SEO plays an essential role in online marketing. As users search for your products or services, having a high search engine ranking is critical for driving business growth. And the numbers speak for themselves: 89% of all online customers start their buying process by using a search engine.
Now, more than ever, consumers turn to search engines to research products and services rather than relying on word-of-mouth recommendations. According to 2017 SEO statistics, Google holds 80% of total worldwide searches and fewer than 25% of people scroll past the first page of Google. Page 1 rankings for high-intent keywords ensure potential customers can engage with your content.
AIS Media, an SEO company out of Atlanta states, “In a world where information is at our fingertips and there are 3.5 billion searches per day, if people can’t find what they want on your site they’ll just go elsewhere.”
Below are clear results for businesses employing proper SEO techniques:
Higher Ranking
Optimizing your website to increase keyword rankings is the leading way to increase unique visitors to your site. More visitors to your site means increased awareness, and consequently, increased profits. The benefits of having a higher rank are easily recognizable. Roughly 18% of Google users click the first link of their results page. This demonstrates the extremely high value of high ranking.
Recovery from Harsh Penalties
Google is becoming much more strict with how they analyze streams of traffic, and for businesses who have tried the black hat method of siphoning visitors, their luck is running out.
For example, many companies have been penalized by Google for bad backlinks (i.e., spam) pointing at their domain. A thorough SEO audit could identify if your site is at risk for facing those sorts of penalties. Some companies have found that they have thousands of bad links directed at their domain. With proper help, a Google site delisting may be lifted to restore original traffic.
Increased Visibility by Combining PPC & SEO
Optimizing your online presence can be done in many different ways, including the customization of adverts. Use cookies and unique visitor information to find out how you can optimize your adverts for a higher click-through rate. If you want to maximize your potential customers, you can achieve your business goals more successfully by using SEO tactics in your advertising and split testing results.
Of course, there’s a difference between pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization, but the two do go hand in hand. The keywords you want to rank for are the same keywords you would use in your PPC campaign, and often, these two campaign types help one another.
More Followers, More Money
Social media is a great way to increase your levels of SEO, with search engines giving higher priority to social media accounts with more followers over those with fewer numbers. Having a large and active social media account also encourages more people to link to your content from external sites. Linking further encourages Google and other search engines to increase your ranking on their search engine result pages. As many studies have shown, social media, content marketing, and SEO all have a role in improving a business’ online presence.
Improved Mobile Experience
Well-implemented mobile SEO strategies can help to broaden your audience in new ways. Making your site mobile-friendly is a great way to optimize your search engine ranking and click rate. Since May 2015, studies show that in many countries, including the US, Japan, and Germany, more Google searches are made on mobile phones than desktop. This trend continues to expand as more and more users take to their mobile devices to initiate a search.
An example of a company positively benefiting from this can be taken from the Chinese Amazon competitor, Alibaba. Alibaba went mobile-friendly in 2014 and as a result, has increased its hold to just over 80% of all of China’s e-commerce. By improving the mobile experience of their site, the large audience on mobile could easily shop through the site.
If you want to stay ahead of the competition, SEO is the way to go. With growing competition, it’s likely the only way you’ll survive amidst of sea of similar businesses. A proper optimization process allows you to beat out your rivals and become more easily discovered. If you want to succeed with online marketing, SEO is key to building out a prosperous brand.
