Should Your Business Invest in Search Engine Optimization?
SEO (Search engine optimization) is a core marketing strategy, and there are several reasons why your business should invest in it and possibly into an agency that specializes in it. Investing time, effort, and money into SEO allows for greater brand awareness. Your brand will reach a greater audience and earn more online revenue.
Because of the hesitation by so many business owners to invest in SEO, we have decided to compile a list of benefits that it has to offer. You can maximize your strategy for advertising and boost your credibility. Keep reading to learn about the 15 Benefits of SEO Investment.
1. Improve your ROI With SEO
Your ROI (Return on Investment) is directly impacted by SEO marketing strategies. The ROI will be more than impressed with a competitive and well thought out SEO strategy.
Why is that? Put simply, when you are running a traditional marketing campaign, you see less than a 2% close rate for new leads. However, in regards to search engines, you get a close rate of almost 15%. That is an increase of 13 percent almost. This is a massive difference, and SEO makes it happen.
Let’s put it into perspective. If your average lead has a value of around $800, you will note how valuable it would be to sign almost 20 new leads per month. With a digital marketing strategy, combined with SEO, you are actually signing 23 leads a month. That means you will see an additional $2,400 monthly. That additional revenue each year builds up. For most businesses, the biggest benefit of SEO is the revenue increase.
In order to get that additional revenue from search engines, you must appease the search engine algorithm. This requires solid SEO. Let’s face it if your ranking on search results is on the bottom of the page, or on pages 2,3,4, or further in, you aren’t going to see much business. Most people who search for something in an online search engine stick to the first page of results for the answers/services they are looking for. Not only will the business be lacking, but so will that revenue.
2. Credibility Boost
One of the many benefits of SEO that many companies fail to realize is the boost to credibility. If you get a ranking on the first page of search engine results, you are showing that the chosen search engine trusts your website to be credible.
Honestly, credibility is a major reason why nearly 75% of search engine users don’t make it past the first page of results. These users put their faith in the search engine to filter out bad websites. Many search engines understand this, so they implement on-page and off-page signals to determine the website’s ranking.
The signals demonstrate that not only is your website credible but safe too, and it can range from the website’s speed to the content created. They also ensure that the provided websites answer the query of the user.
How else can SEO boost credibility?
You also should optimize your Google My Business listing. This listing provides details about your business to users; these details appear in local and specific searches for your type of business. It also offers the option to have your business reviewed by Google users.
To build credibility, these reviews need to be present. They will also help to drive sales. In fact, most shoppers go straight for the reviews of a business/product. Almost 80% of users say that their mind was made up for them based on the reviews that they read about a product that they planned on purchasing. That is insane, and SEO makes it happen.
3. High-Quality Traffic
One of the biggest ways that SEO can help a business is by bringing in more high-quality traffic. Digital marketing offers tools that are hyper-targeted, unlike traditional marketing strategies. Instead of advertising on a billboard that may not be seen by the right audience, you will get your website at a higher ranking in search results. This will guarantee more people will see your website.
Not to mention the timing. Meaning, you are being noticed at the ideal moment when your audience is looking specifically for your services/product. That means you will have the full attention of the traffic that travels through. It also means that your CTAs (Call to action) will be acted upon more often.
Almost 90% of marketers believe that SEO is successful because of user intent.
4. Real Numbers Measuring Success
When you invest in important campaigns, like marketing or advertising, you want to understand the impact. Monitoring the strategies’ success is a massive perk of SEO and digital marketing. On top of that, you are able to access the analytics of your digital marketing in real-time.
Google Analytics makes it easy to assess the SEO strategy performance. Other web analytic tools help with this also. Key areas to monitor are your bounce rate, time on site, website traffic, and conversions.
There is some marketing software that is able to monitor your SEO strategies much easier. They can also help you figure out your digital marketing ROI. You will get actionable insights on your campaign. These results will better help you to improve your SEO strategy as needed.
5. Constant Company Promotion
When you have an SEO marketing strategy, you are doing more than just bringing awareness to your brand, making yourself available to consumers, and increasing your ROI; you are advertising your company 24/7. When you look at it that way, combining that with the fact that there are over 60,000 searches per second being processed by Google, you realize how critical it actually is.
It also makes it easier for digital marketing’s ability to become available to the users on their time. Instead of a billboard that people are usually too busy driving to see, you are advertising to the people who are looking for you.
The value of your website is then increased because you are providing a solution to the user’s problem. You are advertising your company to the people that need you without fancy promotion tactics.
6. Satisfies Your Buying Funnel
Content marketing is on the rise, and this means that SEO will be way more vital to businesses. Content marketing includes multiple types of content, such as:
- Infographics
- Guides
- Blog Posts
Most importantly, you are connecting with your consumers through every different stage of the marketing funnel.
The best part about this is, consumers prefer this approach. Over 60% of all consumers prefer businesses that make original content for their viewing. This also raises loyalty and brand awareness.
SEO benefits are a win-win. The consumer and the companies are both finding profit of some sort with proper SEO application.
7. High-Value Brand Awareness
While you may be asking yourself, “what other benefits could there be?” there’s more. For starters, a greater level of awareness of your brand to high-value shoppers. As these shoppers travel through the funnel, they are conducting different searches. If your company is constantly appearing, your brand will be recognized as a quality service/product.
Even more so, it will help build up their trust for your business. With a proper SEO strategy and content marketing, you are showing consumers that there is more to you than a product/service that you provide. You also provide valuable information into the industry. This information will increase the audiences’ value and volume.
Video marketing is another way you are able to boost your brand greatly. How does that work? Simple, a user watches the video, their brand association sees an increase up to 140%, and your brand awareness increases. However, in order to ensure your videos are seen, they have to be optimized for search.
