SEO IS IMPORTANT FOR ANY BUSINESS WITH AN ONLINE PRESENCE
Is your business lost in the sea of internet content? With so much information available online, it can be hard for a business to stand out and be seen by potential customers. Small businesses are often pulled in multiple directions. Between finding and retaining customers, providing excellent services, training employees, and much more, it often feels like something has to get cut. For many companies, SEO is on the chopping block. But every business absolutely needs SEO to drive traffic, reach new customers, and build their brand.
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Contrary to what you may have heard, SEO is not dead. It’s also not dying. In fact, it’s not facing extinction in the least. Not now, or for the foreseeable future. SEO continues to improve search engine ranking, which drives more traffic to your website, which can ultimately result in more leads and sales.
The intent is simple; the execution, however, is a bit trickier. There are numerous aspects to SEO, from keywords to links, and a whole lot in between. Fort Collins SEO specialists can help establish an online presence to grow your business and help it get to the top of search results where more people are likely to click the link. Here are some ways SEO can boost your brand, making it a great investment now and for the future.
SEO Works
It’s popular because it works. It spawns thousands of written articles and millions of conversations because it’s effective. Search engines are the starting point for most web activity. A study by Groupon found that 60% of their traffic comes from organic search. A study by SimilarWeb found that Yelp received a whopping 69% of their traffic thanks to organic search.
According to Optimus, 81% of internet users get to websites through search engines. Is that really a group you want to ignore?
SEO is a common marketing strategy, whether you’re a startup or a standout, whether you’re Groupon, Yelp, or a small mom and pop business. And while you may not always know exactly what rules you’re playing under with continual algorithm changes, you can count on SEO to be relevant for a very long time. Forgoing SEO is going to hurt your business.
Proper SEO techniques are always relevant regardless of changes Google makes periodically. If you focus on the user experience and design your SEO strategy with them in mind, you are a long ways ahead. But if you try gaming the system and ignore your site visitors, your traffic might suddenly get shut off like you forgot to pay a utility bill.
Drive Search Traffic
The most obvious reason every business needs SEO is to drive web traffic. Most people don’t just type in your website address to find out more about your business. Instead, they search for related topics and end up with a business based on the search results. When a website uses SEO, it includes relevant content and keywords that customers are searching for online. When customers type in those words or phrases, your website ends up high on the list of results. Modern customers are doing more research than ever before, and most of that research is done in search engines.
A major component of a website’s performance is its organic search, or how often people get to the site simply by searching for its content. Organic search is often the primary source of website traffic. If your website doesn’t show up towards the top of search results, it’s less likely that people will visit your site. More people on your website leads to more awareness about your company and eventually more customers and revenue.
See this article from Search Engine Journal to learn more reasons every business needs SEO.
Build Trust
People do business with companies they can trust. In fact, most modern customers start the buying journey with online research long before they ever visit a store or are close to making a purchase. Having trustworthy content on your website not only attracts potential customers who are searching for information, but also establishes your company as a credible source on the topic. If someone is looking for information on the best types of plants that grow in their climate and end up on a trustworthy article on your landscaping business website, it will start a relationship and make them more likely to remember your company when they’re ready to landscape their yard.
In general, the higher your website is on search results, the more credible people believe it to be. That means that good SEO can get your website higher in the search results and make you appear more credible. The same quality content can be first on the results or last—it just depends on SEO. Websites that are buried lower in the results tend to not come across as credible. Customers can see through paid ads and instead prefer content that is organic and useful. Instead of sales pitches, they want the relevant content that comes from SEO. Trustworthy websites with credibility also have authority, which means they will be linked back to more often, which further improves SEO.
Establish Subject Expert
What does your brand stand for? In what areas are you an expert? SEO can build brand awareness by giving your company an identity as a subject matter expert. Your dental company might be the go-to source for tips on helping kids enjoy the dentist, or your preschool could be the expert on early learning activities in Colorado. The more content on your site about a certain topic and the better your SEO, the more credibility your company has. People will start connecting your company as being an expert in that space, which is significant for brand awareness.
Grow Connections and Links
One of the biggest aspects of SEO is links on your website that connect it to other sites. Links from your site to other sites build SEO, and so do links on other sites back to yours. As you increase SEO and take advantage of SEO services, your inbound and outbound links will grow. Those links also represent a growing community, which helps improve brand awareness. The more high quality links back to your website, the more people are aware of your brand and what you stand for in your industry.
