SEO: Why it’s important for your company
12 reasons make SEO is a critical component to your marketings
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of enhancing and promoting your company’s website to increase the number of visitors that are received through search engines. SEO is a critical component to your marketing mix for many reasons.
1. SEO Helps people find your website
When a consumer is searching for a product or service that your company offers, you want your company to be found as close to the top of the search engine results as possible. Organically, ranking in a search engine is the ultimate form of inbound lead generation for your company.
2. It builds Trust and Credibility
Any company can pay to have its listing show up at the top of a search engine page, but consumers are more trusting to listings that are organically ranked, because it is like word-of-mouth marketing, which is more credible in the consumer’s mind than a paid advertisement by the company.
3. Helps Build Brand Awareness and Improve Brand Reach
Ranking near the top of search engines in your industry brings your company to the front of the consumer’s mind, so optimizing your content with keywords that you want to be associated with your brand is very important.
4. SEO is the Best Way to Understand the Voice of the Consumer
From understanding macro market shifts to understanding consumer intent in granular detail, SEO tells us what customers want and need.
SEO data and formats – spoken or word – gives us clear signals of intent and user behavior.
It does this in many ways:
Search query data.
SERP analysis.
Analytics data and AI insights.
5. Good SEO Also Means a Better User Experience
User experience has become every marketer’s number one priority. Everyone wants better organic rankings and maximum visibility. However, few realize that optimal user experience is a big part of getting there.
Google has learned how to interpret a good or unfavorable user experience, and a positive user experience has become a pivotal element to a website’s success.
Google’s Page Experience Update is something that marketers in all industries will need to adhere to and is part of their longstanding focus on the customer experience.
Customers know what they want. If they can’t find it, there’s going to be a problem. And performance will suffer.
A clear example of building a solid user experience is how Google has become more and more of an answer engine offering the sought-after data directly on the SERPs (search engine results pages).
The intention is to offer users the information they are looking for in fewer clicks, quickly and easily.
Quality SEO incorporates a positive user experience, leveraging it to work in a brand’s favor.
6. SEO Impacts the Buying Cycle
Research is becoming a critical element of SEO, and the importance of real-time research is growing.
Using SEO tactics to relay your messaging for good deals, ground-breaking products and services, and the importance and dependability of what you offer customers will be a game-changer.
It will also undoubtedly positively impact the buying cycle when done right.
Brands must be visible in the places people need them for a worthy connection to be made. Local SEO enhances that visibility and lets potential customers find the answers and the businesses providing those answers.
7. SEO is Constantly Improving and Best Practices are Always Being Updated
It’s great to have SEO tactics implemented on a brand’s website and across its digital properties. Still, if it’s a short-term engagement (budget constraints, etc.) and the site isn’t re-evaluated consistently over time, it will reach a threshold where it can no longer improve because of other hindrances.
The way the search world evolves (basically at the discretion of Google) requires constant monitoring for changes to stay ahead of the competition and, hopefully, on Page 1.
Being proactive and monitoring for significant algorithm changes is always going to benefit the brands doing so.
We know Google makes thousands of algorithm changes a year. Fall too far behind, and it will be tough to come back.
SEO pros help to ensure that is avoided.
8. It is a Measurable Marketing Tool
SEO can help a company see where its website traffic is coming from. So, it can help the company figure out where and why there are drops in website visibility. In addition, it can help your company gauge its performance on keywords. Therefore, these measures help you to optimize your company’s website to get the best leads coming in.
9. Understanding SEO Helps You Understand the Environment of the Web
With the always-changing environment that is the World Wide Web, it can be a challenge to stay on top of the changes as they take place.
But staying on top of SEO includes being in the loop for the major changes taking place for search. Knowing the environment of the web, including tactics being used by other local, comparable businesses and competitors, will always be beneficial for those brands.
10. SEO is Relatively Cheap and Very Cost-Effective
Sure, it costs money. But all the best things do, right?
SEO is relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things, and the payoff will most likely be considerable in terms of a brand’s benefit to the bottom line.
This isn’t a marketing cost; this is an actual business investment.
Exemplary SEO implementation will hold water for years to come. And, like most things in life, it will only be better with the more attention (and investment) it gets.
11. SEO is PR
SEO helps build long-term equity for your brand. A good ranking and a favorable placement help elevate your brand’s profile.
People search for news and related items, and having a good SEO and PR strategy means your brand will be seen.
Having a good user experience on your website means your messages will be heard, and your products or service sell.
SEO is no longer a siloed channel, so integrating with content and PR helps with brand reach and awareness alongside other results.
If a company properly optimizes its content, it can expect long-term results and benefits. More companies are developing websites, so, in order for your company to stay ahead in the competition, it is imperative that you use SEO to keep your company towards the top of the results and in the front of consumers’ minds.
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