11 Benefits of SEO: Why You Should Invest in Search Engine Optimization

By Digitrio

Post Date: 22 February 2022

SEO is the most popular digital marketing channel compared to other platforms. This is because are over 7.6 million Google searches per day, and 70% of consumers want to learn about products through content rather than traditional ads. Businesses are quickly seeing the SEO benefits, with 82% of marketers actively using content marketing and 24% of them looking to increase their SEO efforts.

Many businesses who are just learning about what is search engine optimization, may be wondering what it is and the benefits of SEO.

What is SEO and its Benefits?

What is SEO and its benefits

Search engine optimization is the digital marketing practice of using various tactics to improve the ranking of web pages in the search engine results pages. There are also different types of SEO such as white hat SEO, black hat SEO & others that exist but the primary benefits of SEO are to acquire more organic traffic to your site, which ultimately leads to more leads and sales.

What are the Advantages of SEO Marketing?

There are many benefits of SEO and it’s important to get clear on why you need it in the first place. Let’s take a closer at why SEO is important for businesses.

1. Brings in More Customers

Bring in more Customers from Search Engines

Generating more customers is one of the top benefits of SEO. That’s because search engine optimisation is an inbound marketing tactic. Potential customers are searching for solutions online and already have an interest in your products or services, so it’s easier to convert them into paying customers.

Organic visibility also has lower ongoing costs compared to paid advertisements. Once you have put in the initial work to improve your organic presence, your business may continue to show up for searches organically even if you reduced your SEO efforts temporarily.

For example, businesses that optimize for local search may include keywords like “near me” and appear for anyone in the vicinity looking for a solution. Local SEO also requires businesses to optimize their Google My Business” accounts and create local-specific content, which can increase conversions.

2. Drive More Website Traffic

Most users search online for solutions or answers to their problems and Google gets millions of searches a day. Perhaps they’re looking for the best cat food or the best nutrition program for their specific diet preferences. As a business owner, if you do proper keyword research, target relevant keywords to match the query of what consumers are looking for and rank on the first page of Google, you’re likely to get a lot of visitors to your website.

Unfortunately, if you target generic keywords, it can be very difficult to rank at the top of search results simply because there is so much competition. Many SEO professionals recommend targeting long-tail keywords since they have less competition, making it easier to rank high on organic results. Furthermore, long-tail keywords have 2.5 times higher conversion rates because your website directly addresses what people are looking for.

3. Improve Brand Credibility

Improve Brand Credibility

When consumers perform online research, they tend to trust pages that rank on top which are usually reputable websites. 75% of users never go to the second page of organic search results. Google’s algorithm sorts pages based on their unique ranking factors such as website speed, mobile usability, quality of content, domain authority, and many other factors. Users also are more likely to think your brand is credible if you can appear within the first few results because your website would be been recommended based on the advanced algorithms of the search engines.

If your website has made it to the first page, you’ve likely used SEO strategies to optimize your website and content while improving user experience, thereby improving brand credibility in the eyes of the search engine. Having other relevant sites that link back to your blog posts will boost your site’s domain authority, making your site much more credible as well.

4. Improve Website Usability

If a website has a high bounce rate or the average time spent on a website is low, Google or Bing may deem the site’s user experience as poor and this causes a drop in organic rankings. As a result, many businesses can focus on improving their website usability by having faster loading speeds, a mobile-friendly design, fixing broken links, and ensuring the site is easy to navigate.

In the process of optimising your website for on-page SEO, you are improving your website usability at the same time.

5. SEO Offers Impressive ROI

SEO can be a very successful marketing strategy

SEO garners an impressive ROI when compared to other digital marketing strategies such as social media marketing. 49% of marketers claim that maximizing organic traffic offers the best ROI compared to any other marketing channel. Leads from SEO have a 14.6% close rate, which is much higher compared to that of outbound leads.

