Top 7 Benefits of SEO
for your website to impact your business
One of the easiest ways to boost website traffic and conquer your competitors is to fire up your SEO. It’s cost-effective, greatly enhances the user experience and builds your entire business. There are a number of important reasons why your site needs SEO. But first, the important question: What is SEO?
1. Increases Ranking Through Keywords
If you want to be found, you need to rank high. The first three organic (not paid) search ranking positions snap up almost 40 percent of all click-throughs. And up to 30 percent of results on pages one and two don’t even receive any clicks. SEO incorporates keyword ranking strategies that will help you stay at the top of the page.
2. Strengthens Brand Awareness, Visibility and Credibility
SEO goes beyond just increasing your rankings. It also turbocharges brand awareness, visibility and credibility. People trust the first links that Google and its counterparts serve up and view them as leaders in the field. The opposite happens when you’re ranked lower – and many people may also assume you don’t have the budget to boost your links.
You can “own” a branding feature, like “women-owned” or “manufacturing” by using keywords that relate to that topic. And backlinks from other trusted sites will also bolster your credibility.
3. Is a Primary Source of Leads
Inbound leads (where customers actively seek you out instead of the opposite) are the biggest source of leads on the internet, whether they come from SEO, content marketing, social media, referrals or other funnels.
Most companies attribute a higher ROI to inbound leads, and therefore place a high priority on strategies like SEO. Enough said.
4. Increases CTRs and Conversions
With SEO, you’re optimized for your customer, so they’re more engaged and more likely to click on your page and to convert, whether it’s downloading a white paper, signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. You can measure these CTRs (click-through-rates) and conversions on Google Analytics. Studies show that the higher your ranking, the more click throughs you receive. Additionally, The Search Engine Journal found a 14.6% average close rate for SEO, versus a 1.7% close from outbound leads like emails, ads or sales calls.
5. Helps Overall Marketing Strategy:
With the metrics you use for SEO, you’ll know which keywords work best, and you can deploy these in your PR, advertising and PPC campaigns as well.
6. Enhances the User Experience:
SEO ensures that you have a high quality site that’s designed to provide value to the user with relevant copy and photos/videos, intuitive navigation, a mobile-friendly interface, quick page loading and high value backlinks, among other features. Since page load times are especially critical, optimized sites enjoy higher rankings.
7. Attracts Local Customers to Site and Store:
People search geographically and many businesses overlook this simple tactic. By targeting towns, cities, regions and states with your keywords and including local citations and backlinks from local listings, you’ll establish yourself as a true local leader – and even encourage your customer to visit the store itself.
Other online efforts also keep local customers engaged, like social media, user reviews on sites like Yelp, Angie’s list, Zomato and others, as well as Google listings. These can all boost your rankings. When we optimize sites, we submit local listings to 2,000 directories; this is a very affordable and easy way to get valuable, respected backlinks.