Find more information about link building here.
Gain Local Customers
Search engines have improved so that people often search for businesses that are local to their area. Local SEO helps smaller businesses get results from nearby customers. Did you know that 3 out of 4 customers who conducted local searches on their smartphones visited the stores they searched for within 24 hours (see this from Google)? That’s a huge number of potential customers if your business can top local search results.
Local SEO is especially important for smaller companies. It’s one thing for a customer to search and get results for a large, national company, but it’s another thing when a customer searches for businesses in their area. Local SEO helps your business show up first when people search for businesses in your area. This is incredibly effective in converting potential shoppers into loyal customers. Customers are more likely to connect and engage with a smaller brand in their area than with a large, national company. Local SEO puts small companies on the same playing field as large companies without the cost of expensive ads.
Companies that don’t optimize their websites for local SEO run the risk of sending potential customers to competitors in the area. The more word gets out about your business, the greater the brand awareness and loyalty. No matter the size of your business, SEO services can help grow your company and build brand awareness. With the right content and SEO experts, you can create useful content that people actually see. SEO is what helps your business rise to the top of search results.
SEO Provides Good Return
No one enjoys throwing money away on marketing. And while measuring a return on your investment can sometimes be difficult, SEO is near the top for producing long-term results at a good cost. SEO lasts longer than other paid advertising channels. Although SEO algorithms are constantly changing, an optimized website can drive traffic and sales for months and even years.
SEO is also limitless. Pay-per-click advertising can easily eat your entire advertising budget and limits how many people can click the link based on how much you want to spend, but SEO clicks can be ongoing. Investing in SEO can bring long-term results, especially for content that is timeless and relevant.
There’s a lot of gray area when it comes to SEO results. Someone who has little experience and poor techniques is going to have a hard time keeping up with seasoned SEO veterans who work on SEO all the time. This brings up a good point when it comes to marketing: You get what you pay for. Forbes contributor, Jason DeMers, recently wrote an entire article on the dangers of outsourcing your SEO to the cheapest provider. In order for you to get a good return on your investment, make sure you’re investing in a company that can offer you the quality SEO work you need.
Long-Term Results
Businesses cannot afford to indulge in short-term thinking. SEO requires a bit of patience. But if you can muster it up and have a solid SEO strategy, you’ll be rewarded over the long haul. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. And when it’s done with the web visitor in mind, rather than search engine robots, it’s going to produce lasting results more times than not.
If you’re looking for immediate results at any cost, perhaps it’s time to meet PPC advertising. If you’re a gambler and not too concerned about ROI or have money to burn, PPC advertising may be a good fit for you. But if you’re looking for something that will last and have the kind of impact compound interest has, SEO is a better option.
Increase Revenue
Marketing is meant to produce leads and sales and sales produce revenue, so increased revenue as a result of good SEO is a given. It’s simple logic: the more people that can find your business, the greater the increase in your revenue. Today, finding a business online means finding a business through search engines.
Your Competition Is Doing It
What if we told you that the only difference between your business failing and succeeding was the strength of your online presence? Now, what if we told you that the strength of your online presence relies on your business SEO strategy?
Your competitors are using SEO, which means that choosing not to optimize your web presence gives them a free pass to move higher in the search results. Every search (and there are billions every day) is a potential customer. Choosing not to focus on SEO is essentially giving those customers to competitors. On the flip side, if you choose to leverage SEO, you can have a major advantage over competitors who aren’t using or don’t fully grasp the concept.
We’ve gotten to a point where more people are finding products and services online than offline, and this will only continue trending upward. If you want people to find you, you’ll need to work on appearing in organic search results. And remember, more than likely your competition is trying to do the same, and has been for a while. For more reasons to invest in SEO for your business, check out this article from Search Engine Journal.
SEO Is Important for Companies of All Sizes
SEO is an important aspect of internet marketing and something that can benefit companies of all sizes. In the competitive online world, businesses have to do whatever it takes to stand out, and SEO can be what puts your business on top. Want to learn more about what an SEO company could do for you? Or maybe you already have a budget going toward SEO but want to become more aggressive? Contact Red Rocket Web Specialists today to schedule a consultation.