If you are a marketer or a business owner, you have likely been told that you should be using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in your business strategy more than once. And that’s because today, it’s an essential part of any successful marketing strategy.
It’s understandable if you are doubting the usefulness of SEO, especially if you are not familiar with it.
And that’s why in this post, we’ll go over all you need to know about SEO in Marketing, the role it plays in marketing, and ten key benefits it offers your business.
What is SEO in Marketing?
SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s the process of improving a website in such a way that it helps rank the website in search results and make it easily accessible to users when they search for specific words and phrases.
If you still don’t understand how this matters, why don’t you take a moment to think about how you normally find the information you need during your everyday life.
What would you do if you wanted to replace your phone but needed more information about which one to get?
Where would you look if you were on vacation and needed to find a good restaurant for lunch?
Think about how often you search for things online and how many businesses you probably patronized just from seeing them online.
In the example provided, If you are looking for a new phone, you would search for it online and order the one you choose from whatever website you picked and there is a 1000 percent chance that the website you will order your phone from will be found on the first page of google and not the second.
That’s basically SEO for you. SEO is basically optimizing your website to be the first thing a user or customer sees when they are in need of the product or service you provide.
The sites you see ranking on the first page of Google when you search for something didn’t get there by accident. They used SEO to help Google understand what their content is about.
They also did extensive research to discover and learn how users like you and I phrase our searches for specific topics so that they could such information to optimize their webpage accordingly.
So, if you want your target audience, customers, or users to find your site, you need to do the same.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in the number of benefits SEO can bring to your business.
It is time to find out the 10 benefits of SEO and why you should invest in SEO for your business.
Benefits of SEO to Your Business
1. SEO improves your digital marketing ROI
When you invest in digital marketing strategies or anything for that matter, you want to make the highest return on investment (ROI) possible. And SEO is a true tested method that is sure to bring an impressive ROI for your business.
How am I so sure?
When it comes to search engines, they offer a closing rate of almost 15 percent for new leads. Now that might not seem like a lot, but when you compare it to traditional marketing — which by the way is less than two percent — it’s massive. This means you can increase your lead conversion rate by almost 13 percent which will increase your revenue.
For many businesses, that revenue increase is one of the major benefits of using SEO.
If your website ranks at the bottom of search results, like on page two, three, or four, users won’t be able to find your business. You even do it, how many times have you checked the second page to see if you will find what you’re looking for? You rather change the search query to see if google can bring it out than check the second page.
The same logic applies to your users. They stick to the first page of results, which means you won’t generate leads from Google or any other search engine.
2. SEO boosts your credibility
Another key benefit of SEO that many businesses overlook is how it can improve your credibility among your consumers. Ranking on the first page of search results tells to users that Google and a whole lot of other people trust your website and business.
That’s one reason why 85 percent of users, including you, stick to the first page of search results.
They trust search engines to filter results for them, removing spammy websites.
Google very much understands this, which is why they use on-page and off-page signals to rank websites.
Improving your website’s speed, having quality content demonstrate to users that your website is safe and credible and that most importantly it answers a user’s question. By doing this, it increases your credibility and can very much drive sales.
3. SEO drives high-quality traffic to your website
SEO also helps you gain more high-quality traffic to your website. Unlike traditional marketing that is broad, digital marketing gives you hyper-targeted tools. Instead of paying for a billboard and hoping that your target audience sees it, with digital marketing, you are certain they will see your website in search results.
Plus, you’re reaching your target audience in a state of want or need. They’re looking for you and what you offer — they are not seeing you as they drive to work or watch TV — which means you have their full attention. This also means they are more likely to act on your calls-to-action (CTAs) and convert to paying customers.
That difference in user intent is one major reason why SEO is a successful strategy.
4. SEO promotes your company all day, every day
With SEO, your business is always advertised. SEO promotes your business 24/7.
That’s critical, particularly when you consider that Google handles more than 60,000 searches a second.
It also reinforces the marketing’s ability to connect with the users on their terms. You are not trying to reach consumers with a billboard that they spot when leaving town for the weekend — you are reaching them when they’re looking for you. If your company or business continues to appear in their search results, it increases their brand awareness for your business.