Customers acquired from SEO were already looking for a solution and are more likely to trust you because search engines like Google and Bing deemed your website reputable enough to rank you on the first page of search. Customers feel like they are choosing you rather than being pushed into a sale which can increase conversion rates.

6. SEO Provides 24/7 Promotion

Unlike social media platforms and PPC ads, organic SEO results never stop working for you. Social media posts can disappear from the user’s timeline after a few days, meaning businesses need to post new content daily to remain relevant continually. PPC ads require a consistent budget to keep the ads running. However, successful SEO attracts the right target audience and continues acquiring visitors no matter the time of day. That’s because ranking high on the search engine results gives you excellent search visibility to anyone making searches. The ranked web pages can continue to deliver traffic for many weeks, months, or years as long as the keyword phrase remains relevant and the content is up to date.

7. SEO Gives You a Competitive Advantage

Engaging a SEO company can be a valuable investment

Search engine optimization is a long-term marketing strategy but can give you very stable traffic in addition to your other marketing channels. If the cost of paid advertising increases to the point where it is unprofitable, other sites might not be able to generate sales at all, but you would still be able to generate leads and sales from your website via SEO even if you had to temporarily pause your paid ads.

Even when compared to SEM campaigns, SEO leads convert at a higher rate compared to leads from PPC campaigns.

8. Compliments SEM Campaigns

Having your website appear in organic results in addition to paid ads can greatly improve the trust in your brand in the eyes of your audience. You can also increase your reach and gain market share by appearing in results for keywords that would have been unprofitable for SEM campaigns. Your SEO marketing efforts will also often focus on improving on-page user experience and loading speeds, which can also boost your SEM campaign results. Many businesses also run remarketing campaigns to a Bing or Google user who has visited your website before through organic search using SEO data, which can greatly increase the ROI on your SEM campaigns.

9. Cut Down on SEM Advertising Costs

With an SEO strategy, your rankings improve and your web pages receive more organic visitors. If you’re tracking your visitors correctly, you can collect audience data and use it for your PPC strategy, helping your campaigns to identify the users most likely to convert and lowering the cost per conversion. You can also remarket to users who have already visited your site before and these campaigns often have a higher ROI.

Over time, if you can drive significant traffic from organic results, you may be able to reduce your SEM budget as you grow less reliant on paid search results to get traffic.

10 . Target All Aspects of Marketing Funnels

Content marketing can target all primary stages of a marketing funnel which are Awareness, Evaluation, and Conversion. This means you can effectively capture users from all these stages.

Awareness (top of the funnel): Your target audience becomes aware of your brand and is just learning about their problem. Content such as blog posts, checklists, and e-books are appropriate for people in this stage.

Evaluation (middle of the funnel):  Consumers are aware of their pain points and are learning about the solutions in the market. Webinars, videos and how-to guides typically do well here.

Conversion (bottom of the funnel): Consumers are ready to buy, but want to choose the right option that suits their needs. Content related to the decision-making processes like a pricing page, case study, and product comparison will be effective here.

11. Improves User Engagement Rates

Improve User Engagement Rates

Search engine optimization focuses on generating high-quality content that meets the needs of your target market. Most businesses see improvements in user engagement rates as a result of the right SEO strategies including higher click-through rates, dwell time (length of time a user spends on a page), time on site and number of page views and lower bounce rates. With better engagement, conversion rates also often increase whether you’re seeking to increase email sign-ups, purchases, calls or other micro-conversions.

You can track all of these metrics on Google Analytics or Google Search Console to find out if your SEO strategy is working.

Conclusion

There are significant SEO benefits for businesses and can lead to long-term exponential growth. Brands that invest in SEO can build credibility and trust with audiences and increase customers, making it a pivotal part of a successful digital marketing strategy.

Unfortunately, many businesses avoid SEO because it seems complex or confusing. Digitrio offers SEO services to help you drive more high-quality traffic to your business. Contact us today and learn about how we can help your business thrive online.

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