Advantages if SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Why it is important for Every Business?
Here’s an interesting fact about Google: Google processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average which translates to around 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide, according to Google search statistics by Internet Live Stats.
That’s a HUGE amount of searches, right?
Whether you agree or not, people use search engines A LOT.
If you’re running a business and looking to grow your sales and traffic, SEO is a powerful marketing strategy.
If you’re curious to discover the biggest benefits of SEO, this post is exclusively for you where we’ll talk about various things including;
- Advantages of SEO
- Two essential things you need to succeed in SEO and many more
Before diving into the details, let’s start with the basic question first: What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which is the process of improving a website in ways that help it rank in search results when users search for specific words and phrases.
So if you’re looking to grow your website sales and traffic online, SEO is your best bet. Let’s now get into the details of SEO benefits.
10 Incredible Benefits of SEO Optimization: Why Is SEO Important for ANY Business?
1. SEO sends you free traffic
SEO means FREE traffic. Yes, you can also pay for PPC (Paid Per Click) to generate traffic from search engines like Google but SEO generates you traffic for free.
Most people don’t know the difference between SEO and PPC traffic.
So let us explain the difference in simple terms so you can understand it better.
The major difference between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) is that traffic coming from SEO is totally free while traffic generated from PPC is NOT free as you’ll have to pay for ads.
Let us give you a simple example of PPC and SEO so you’ll understand it even better.
PPC traffic is similar to turning on the water tap. As long as the tap is ON (i.e you pay money for ads), traffic will flow. But as soon as the tap is OFF (i.e. you stop spending money), you’ll no longer generate traffic.
Whereas SEO helps you generate long-lasting traffic for free. So if you’re looking for free ways to generate traffic to your website, product or business, SEO is what you’ll need.
2. SEO increases overall sales
Did you know that only 3000 people visited our blog in the whole year (i.e 2010)?
Did we give up? No!
Instead we put our efforts on creating better content and SEO which resulted in HUGE sales.
The blog you’re currently reading now generates over $10,000 EVERY single month.
Thanks to SEO.
So yes… SEO works like a charm and it helps you increase your overall website sales if done right.
3. SEO helps you build brand awareness
Building a brand is the KEY to success online (or offline).
People don’t buy from strangers. That’s why you need to build a strong brand. People should know your business, brand, or product. Only then, you’ll be able to convert normal visitors into buyers.
The more people search and engage with your brand online, the faster your brand will grow and the higher you will rank. Branding is everything. It’s as simple as that.
You can use SEO to build and grow your brand online.
There are many to do that including;
- Using branded keywords
- Ranking for navigational keywords (Navigational queries include: Facebook, Google, Twitter, or your brand or product’s name)
- Implementing local SEO strategies and the list goes on
All in all, SEO helps you grow your brand awareness.
4. SEO is measurable
One big reason most brands and small businesses invest in SEO is it is measurable.
You can measure the traffic, conversions, leads, and the source of conversion including the time taken by it to convert.
That being said, here are some of the essential KPI (Key Performance Indicators) to track in SEO.
- Organic traffic (which shows you how many visitors come to your website from organic search results and it can be easily discovered from Google Analytics)
- Keyword rankings (which shows you how your keywords are performing in search results and you can use tools like Semrush to track keyword rankings)
- Search visibility (which tells you how often your domain is shown in search results for the keywords it’s ranking for and it can be discovered through Google Search Console)
- Average session duration (it shows you how much time your visitors spend on your website and it can be found from Google Analytics)
- Organic CTR (it measures the ratio of clicks on your link to the total number of users who viewed the search results)
- Bounce rate (it shows you how much percent of your website visitors bounced from your website without taking any action and it can be easily discovered from your Google Analytics account)
As you can see above, most of the SEO KPIs can be easily discovered when you’ve access to both Google search console and Google Analytics. Both are free to use.
So once you set up a website, make sure to connect your website to Google Analytics to measure your SEO efforts.
5. Helps the business in the long-term
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
The ONLY drawback of SEO is it takes time to build and grow your search traffic. But once you start generating organic traffic to your website, it will keep growing in the long run.
You need to constantly improve your website by analyzing the latest Google algorithm updates.
You should always focus on improving your website’s design, user experience, products, and content. That’s how you’re going to outrank your competitors in the long run.
Once you start treating SEO as a marathon, you’ll start putting serious efforts on creating better content, improving your UX, and so on. Ultimately, those efforts will pay off in terms of traffic, leads and sales.
Just make sure to stay away from black hat SEO techniques to improve your rankings quickly as they are NOT going to help.
6. SEO helps in offline sales as well
In this digital era, everyone is searching for a brand or store before visiting it offline. They’re looking for the products, reviews, feedback, etc before hitting the store offline.
So if you’re already running a business offline, investing your time and money on SEO can help your business grow immensely.
According to a study, 82% of smartphone users research a product with their phone before they make their final purchase in-store offline. The study also found that 45% of consumers read reviews online before making a purchase offline.
Also, 90% of people are influenced by online reviews according to a few surveys.
What does it tell you?
If you’ve a solid SEO strategy online, it helps you grow your offline sales as well. Here are a few things you can do online to improve your offline sales using SEO.
- Maintain accurate local business listings about your stores
- Use Google My Business (which is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps)
- Create a website, optimize it for specific keywords that are relevant to your business and build backlinks
7. SEO gives a high Return on Investment (ROI)
Everyone looks for higher returns on their investment, right? One of the biggest advantages of seo is that it produces high ROI no matter what industry you are in.
If your website or business is performing well in organic search results (oftentimes focusing on short-tail keywords), you can definitely expect higher returns in terms of traffic, qualified leads, and sales.
Here are some of the things you can consider while calculating your ROI on SEO.
- Newsletter signups
- Product purchases or subscriptions
- Repeat traffic from search engines and more
8. Drive targeted traffic to your website
One of the biggest benefits of SEO is it sends you targeted traffic. If you’re doing any business for a while, you may already know how important it is to drive “targeted visitors” to a website, app, or store.
Targeted visitors convert! If you’ve the right sales funnel, you’ll be making a ton of sales by generating traffic from search engines.
You can drive targeted visitors from search engines by targeting relevant keyword phrases, creating content that’s relevant to your target audience, and so on.
9. Helps you acquire quality backlinks
Search engines like Google give #1 preference to the websites that have more (quality) backlinks.
One of the proven ways to attract quality backlinks is to start a website and start doing SEO.
If you’re wondering… a backlink is simply a link from one website to another.
There are basically two types of backlinks;
- Dofollow backlinks (Dofollow tag tells search engines to to follow the link, these backlinks are essential to grow your search traffic)
- Nofollow backlinks (Nofollow tag tells search engines to ignore a link)
Just make sure to avoid toxic links (backlinks that come from malicious sites or spammy websites).
If you’re curious to learn how to build quality backlinks to your website, here are a few proven ways for you.
10. SEO can help small businesses to compete with BIG brands
If you’re running a small business and looking to boost your sales and leads to your website, SEO is the best channel for you.
SEO helps small business owners create fast and secured websites that rank higher in search engines like Google.
Not only that, you can even compete with the big brands and authority websites in your industry with the help of SEO. All you need to do is to pick low competitive keywords, build relevant links and focus on offering the right products to attract customers.
