
All businesses need to make sure that their website is optimised and that they have a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plan in place. The benefits of SEO are extensive and far reaching for improving your search engine ranking, business leads, sales and followers. So if you don’t actively maintain your SEO, you really need to get started.
Here’s 20 benefits of SEO for business:
1. Find new customers/ clients / followers
Users are searching for products and services you offer on search engines, right now!
It’s estimated that Google alone processes approximately 63,000 search queries every second, translating to 5.6 billion searches per day and approximately 2 trillion global searches per year.
What does this mean? It simply means that millions of opportunities are waiting for you out there. Using SEO techniques correctly will make your business be found on the search engines, including Google.
2. SEO develops credibility and builds trust
As mentioned in the above point, users trust popular search engines like Google. They visit it almost every single day to find something that they are looking for. By ranking high on these trusted search engines you will be able to build credibility and trust among your target audience.
Studies show that close to 37% of the clicks on search engines are from the first organic listing.
3. SEO provides quality, targeted traffic to your website
Traffic that you get through search engines is the best. Wondering why? Well, it is simply because users are actually searching for the services or products you provide. They find your business through quality SEO.
So, the chances of “pulling” this traffic to your website will be higher with SEO. You no longer have to persuade people to pick your products by “pushing” out new advertisements.
This is because search traffic will already be interested in what you are offering. So, this is one of the huge benefits of SEO that you cannot ignore.
4. SEO provides reduced costs per acquisition
An added advantage of SEO is that it is totally free. This makes it far less expensive when compared to other types of advertising. You will need to have a thorough understanding of SEO, Google Algorithms and website coding, so if you’re not experied with this you may need to hire an SEO agency. This is the only cost associated with it is the SEO investment and you will see ROI with improved ranking, customer credibility and therefore more sales, clients and followers.
There is no paid advertising in SEO
If applied correctly and once your strong SEO is established, you no longer have to advertise. So, you will be able to boost your website traffic without the need to pay per click.
All that you require will be an effective SEO strategy that helps to save the dollars that go into advertising and invest the same in better, efficient strategies.
5. Higher SEO rankings create 24/7 promotion
SEO works 24/7. It just does not stop. And the best part is that you will increase the traffic towards your website – all day, every day.
Once you start ranking at the top in search engines, your business gets promoted even when you sleep. This is one of the top benefits of SEO.
6. SEO traffic converts
Traffic from search engine optimization is more likely to convert when compared to other traffic sources. As a matter of fact, the search traffic has the maximum conversion rates for most of the businesses.
And conversions mean a better ROI for your SEO investment.
7. SEO boosts leads and sales
Increased leads and sales from SEO is the ultimate goal for your business. With a well managed SEO strategy for your business, it will certainly increase your leads followed by sales.
However, it is important that you invest in the right SEO strategy. The best way to kick start is to create a winning campaign. Doing this sets the pavement for your business to higher conversions.
8. SEO can fetch you 90% more clicks when compared to PPC
SEO overpowers paid advertising and the reason for this is that organic listings tend to get 90% more clicks. While there is definitely a place for paid advertising like PPC, most of the search engine users end up clicking on the organic (non-paid) search results.
This is mainly because of their deep trust in Google algorithms. So, when you invest in SEO, the chances are that you will get higher traffic than advertisers for the same keywords.
9. SEO boosts website referrals
SEO is known to boost your website referrals and you will be able to get higher number of website referrals from the search engines. Also, those who visit your website might refer it to their friends – and friend referrals also boost your SEO.
So, it is important to have a strong SEO presence. This is because such a presence will help you grow the referrals – literally as well as figuratively.
10. SEO can be measured
SEO is measurable. So, you will be able to see how your SEO campaign is performing, improvements in search queries, ranking, user experience and conversions. With the help of good SEO agency or the right tools you can identify the most valuable search keyword.
11. SEO also drives sales offline
Will your customers do some online research before they visit your store? Yes of course, they really do. Most of the people research online. So, SEO drives offline sales.
This is because people are continuously using search engines for online research, even if they either make a phone call or visit your store personally to buy the products.
All these factors make SEO a major contributor to drive sales offline.
12. Your competitors are already growing through SEO
The competition in this digital era is cut throat. Stay ahead of your competion. SEO is so prominent that your competitors are already using it to get to the top of the search engine rankings. If you don’t have an SEO or digital marketing strategy in place, all of the time, you’re handing business over to your competition.
13. SEO gives smaller business a chance to compete and grow
Small businesses often find it difficult to set aside a huge marketing budget. This is where SEO can come to rescue. When you compete online with the big businesses through organic SEO Strategies, it levels the playing field.
While it is difficult to outspend huge competitors in with advertising budgets, that is not the case with SEO. An effective SEO strategy will help you to rank better. So, when big businesses leverage advertising, you can turn to savvy SEO tactics to acquire new customers.
14. SEO improves your website speed
Part of SEO is to ensure that your website pages load quickly and you should see an improvement if you have a qualified SEO strategy in place. Websites that load quickly assure the best possible user experience which in turn, improves your SEO ranking.
A slow website will see a high bounce rate as users won’t wait for a slow web page to load = lost potential customers and better for your competition.
15. SEO improves website user experience
As well as improved page speed, a professional SEO strategy also makes sure that user experience is high for all aspects of your website and online presence. It is important to Google and other search engines that user experience is good and this will definitely affect your ranking.
16. SEO is extremely targeted
Part of an SEO strategy is based on keywords and these keywords are based on what people search for regularly. Search engine listings will be displayed based on the relevancy of these keywords.
The major advantage here is you can directly reach people who are looking for what you offer and even specific locations for your store or services. The ability of SEO to target keywords is the main reason why it assures highly qualified leads to any website.
17. SEO enhances your business value
As your search rankings continue to rise, the value of your business also increases. So, when you are in a particular market to sell, most of the buyers consider top SEO rankings as an intangible asset that is valuable.
This is mainly because top SEO rankings hold the value for long and sustain it over the years.
18. SEO boosts ROI from your overall marketing efforts
As discussed previously, integrated marketing campaigns tend to hugely influence your SEO rankings.
In fact, SEO, if utilised correctly, will deliver a better ROI than any other form of marketing.
19. SEO increases followers across social media platforms
SEO is known to increase the number of followers across various social media platforms. As people continue to research your website, they will end up clicking your social media icon to follow your, if they like you.
Having an effective SEO campaign in place will help increase your website and social media visitors.
20. SEO rankings are long lasting
SEO, when applied correctly has long lasting results for your business. But, like all marketing strategies, SEO must be maintained on a regular basis. Though getting the benefits from all the points above make that a no-brainer!
Coast Creative provides SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) services for all types of businesses and budgets. If you would like a free, no-obligation consultation for your SEO strategies get in touch.
See more SEO articles: SEO vs SEM | SEO for your business blog | 5 important SEO tips for your business website