If you’re like most business professionals, you have at least a passing knowledge of SEO. You likely know that it can move your business up in the search engine rankings, as well as the fact that it could mean increased profits. The real question for many, though, is when should SEO be used for a site? When should a good strategy actually be deployed? The answer, in almost all cases, is right now! Wondering why? Take a look.
- SEO Is a Brand Builder: Branding is a fairly traditional marketing strategy, and while SEO is all about the digital, building a brand today means both offering the right information and getting people to say the right things about you. Creating a good SEO strategy means you need exactly the same things – content that meets an audience’s needs and links from other sites. Deployed correctly, good SEO means an online presence that reflects your brand completely.
- SEO Means Added Traffic: The goal of SEO is better ranking, but the reality is that the goal behind most SEO campaigns is more traffic. One doesn’t directly lead to the other, but it certainly can. Studies have shown that 75% of consumers don’t scroll past the first page of search engine results. That means that if you move from page seven to page one, you’re going to see some traffic that you may never have seen in the past. In fact, case studies have shown brand new sites move from zero to hundreds of thousands of visitors based on the results of an SEO campaign alone.
- SEO Is Cheaper than PPC: Both SEO and PPC can be part of the mix when you’re working to increase your traffic numbers, but you’re going to want to use SEO if you’re concerned about costs over PPC. Traffic from organic search methods is technically free. Sure, you have to factor in the cost of the SEO efforts in general, but that’s not a cost per click. There’s no direct charge per impression, and it means a significantly higher ROI. It’s sustainable progress that doesn’t dry up when you stop paying for the advertising, and you get a much higher click-through rate with SEO than you ever will with PPC. What’s more, though, is that the traffic you see tends to be further down the customer journey, thus more ready to buy.
- SEO Means Credibility: Today’s customers tend to have access to tons of resources, so they can learn quite a bit about what you have to offer before you ever talk to a sales rep. With SEO, you become part of journey to learn more, and that means you develop a level of credibility those who aren’t out there developing thought leadership pieces simply can’t. If content marketing is part of your overall SEO strategy, as it should be, you’re building a unique level of trust with potential customers in the earliest phases, and that means they’re more willing to come to you again and again.
- With SEO Comes a Better User Experience: The SEO process has one focus today – attract Google. Google has one focus today – offer better results for users. Therefore, if you’re doing SEO well, you’re attracting Google, and Google is only going to be attracted if you’ve developed a seriously friendly website. Mobile-friendly with speedy loading capabilities are all part of the rankings formula, so once you’re done with optimisation, you’re going to have a gorgeous site that attracts visitors and keeps them there. That means a real impact on both the number of customers you see and sales in the long run.
- Measurability is Easy With SEO: It can be tough to see where most of your marketing efforts really pay off, but that’s just not true when it comes to SEO. Virtually every aspect of your efforts can be measured thanks to the ability to look at your total traffic referral sources, conversions, and any other metric that really matters to your company. With the right campaign and tools, you can accurately evaluate exactly what’s working and what’s not.
When should SEO be used for your site? With advantages like these, there can only be one real answer – right now! Learn more when you reach out to Reposition today.
Author’s Bio: Hitesh is a digital marketing strategist and entrepreneur with more than 12 years of experience in digital marketing, start-ups, branding, and customer acquisition strategies. Hitesh is the CEO and Founder of Reposition Group, which encompasses a number of companies in the digital sector including SEO.co.uk, Reposition.co.uk, and Bouncezap.com, amongst others.