That is why SEO is so important.
8. Generate More Market Share, Leads, and Sales
Companies who have utilized SEO marketing campaigns have seen an increase in leads, market share, and sales. They see this increase every day. All they see is shoppers browsing their stores and orders shipping out.
These increases are dictated by the rank you hold in search results. If you appear on the first page, you are more likely to be recognized as a valid service/product provider. You will gain more visits and clicks from the consumers that are interested in what you are offering.
To fully understand the importance of appearing on the first page of results, you need to understand that 33% of search traffic is earned by the first listing on the results. It is all about the strength of your keywords. The stronger they are, the better ranking you can achieve. Though those visits may not always lead to sales, a lot of them will.
9. Maximize PPC Campaign Success
If your business strategy includes digital marketing, you are likely to invest in PPC advertising. While SEO is a non-paid strategy, PPC is a paid strategy. PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click. These two strategies work well with each other, so incorporating both simultaneously is a good idea.
How is SEO aiding your PPC campaign?
For starters, if you have PPC and SEO, you are strengthening your search engine result presence. If your website is already appearing at the top of the page because of SEO, on top of that will be the non-organic results, which is the PPC. That is twice the opportunity that someone could visit your website.
SEO data can also be applied to PPC campaigns. That is the other advantage of SEO to PPC. If your website leads in conversions, it could rise in value greatly by incorporating it into the PPC campaign. You could also use a keyword that is accompanied by a low cost-per-click on your landing page.
10. Outrank Your Competition
You need to be ready for a market that is competitive. Over 80% of users nowadays rely on the internet to research and purchase products/services. With such a high volume of potential traffic, you can expect that your competitors in the industry will have invested in SEO with other digital marketing strategies. You don’t want your sales and market share to decrease because of you opt-out of SEO.
Without SEO, when users search for results related to your industry/service, you won’t show up. If you do, you will likely be on the 2nd or 3rd page, if not deeper in. It is a fact that only 25% of users will explore results past the first page, which will greatly impact your profits in a bad way.
As you can plainly see, SEO is quite essential. If you want to stand a chance to compare to your competition, you need to invest in it. In order to outrank the toughest opponents, you need proper SEO and a smart strategy. Even if there are very few industry competitors using SEO, it is a great advantage to your business.
11. Strengthen Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Most digital marketing strategies involve SEO. Your campaign is strengthened in so many ways. Also, it will enhance additional marketing focuses, such as:
- Video Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
If the digital marketing strategy you build is durable, comprehensive, and solid, the competitiveness of the online market place is greatly increased for you. If the market is tough in your industry, and your competitors have more resources, then this can be your advantage over them.
Let’s not forget, the stronger your digital marketing strategy, the bigger your ROI.
You are able to reinvest in the success of your company with a better digital marketing return. The returns you make can be invested in:
- Improving SEO Strategies
- In-House Team Expansion
- Company Resources Increase
12. Reaches Target Audience
Another one of the biggest benefits of SEO is not only the fact that it extends through the entire buying funnel, but it also connects with different types of target audiences. Your company likely has multiple types of target audiences, and SEO can lead them to you at the same time.
For example, if you are a car dealer selling new and used cars, you have two different target audiences. Those looking for new cars and those looking for used ones. While both audiences want a car, they have different paths through the buying funnel.
Someone who is looking for a new car has a different expectation and different inquiries than those looking for a used one. Used car seekers are likely to ask about mechanical issues, which isn’t a concern to those looking for a new car.
Because of SEO, you are reaching both of these audiences by focusing on target keywords that match their inquiries. Multiple pages on your website that are created using SEO that uses the keywords Used Cars, and New Cars will drive traffic from each of those targeted audiences.
13. Decrease in Advertising Costs
Yet another perk of using an SEO marketing strategy is that you will lower the costs associated with advertising. It can even help lower marketing expenses. If the strategy is sound, your company will rank on the first page of results because of the high-value keywords used.
This offers the opportunity to decrease the advertising spend, reinvesting that money in other avenues. As an example, instead of running several PPC campaigns, you can instead use a couple and invest the rest of the savings to increase the content for your marketing strategy.
Not only will SEO decrease your digital advertising costs, but also the costs associated with traditional advertising. Many businesses claim that proper investment in SEO is more lucrative than traditional advertising. They also say it delivers better results as well.
14. Local Marketing Effort Growth
If you are just a local business that has a dependency on offline transactions, SEO marketing strategies can still be a benefit. More consumers nowadays use smartphones to search for local businesses. If you are utilizing SEO, then you can get a lot of traffic both on your website and in your store. Local results are often more popular than those out of town.
By not taking advantage of SEO, you are causing yourself to be excluded from shoppers that are looking for your product/service. You are only making it easier for your competitors to gain increased market share, sales, and brand awareness. You don’t want to give them the edge, so make sure you get it instead with local SEO
15. Long-Term Success
Traditional efforts and SEO marketing are different in the sense that SEO is ongoing. That means your company will continue to see the benefits of its SEO strategies for years to come. However, you have to look at SEO as an investment that is long-term.
What we mean by long-term investment is that you will invest in it each year. You must do this to maintain the higher rankings, staying on top of the curve while remaining on top of the results. You have to evolve with the algorithm of search engines, learn search habits, and continue to include SEO in your budget.
You need to make this long-term commitment to SEO, and also your digital marketing campaign. Doing so will maximize your ROI. Even more so, you are gaining so many other benefits of SEO. That includes your Brand Awareness, Lead Generation, Audience Targeting, And More!
To learn more about what SEO can do for your business, reach out to us, and we will be happy to help.
