SEO isn’t always the top priority of many marketing strategies. The value it can bring to the business is commonly misunderstood by those less familiar with SEO. It’s an honest mistake. The return on investment isn’t as clear-cut when compared to marketing channels like paid search or social media, but the value is undeniable with a sound approach.
You don’t have to understand technical jargon like “canonical” or “robots.txt” to see the benefits of SEO. What’s important is to make an effort to understand the impact of SEO work. Whether you’re part of an in-house marketing department trying to make your case for more organic reach or an agency trying to convince your clients of SEO’s value, this article can help strengthen your argument.
Why is SEO Important for Business?
- Organic search makes up 53% of overall search traffic
- SEO can empower other areas of the business
- Users want ease of use
- SEO maximizes PPC campaigns
- It can impact your bottom line
1. Organic search makes up 53% of overall search traffic.
A majority of your users will find you through organic search. When looking for something online, most people usually type a question or phrase into Google. Recognizing these popular keywords and targeting them in your content can affect your rankings within search results and improve overall traffic.
Paying for ads to attract users to your website will only yield a fraction of the traffic that organic search does. That’s why a well-rounded marketing strategy is key. When you neglect organic search, it’s a missed opportunity to reach your audience.
2. SEO can empower other areas of the business.
You may be thinking that SEO is independent of other areas of the business or even other areas of marketing. But for the best results, it should intertwine with your overall strategy. In fact, SEO can be used to drive the overall strategy for your business.
For instance, organic keyword data can provide powerful indicators. SEO research can tell you which keywords will attract the most search volume and which pages currently rank in the top positions. This information can be used to:
- Recommend particular products or services that a business provides.
- Attract more users to social media posts.
- Produce YouTube and podcast content that users will listen to.
3. It improves the overall user experience.
If users are unhappy with your website, they won’t hesitate to leave it behind. That’s why your website visitors should be able to find the information they’re looking for with ease. For example, a major part of SEO is addressing any technical errors on the site. This includes broken links, page speed, navigation errors, duplicate content, meta errors, and more.
Oftentimes, larger brands make the mistake of assuming brand loyalty. But we see it time and time again, users will leave if your content doesn’t load quickly. If there are broken links on your website, users will find your website untrustworthy, which makes them more likely to seek a different brand offering the same thing.
Not to mention, Google takes technical errors very seriously. Your website will be penalized for having errors that affect the user experience. This often results in a drop in search rankings, which decreases your overall traffic.
4. Maximizes PPC Campaigns.
When SEO and paid search work together, they can drive greater impact for your business. For example, paid search excels in increasing brand familiarity. In turn, ranking organically in the top position can lower the cost of paid search and continue to drive traffic to the website.
Many brands experience an overall increase in visitors when they appear for a keyword on both paid and organic search. Additionally, SEO can help to create content that is focused on relevant keywords and user intent, which will improve the overall paid search ad experience when users are directed to the website.
5. It can impact your bottom line.
SEO is more than just improving rankings and getting more keywords on your website. With a proper SEO strategy, you will see a measurable increase in conversions and revenue. That’s because improved content and higher search rankings lead to increased traffic, and some of those users will have a genuine interest in your product(s) or service(s) and convert. Improving the user experience can be the difference between a conversion and a dropoff.
Additionally, Google makes frequent updates that can affect the organic traffic and conversions of your website. By following the current SEO guidelines from Google, websites can prevent a huge penalty or drop in organic traffic.
Conclusion
Understanding the impact of SEO is critical. However, proving that to the decision-makers in your business is often the real challenge. That’s why it’s important to have tracking in place so you can measure the success of SEO tactics that have been implemented.
Helping clients or your superiors understand the timeline of SEO impact is another crucial component. Realizing the impact of SEO can take months, but the payoff can be worth it with the right processes in place. Everything starts with understanding the value of SEO.
