searches are made with Google. Google’s closest competitor, Bing, owns 2.75% of all internet searches.
Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Search Engine Market Share
That’s not to say that other search engines do not contribute to your business’s SEO – they do – but most of your customer’s search using Google. Since Google is the king of search it is important to follow its guidelines and recommendations.
Google is the most visited website in the United States and it just so happens to be the most popular email provider too. There are more than 1 billion (that’s billion with a B) Gmail users worldwide. Google also owns YouTube which is the second-largest internet search engine behind Google.
Clearly, the vast majority of the world uses Google as a source to get its information. Google processes over 3.5 billion searches a day and the average person makes 3 to 4 Google searches in a day (I guess I am above average).
Having said all of this it is easy to see how becoming a trusted resource by Google and other search engines is going to work to your business’s advantage. How do you become a trusted partner of Google? This is where a quality SEO strategy and a high-quality website come into play.
2. SEO Helps You Become a Trusted Partner
An SEO strategy will help your business establish a strong foundation for your website. When your website is clean, fast, and offers a great user experience it becomes easier to become discovered during an organic search. Your website is demonstrating to Google and other search engines that they can trust you.
Many different elements go into developing trust with search engines. In addition to technical factors with your website, authority can be built over time with:
- Positive user behavior
- Machine learning signals
- Quality backlink profiles
- Optimized-page elements and content
Establishing your website as a trusted partner with search engines like Google will do a lot for your company. But the problem is you can’t build that trust and credibility overnight. Just like in real life authority and trust is earned and built over time.
Establishing your brand’s authority requires patience, effort, and commitment. Your business must demonstrate that it offers a valuable product or service that customers like and trust.
3. It Offers a Beter User Experience
Every business wants better search ranking and increased visibility for their company online but few business owners realize that user experience is a huge part of achieving these results.
Google interprets favorable and unfavorable user experiences on your company’s website. Favorable user experience has become crucial to your website’s success. Customers know what they are looking for and if they can’t find it your performance will suffer.
Google now focuses on search results that allow users to quickly find the information they need with as few clicks as possible. A quality SEO strategy incorporates positive user experience and works to provide the information people are searching for. This will help your business become a trusted partner over time.
4. Increased Traffic, Conversions & Engagement
Now we are getting to the fun stuff. Mobile traffic has seen a huge increase. Nearly 60% of all searches now come from mobile. This has fueled a rise in local search. Local search is now a huge part of small and medium-sized businesses’ success.
Local SEO looks to optimize your digital properties for a specific local region to make it easier for people to find you quickly when they are on the go. If you can get in front of these localized searchers you are one step closer to making a sale.
Local SEO focuses on specific cities, towns, counties, and states. It optimizes the company’s messaging on a local level to appeal to these types of searches. I can take a look at your company’s website, content, citations, backlinks, and local listings that are relevant to your location and optimize them to help your business capture more of these local searchers.
Social media profiles and your company’s Google My Business listing also play a huge role in local search optimization. User reviews left on Google, Yelp, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, etc, also play a huge part in local SEO. I can take a look at your industry’s review sites and help you capture more positive reviews to boost your local SEO.
5. SEO Impacts Customers Who Are Contemplating Purchases
Customers are doing their research. 88% of consumers pre-research purchases online before making a purchase online or in stores. This is one of the biggest advantages SEO can provide your business from a customer’s perspective.
SEO strategies can help get your companies message out to consumers who are doing their research online before they make a purchase. When implemented correctly this can positively change the buying cycle for your business.
Your company must be visible in places where people search for information. Local SEO enhances your companies visibility and helps searchers find answers.
6. The SEO Strategies Must Continually Change
If your company has already implemented an SEO strategy in the past and worked on becoming a trusted partner to search engines that is great. However, the rules of SEO are consistently changing over time. Eventually, that work your company did in the past will be irrelevant if it isn’t updated or improved upon.
Changes in SEO are at the discretion of Google as they work to make internet searches easier and quicker for more people. That means SEO requires constant monitoring for changes to stay on top.
Proactive monitoring is a great way to avoid losing all the hard work your company has done and the time and money you have already invested in SEO. Google makes thousands of algorithm changes a year. If you fall behind too many of these changes it can be difficult to come back.
7. SEO is a Long-Term Strategy
SEO can have a noticeable impact on your business in the first year’s actions are taken. Depending on how many actions are taken depends on how quickly results can be seen. Usually, an SEO strategy takes 4 to 6 months to see the effects. But once implemented the results can last for many years.
The more time, effort, and investment you commit to SEO, the more you will get out of it. Proving that your website is trustworthy and provides a great user experience can take a while depending on the competition in your industry. The results will be worth it once Google sees your website as a worthy contender.
8. It’s Quantifiable
Seo doesn’t offer the easy to calculate ROI that paid search offers. You won’t be able to see exactly how many more sales you will make as your website implements a strategic SEO plan because it is hard to connect the dots that resulted in a sale.
Still, it is worthwhile to understand how certain actions affect performance and growth. Any good SEO professional will be aiming at these improvements and keep you informed along the way.
Businesses need to understand where they stand and where they are going in terms of digital performance especially when they are paying someone to achieve results. Data never lies so much sure your SEO professional gives you the full rundown of where you started and where you are now each month that you pay for their services.
9. SEO is Not Expensive
You have many options for where you can spend your marketing budget, right? Most people ask, “how much does SEO cost?” To answer your question, everything costs money – retargeting, PPC, Facebook ads, email marketing – but SEO is relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. The benefit of an SEO strategy is that is is also very likely to boost your company’s bottom line.
SEO isn’t an advertising or marketing cost; it’s a true business investment. Good SEO will help your company many years down the road. Like most things in life, it will only get better the more attention and investment it gets.
Get Started With an SEO Strategy for Your Site Today
Optimizing a site is a complex and challenging process. It takes, time, and planning. But, it can help you increase your visibility, conversions, engagement, and traffic to your website. Plus you’ll get all of these results without spending money on advertising.
Beyond that SEO will enhance the user experience of your website making it easier for your customers to find the information they need. It’s easy to monitor your SEO strategy’s results so you always know where you stand and if your strategy is working.
If you’ve been considering implementing an SEO strategy for your company, there is no time like the present. Book a discovery call today and let’s talk about how SEO can help your company achieve it’s business goals.
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