That boosts the value of your website to users, as you are providing a solution to their problem. From this perception, the benefit of SEO is that you are promoting your business to consumers but in a non-promotional way.
5. SEO targets every stage of your buying funnel
The growth of content marketing makes SEO even more valuable to businesses. With content marketing, which includes a range of content types, from infographics to blog posts to guides, you connect with your consumers in every stage of your marketing funnel.
Content marketing which depends on SEO earns 54 percent more leads than traditional marketing.
Consumers prefer companies that create unique content for them, especially if it provides insights and solutions to their needs.
6. SEO generates more leads, sales, and market share for your business
One of the most declared benefits of SEO is the increased sales, leads, and market share that businesses see.
These increases happen because of the rank in search results. By appearing on the first page of search results for high-value keywords used by your target audience, you are earning clicks and visits from the consumers that matter most to you.
To make you understand the power of SEO, if you target the keyword “Playstation 5 in Nigeria “ and let’s say it has a search volume of 1000 a month, there is a big chance of 500 people clicking your site and out of those 500, 100 can lead to sales.
This is a strategy that companies like Jumia, Kong, Bet9ja employ.
Not all those visits will lead to sales, but you can trust that some of them will.
7. SEO decreases your advertising costs
SEO also benefits your business by reducing your advertising costs — and even your marketing costs. With a well-planned SEO strategy, your business can rank on the first page of search results for high-value keywords.
It also offers your business the option to decrease your advertising cost, as well as reinvest it elsewhere. For example, instead of running five ad campaigns, you can choose to run two and then reinvest your savings into your content marketing strategy.
Many businesses found out that within the first year of investing in SEO, that it’s more cost-effective than traditional advertising and marketing.
Plus, it delivers even better results.
8. SEO leads to better User experience
There are many ways you can enhance your website and maximize the user experience. This includes providing your audience with relevant information, correlated photos or videos to support text, easy-to-navigate web pages, or a mobile-friendly webpage configuration.
All of this results in a better user experience. This results in more clicks, better brand recall, more leads, and higher conversion rates. This is what search engine sites are watching for, therefore improving your search ranking.
9. SEO aids and gets more clicks than PPC
Although PPC ads which means pay-per-click appear above organic rankings, 71.33% of searches result in a click on an organic result on the first page. That is how good SEO is, so good that it even outranks ads.
It’s difficult to say why this is, though the most logical assumption is that users trust Google’s algorithm. They know which spots advertisers are paying for, and yet they prefer to visit the pages the search engine has determined to be the best.
Of course, this is just speculation.
But irrespective of the reasoning behind it, the fact is that the majority of the clicks for any given search go to an organic result.
If you’re integrating digital marketing into your business strategy, you’ll likely invest in PPC advertising at some point. While PPC is a paid strategy and SEO is a non-paid strategy, they work well together especially when you use both of them simultaneously.
Another advantage of SEO is that you can integrate your SEO data into your PPC campaigns. A webpage that leads in conversions, for example, may rise in value if you join it with your PPC campaign.
10. SEO helps you outrank your toughest competitors
With 80 percent of users depending on the Internet for researching a product before purchase, you should expect your competitors to also invest in SEO, as well as other digital marketing strategies. That’s why, if you skip on SEO, you can expect your sales and overall market share to decline.
When users search for queries related to your services or industry, your website won’t appear — and if it does, it will likely rank on the second, third, or fourth page. Only 25 percent of users go past the first page of search results, which cuts into your potential profits and leads if you are nowhere to be found on the first page.
That’s why, if you want to compete against your competitors, SEO is vital. Invest in SEO, as well as create a smart strategy, and you can outrank your toughest competitors. Even if businesses in your industry aren’t using SEO, still do it. it will be a massive advantage to your company if you’re the first.
Imagine how far you’ll ace the competition if all of your competitors are just using traditional marketing? Keep up with the developments in the digital world and you will stay ahead of the competition. This era is always changing, make sure you adapt well to the changes.
Conclusion
The opportunity for your brand, in terms of awareness and brand equity, is infinite. The digital world has given us a myriad of options to explore and to achieve overall organizational goals. Make sure to take on the challenge and use SEO to your advantage.
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