What are the benefits of SEO? What’s In It For You as a business owner?
You have heard about the term ‘SEO” almost everywhere and every time you search about strategies for online marketing. Why is SEO such a big deal? Have you ever wondered what will you benefit from it? Here’s a list of SEO benefits which will probably blow your mind. And I bet you will be thankful you read this.
Every online business owner needs to invest in Search Engine Optimization since their business dwells on the internet. Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website to maximize organic traffic from search engines. This process helps you to get to the top ranking for your website in the leading search engines. The leading search engines are Google, YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo. As an online business owner, one of your goals should be to have your website show up on the first page of SERP’s.
Do not make a huge mistake by not leveraging your business with the SEO benefits we will be discussing here. Consider to create and design an effective SEO strategy for you to maximize the benefits of what SEO has to offer.
Did you know that you are losing money every day your website is not optimized in the search engines?
Read on to know why.
1. Majority of the consumers search for products and services they need through Search Engines
Statistics show that there are over 2 billion people online every day. 93% of online activities start on a search engine. Based on the report, there are 40,000 searches every second, and 3.5 billion searches per day. This data only supports that there are millions of opportunities for your business to be found on search engines. One of the most important benefits of SEO is that your customers are using search engines daily.
2. SEO pulls-in quality traffic
Traffic on search engines produced by people making research daily is the best traffic. Why? Because people are actually searching for the problem you solve. The most relevant keywords should be properly integrated with your websites, blogs and image alternate texts to help your site be “crawled” by the “spiders” – we’ll discuss more on keywords, web crawlers, alternate texts and internal linking on one of our articles. Through SEO, you can “pull” traffic to your business. You do not have to “push” out advertisements to persuade people to buy and spend money. Search traffic results means people searching for your products and services are already interested in them and there is a high probability that they will purchase or sign up. This is why the SEO industry is worth $65 billion.
3. SEO traffic is more likely to convert
SEO traffic is more likely to convert than other sources of traffic. In fact, search traffic has the best conversion rates for most websites. By positioning yourself on search engines, you are positioning your business to win more conversions. People who are searching keywords relevant to your business are already showing interest to your products or services. This means that they are either gathering more information before purchasing or they are already decided and are looking for the right product or service to buy.
4. SEO increases sales and leads
SEO is not a myth. You will increase your leads and sales if you offer a viable product or service. Having quality product or service is not just the key factor to convert leads to sales but also on how you nurture your customers/clients. But first, you need to know how to “hunt” those leads so you can then continue to “farm” them until they convert to sales.
You must invest in the best SEO strategy. With a winning SEO campaign, strategic Click Funnels and invaluable products and services, your business will be on its way to higher conversions.
5. SEO can decrease your cost per acquisition
Another benefit of SEO is that it is “free”. It is far less expensive than advertising to acquire customers. The only costs in SEO are the costs to hire the best SEO Company. Unless you have experience in website coding and Google algorithms, you will need an SEO firm or agency to grow your rankings and reap the benefits of SEO. Unlike going through the path of paid advertisement, optimizing your SEO strategy will not just give you a one-time benefit but also a long-lasting benefit.
6. SEO does not involve any paid advertising
You do not have to advertise if you have strong SEO standings. You can increase your website traffic without having to pay per click. An effective SEO strategy can help you scale back your advertising dollars, and invest it in more efficient areas. SEO is more on optimizing your metadata, using of relevant keywords and providing valuable content. SEM is more into paid advertising – more on marketing although SEO has something to do with marketing, you don’t have to pay Google or any other search engine to place your website on top of the SERPs. Your valuable content and quality service will speak for themselves.
7. Top SEO rankings provides 24/7 promotion
SEO is 24/7. It does not sleep. Yes, that’s another one of the benefits of SEO. Your rankings do not disappear overnight. You can increase your website traffic all day, every day. Once you rank high in search engines, they will promote your business while you are sleeping. The internet is accessible globally and by everyone who has access to it. Whatever time zone your customer is following doesn’t matter for the information you put online won’t be deleted
8. SEO builds trust and credibility
People trust Google. They use it every day to find what they are looking for. By ranking high on search engines, your business will build trust and credibility with your audience. In fact, 37% of search engine clicks are on the first organic listing.
