Why Search Engine Optimization is so Important for Your Business

Why Search Engine Optimization is so Important for Your Business Simply put, 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine, making search engine optimization possibly THE most important marketing element of your business.

There are plenty of statistics that illustrate why search engine optimization is so important for any business:

• 67k searches are performed on Google every second
• 39% of all global ecommerce traffic comes from search
• 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine
• Nearly 80% of users ignore paid ads in search results
• 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020
• 58% of searches come from mobile
• 97% of page-one results have at least one image on the page
• 46% of all Google searches are local

Before you look into the significance of Search Engine Optimization and how it can benefit your business, it is important to understand exactly what it is. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, is the process of increasing the visibility and discoverability of a web page through unpaid, organic practices.

A company with great Search Engine Optimization will benefit from ranking on the first page of Google, Yahoo, Bing and so on.

1. Return on Investment

Rankings aren’t the only reason that SEO should matter to your business, so what makes search engine optimization such an important investment? One of the most important factors you should look at is return on investment (ROI).

According to statistics from Search Engine Journal, SEO generated leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.

2. Brand Visibility

Another obvious element to a strong SEO strategy is increased visibility online.

Increased visibility means you’ll have a strong online presence, something that is so important in this digital age when competition is fierce.

How will customers engage in your business if they cannot find you online?

Search Engine Optimization — A continuous SEO plan should be an integral part of your digital marketing strategy, and there are plenty of tactics you can use to elevate it.

3. Beyond Brand Visibility

Effective search engine optimization services means so much more than just brand visibility. Because SEO is Google’s way of assigning a value to your website in the form of rankings — this means a number of things to users:

a) It means Google trusts you; which instills user confidence & build brand trust.

b) It provides instant credibility

c) It provides valuable customer insight

d) It generates ongoing leads

4. Website Traffic

A great benefit to organic rankings and brand visibility is of course, website traffic.

The #1 position in Google on average has a 27.5% Click Through Rate according to the Advanced Web Ranking CTR study. This means that if you rank #1 for a search term, every 100 times that term is searched you will statistically receive 27-28 visitors.

Now, clearly not everybody can rank for position 1 in search, but you don’t have to. Even with such a crowded landscape, there is plenty of room for new businesses to carve out unique search query rankings that provide real value.

This really is where SEO strategy comes in to play, by targeting specific verticals, interests and even locations.

The simplest option is to leave it to the professionals and employ an agency that has a wealth of expertise in this area. Many even specialize in a specific industry which is most favorable when the job in hand is to have a clear understanding of how to communicate with your client base. For example, justlegalmarketing.com is an agency that specifically deals with the digital marketing of law firms and would have a clear understanding on how to increase engagement.

Alternatively, you could attempt to update the majority of your online content yourself using these four golden rules:

1. Publish Regular and Relevant Content

It is important to update your business’s website on a regular basis with fresh content that is relevant to your brand. The best way to do this is to start a company blog, focusing on news worthy topics that clients will want to engage with and read up on. Both quantity and quality are important here to increase visibility.

2. Use Keywords

Within the descriptive text on your website, include keywords to improve Search Engine Optimization. In short, keywords are the ideas and topics that define your business. They are the phrases and sentences that a customer would type into a search bar when looking for a new product, a service, or some advice.

Researching your audience will help here, understand the type of language they use and exactly what it is they are searching for. Page title and descriptive metadata is so important as the information provided here communicates with search engines behind the scenes.

3. Add Multimedia Elements

Imagery and videography can play an important role in increasing the visibility of your website online. Compress files to ensure pages load quickly, optimizing the user experience. It is also important to be thoughtful when naming image files. A JPEG file named ‘Hotel in Paris’ will be far more helpful then a file named ‘HotelThree’.

4. Include Links Within Your Website’s Text

All advice, information, and claims made on your website should be supported by valid and trustworthy links, preferably from sources of authority such as government resources or health organizations. This will increase the credibility of your website.

Closing

There are many reasons why search engine optimization is important to your business and any business. I believe two of the most important are that SEO is a sustainable sales and lead generation system when done right. Also, the quality of these leads is hard to replicate in just about every other form of marketing.

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by Chris London of Pixel Productions Inc. The Everything Design Company