You may think of SEO as a technical marketing tactic. But you need to start thinking of SEO from a business perspective. And the value that comes from piquing search engine results.
So to uncover the business value behind SEO, we asked industry experts why SEO is important for business.
Keep reading to discover why your business needs to focus on SEO in 2017.
Want to see the value of SEO in action? Then watch this blog SEO video showing how to quickly optimize posts for increasing site traffic.
Builds Brand Trust
We know how difficult it is to grab top search position for valuable keywords. But when you do, potential customers know you’re doing something right. Mark Cook from ApplinSkinner shares why SEO builds brand trust.
As any marketer or business owner will tell you, new customer acquisition is hard and expensive. Trying to locate those people that are relevant to your business, get in front of them at the right time, and most importantly, convince them that you’re the one to trust.
While your site will likely rank naturally for its own brand terms, a well-run SEO campaign may enable to you to rank for brand agnostic queries – that is – the people searching directly for your product or service. This is an amazing opportunity to be put square in front of an audience who wants what you sell right now but haven’t made a decision on who they want it from.
Apart from being able to provide timing and intent, search engines are in a unique position as lots of surveys have shown that consumers inherently trust brands that rank well in Google.
When reviewing a digital marketing strategy, SEO as a long-term strategy for new customer acquisition is always on my list to discuss with clients. It’s proven worthwhile time and time again.
Generates High-Quality Visitors
Site visitors coming through search know what they want. They’re looking for something specific, making these visitors valuable to your business. Shayla Price shares why SEO generates high-quality visitor traffic.
SEO is valuable for businesses because it delivers quality traffic to your site. When executing an SEO strategy, your team is responsible for understanding your audience’s interests and behaviors.
You must know who you want to reach and what natural language they use. Your goal is to offer a solution with your content. Therefore, when potential customers search for specific keyword phrases on Google, your content should resonate with them.
More qualified traffic to your site equals more opportunities to turn visitors into leads. SEO makes this possible.
Increases Site Traffic
Sticking with the idea of generating site visitors, Karim Harraz from Kotobee shares a case study on how SEO sustains high site traffic over time.
A while ago, we invested in writing an article on how to create an interactive ebook: a step-by-step guide. This article currently ranks top position on Google Search for several keywords including creating an interactive ebook and many similar phrases. To this day, this article continues to generate a large chunk of our inbound traffic.
This has helped us increase our traffic (and by extension, our SEO ranking). It also helps us brand ourselves as leaders in the ebook creation industry and attracts potential clients who need our services.
Proves Great User Experience
To rank high in search engines, you need to deliver a stellar digital experience. Natalie Hornyak from Garfield Group shares more on this below.
The most obvious benefits of SEO for business are increased site traffic, brand awareness, and brand authority, but I want to talk about an often overlooked benefit: good SEO means a great user experience.
As Google changes its algorithms to improve the relevance and value of content that ranks high in SERPs, SEO best practice becomes a checklist for an awesome site experience.
For example, SSL/TLS encryption is now more important. Using SSL/TLS not only improves your rank but also your site’s (and users’) security. Accessibility is another factor Google looks at. This means opening your site’s reach to a broader audience who might have challenges with visual processing — or, in the case of video content, hearing disabilities. Google also looks at page load times, improving the experience for everyone, especially users with slower connections. All of this means that if you rank well in search in 2017, there’s a good chance you’re also delivering a stellar digital experience — and that’s great for your business overall.
Improves Customer Retention
As you develop your SEO strategy, you’ll notice traffic returning. And from a business perspective, this means you’re retaining customers. Tony Mariotti from RubyHome shares why SEO is important for business.
Search engine optimization helps improve customer retention. If a business only relies on paid advertising for example, it keeps paying to reach the same customer again, like feeding a parking meter over and over.
An optimized site can attract repeat customers at a much lower cost over time.
Lowers Business Costs
Lowering costs means your mindset is towards business value. Patrick Chukwura from Kuia shares why SEO can help you save dollars with a few key examples.
One benefit to businesses with great SEO is the cost savings.
If your business is serious about SEO, it takes a lot of organization, focused content creation, and optimization to do it right. Sure this may cost a bit upfront, but once SEO is put in place properly, over time it will help:
- Lower bandwidth and hosting costs because of website optimization
- Improve marketing spend due to the increase in free traffic you’ll earn
- Lower cost per visitor and cost per lead
- Increase customer lifetime value
High Return on Investment
Because we want to squeeze the most out of our efforts, ROI is a big factor in where we spend our resources. Sam Kessenich from RyTech shares why SEO generates high returns when done right.
While proper SEO should promote more visitors and a higher brand authority, the main goal for most of our clients is a high ROI. Visitors that don’t and won’t provide any investment to my clients don’t have any real use to them. SEO should get businesses not just in front of people, but in front of the right people who will end up converting on a client’s website.
The interesting part about SEO strategies is there isn’t one cookie cutter approach for a business to use. Whether it be a national business, international business, local or e-commerce business, the strategy will always change but the end goal will be the same. Get in front of customers who will convert.
Benefits of SEO for Business from the Experts
Sure, SEO is technical in nature. But the business value you’ll receive from optimizing your site is unparalleled.
Thanks to our expert contributors for sharing their insights in why SEO is important for business. Want to join the conversation? Then make sure to share your SEO insights in the comments below.