When your website shows up at the first page of SERPs, your website starts to create its credibility, the more people who clicks on your web page, the better ranking your page gets. When people find value to your content, they will be your frequent visitors. And if you have frequent visitors, the more likely that Google will recognize your website to be credible and valuable.
9. SEO is a long-term strategy
SEO is a long-term strategy. It can take 6-12 months to see optimal rankings. However, just as it takes time to move up the rankings, it takes time to move down the rankings. Once you are placed in top positions, you rarely move down. The only reason this would change is due to rising SEO competition or changes in Google algorithm.
That being said, if your website makes it to the top, it is important that you keep your website updated and fresh with new information or ideas. Don’t let your websites become outdated. People will tend to leave a site right away after seeing an outdated information or article all over your website.
10. SEO makes your customers more informed
Your customers are using search engines to research. They use their findings to help them make informed decisions on available options. High SEO rankings allow you to educate potential customers. This indirectly builds trust, but most importantly helps them make an informed decision.
When doing business online, you have to be careful with your timing when to offer to your customers. It is important for you to build your brand, establish internet presence and provide value to your customers/ potential buyers/subscribers.
People will turn their back if you offer them your products or services the instant they visit your page. Remember to provide value, value, value, and value before making an offer. But this doesn’t stop here. Hunting and farming leads to convert to sales will be discussed on a separate article.
11. SEO influences purchasing decisions
When people see your website on top of the SERPs, they will choose to visit your website first before scrolling down. This is where SEO significantly influences purchasing decisions. By getting to the top of the SERP, you have developed trust and credibility towards your products and services among internet users. Don’t miss the opportunity to use SEO to improve your conversions by significantly influencing the purchasing decisions of those on the web.
12. SEO increases your brand awareness and equity
Conversions aside, SEO will also build your brand equity. In other words, SEO will help people become aware of your brand. Awareness is important because your website visitors may not always be ready to purchase. However, by being aware of your offerings, they may purchase in the near future.
SEO also helps your online presence which affects your ranking to SERPs or search engine results pages. The closer your website is shown to the first page of SERPs, the better is your chance to promote your business. People will become aware that your business exists or they may discover something that they haven’t thought of which do exists.
13. SEO increases customer attribution or “touches”
While your brand awareness increases, SEO simultaneously increases your customer attribution points too. Attribution is the amount of times your audience sees your brand. As the old saying goes, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”, thus if your website is not seen on the first 10 pages of SERPs, most likely that people will not be aware that your business exists. The more times they see your business, the more likely they are to purchase from your business. Strong SEO rankings will help you dramatically increase your touch points with potential buyers.
14. SEO receives 90% more clicks than PPC
SEO trumps paid advertising. This is because organic SEO listings receive 90% of clicks. Many users of search engines tend to skip paid advertisements. This is most likely due to their trust in Google’s algorithm. By investing in SEO, you will likely gain more traffic than the advertisers on the same keywords.
Not all people hanging around the internet wants to purchase or subscribe to a business or online course. Some are just collecting information, and gathering ideas that may help them in making sound decisions. Nonetheless, having your website on the top of the SERPs will help you promote your business for FREE,
15. SEO can increase your website referrals
One of the benefits of SEO is that it will increase your website referrals. You will gain more website referrals from search engines. In addition, your website visitors are likely to refer your website to their friends. A strong SEO presence will help you grow referrals, literally and figuratively!
This will not be achieved if your website does not provide the visitors any value. So, focusing on the SERP’s ranking is as important as sharing valuable information to your site’s visitor.
SEO, SEM, together with valuable content works hand in hand to create and initiate an engagement on your website. We still have a bunch of benefits for you, and we don’t want you to be overwhelmed with the list of benefits for now. Do look out for our latest blogs and articles as we will be sharing more benefits of SEO.
