When you want to learn more about a particular product, what do you do first? You search for it online, you and millions of people worldwide. Every day, Google processes over 3 billion searches which include anything from financial services, clothes, health problems, news and games to pizza delivery.
[Tweet “Your business practically doesn’t exist if it can’t be found on the Internet…”]This also means that, if you’re a business owner, your business practically doesn’t exist if it can’t be found on the Internet. This is where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes into play.
What are the benefits of SEO?
A business can ignore SEO only if there’s no interest in maintaining and growing it, which never happens. This is what SEO can do (explained at a basic level) to help your business thrive:
– Brand building and visibility. It’s all about spreading the word around, getting people to be aware of your business. The easier your company is to find, the more likely you’re to sell more products or services. SEO is worth putting in the effort and time (on your end) in order to save your potential customers time (on theirs).
– Staying competitive. Today’s market is highly competitive, and there are plenty other companies offering the same products/services you do. If you want to be successful, you need to beat your competition, and the better your SEO strategy is, the more likely you’re to be listed ahead of the competing businesses in online searches.
– Earn credibility. By making your online presence stand out, you’ll mark yourself as an expert and thought-leader in your industry. This can be accomplished digitally on your website, blog, YouTube channel, social media pages, podcasts, and guest blogs.
Since the days of funny Google bombs and first algorithm updates, SEO has come a long way and became an integral part of every digital business operations. It’s always changing to adapt to the new search engine trends, which makes the SEO work quite dynamic, requiring SEO experts to conduct frequents tests on their methods and strategies.
We present you with several benefits of SEO in detail, so you could understand why this practice is a must for every business.
1. Improved brand credibility
By improving your SEO ranking, you’re also advertising your business by using Google’s brand name (as Google is one of the most trusted platforms on the web). If you’re in Google’s good graces, you won’t have trouble drawing online traffic.
The most affordable way to get there is through organic SEO (even though AdWords provides the same benefit, users often have ad-blocker extensions installed on their web browsers, which means you can’t target them through paid ads). More visibility online means more credibility for your brand.
2. Great source of consumer information
With SEO analytics tools, SEO provides traceable and quantifiable results (unlike traditional marketing fields such as TV, radio, newspaper, etc.). Without precise analytics, you can’t build a successful SEO campaign, because this information allows business owners to collect huge amounts of data about their visitors’ demographics, behavior, interest, likes, and dislikes.
You’ll be able to create precise customer profiles and buyer personas through collecting, structuring, and filtering this information.
3. Website traffic increase
SEO can help increase traffic to your website or blog. However, just a few years ago people were mostly doubtful about how much traffic this practice could really bring. You can check your organic traffic increase with a simple check with any analytic tool.
The traffic will start to increase at a steady rate once you optimize your website.
4. Low-cost marketing technique
The cost of an SEO strategy will be lower than the cost of the most affordable media or TV campaign. If you’re thinking of hiring an SEO agency, ask yourself these important questions.
You can also invest some of your time in understanding and learning the SEO processes that you can later successfully perform by yourself. Eventually, you’ll eliminate the costs of PPC campaigns by placing your business at the top of Google’s organic listings.
5. Keep up with competitors
Even if you’re not doing SEO, you can bet that most of your competitors are. Businesses that rely on digital marketing have recognized the benefits of SEO, which requires you to jump into it as well in order to keep your business competitive in the dynamic digital market.
Your rivals can take a big part of your customer base if their websites show on the first Google search pages for the most popular keywords. Thus, you need to provide search engines with honest information about your company, useful information related to your area of work, and great customer reviews. Your brand is not what you say it is. It’s what Google says it is.
6. Show off your expertise
One of the most effective strategies for SEO today is link building. You have a chance to show off your expertise to your potential customers by building backlinks on high-authority websites. You can outsource for building links, or do it yourself and become an influencer in your niche industry.
Niche-specific influencers are often contacted by journalists to give interviews to important online magazines. This helps you win over potential customers and business partners through building your credentials.
7. Clear picture of your online offerings’ popularity
A successful product/service is accepted by consumers. When you release a new product, conduct a thorough investigation of its acceptance among your customers. The most effective way to discover how practical and popular your offer is by analyzing data from paid surveys.
When combined with the search engine analysis data from your website and platforms like Keyword Planner and Google trends, the paid survey data can be even more helpful. You can gain information that can be used to create highly effective marketing strategies and sales, as well as update your offer and improve its popularity in the long term.
With a website or blog that ranks high on Google’s rankings, you’ll ensure visibility, credibility, and popularity. Besides these important benefits that a good and well-implemented SEO strategy can provide, SEO also motivates you to create great written and video content, that helps you to be recognized as an authority in your niche industry.
But more importantly, SEO pays off in the long run, because it definitely is a long-term game. You can’t build your brand and online presence overnight. Invest your resources and time continually to achieve a constant presence on the first page of Google search and gain a serious competitive advantage.
Identity Magazine is all about guiding women to discover their powers of Self-Acceptance, Appreciation, and Personal Achievement. We ask that every contributor and expert answer the Identity 5 questions in keeping with our theme. Their answers can be random and in the moment or they can be aligned with the current article they have written. In that way, and as a team, we hope to encourage and motivate each other, thus inspiring you to Get All A’s.
1. What have you accepted within your life, physically and/or mentally? Additionally, what are you still working on accepting? Now, we’re talking about resignation, rather stepping into, embraced, and owned.
The challenges of being a single working mom.
2. What have you learned to appreciate about yourself and/or within your life, physically and mentally? On the other hand OR in contrast, are there elements of who you are that you’re still working on appreciating?
I appreciate the freedom my work allows me. Being able to stay at home when necessary, travel and communicate with people from different backgrounds.
3. What is one of your most rewarding achievements in life? Tell us not only what makes YOU most proud but also share the goals and dreams that you still have.
Building my career and raising my kids.
4. Of course, we all have imperfections, or so we think. In truth, we are all perfectly imperfect. What are your not-so-perfect ways? Likewise, what imperfections and quirks create who you are–your Identity?
Perfectionism and stubbornness.
5. “I Love My…” is an outlet for you to appreciate and express all the positive traits that make you…well…YOU! In fact, sharing what you love about yourself will make you smile, feel empowered, and uplift your spirit and soul. (We assure you!) Therefore, Identity challenges you to complete the phrase “I Love My…?”
I Love My life.
