10 Reasons Your Business Needs SEO
To date, most business owners and marketers have determined that SEO is key for pulling website traffic. If your content and website haven’t been properly optimized – for both mobile and desktop users – your business will have quite a difficult time in attracting traffic from an organic Google search towards your site.
There are, however, a number of other benefits of an SEO driven strategy – apart from increased traffic. Here, we will be outlining 10 vital benefits that will step in right after your website is properly SEO-optimized.
- Proper Optimization Doesn’t Only Mean Better Rankings – It Also Means Better User Experience
There is no question about the fact that user experiences have now become an important ranking factor. Search engines, nowadays, will optimize results according to good integration of relevant videos and photos, good user experiences (low bounce rates, high visit times, etc.), and, ofcourse, mobile-friendly designs.
All of these elements are very important in determining the user experience of visitors and SEO optimization automatically improves user experience. SEO optimization will bring about increased brand loyalty, more trust, and higher conversion rates.
- Organic Searches Account for About 64% of Visits
In research that looked into 310 million visits over a range of 30 different sites, it was found that about 64% of referral traffic was due to organic searches. Other research linked to the study seemed to indicate that social media controlled about 31% of referral traffic. All-in-all, there is no question about the fact that organic searches remain the critical driving factor for most businesses.
- SEO Leads Generate Higher Close Rates
Research was able to determine that SEO leads have average close rates of about 14.6%, while outbound leads have a close rate of 1.7%. This makes complete sense due to the fact that searchers don’t really look for specific services or products. Instead, they search for what they would like to purchase. Simply put – cold leads or other outbound marketing strategies are trumped by SEO optimization strategies. Search Engine Journal has comprised some other facts about SEO that can help convince you.
- Inbound Marketing Methods (Such As SEO) Bring More Leads Than Outbound
In a nonprofit, B2B and B2C marketing report, it was found that inbound marketing strategies were the prime source for most leads. The very same report found that SEO had managed to become the number 1 source for all the leads!
That being said, an important question to ask yourself here is – if you aren’t generating your leads from search, then who is?
- Local Search Ranking Will Directly Lead to Increased Sales
If you are running a local business, optimizing your website for the local traffic is critical. This is due to the reason that consumers will always use local search queries to identify all the services and products around them.
Google has reported that about HALF of all consumers who perform local searches tend to visit the store on the very same day! Simply put – local search rankings definitely impact sales. In the same report, it was found that local mobile searches had led to 18% sales on the very same day.
- Marketers Have Already Ranked SEO As Their Most Effective Digital Marketing Strategy
It was found all the way back in 2015 that about 66% of the marketers who used SEO and SEM marketing strategies either found it effective or VERY effective. Only 7% of these marketers thought that it wasn’t effective. Don’t these seem like great odds?
- SEO Brings About Increased Credibility For Brands
Ranking quite highly in organic search results signals to the fact that you’re among the key players in your industry. Ranking 2nd or even on the next page will lead to some really unwanted assumptions about your new or established business. As the famed saying goes, “the best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results.”
- SEO Is A Lesser Hand-On Strategy Than Other Inbound Strategies
Both email and social media marketing tend to be very effective channels to generate leads. Even though this is the case, both strategies require an amount of continual effort from the respective business. If your business wishes to remain at the top of the consumer’s minds and in the line of vision of prospects, then it will have to continually push new content to your social media followers and email lists.
Once your business is on SEO, however, all you have to do is sit back and watch the rankings climb on their own due to merit. This, ofcourse, will largely depend on some factors such as the competitiveness of the keywords used and/or the quality of the overall content among others. In general, once the foundation of an SEO strategy has been laid, most of your job will almost be done.
- Appearing On the 2nd and 3rd Page of Results Means Virtually No Visibility
There are some businesses out there that would forego putting formal SEO strategies in place simply because they think appearing anywhere in the results will be good enough. Well, these businesses don’t know that about 71.33% of all the click-throughs occur on page 1 of Google search results. This is why properly optimizing your business’s website will be key in achieving the top rankings and, as a result, the best degree of search visibilities.
- The Majority of Consumers Will Research Products Online Before They Visit Stores
Research into retail shoppers found that as many as 81% would first compare their potential buy online before they would actually move forward with the purchase. There are also some researches that have quoted this figure to be as high as 94% for B2B consumers. Achieving the first page ranking for your products and services will, therefore, be critical if you wish for consumers searching for your specialty to be directed to your business.
The only way to benefit from all of the above is making your website SEO friendly. If you wish to learn how, this page about SEO for Dummies can really help you out!
Understanding SEO can lead you well on your way to success with your business, and the above points are a great place to start.
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