Are you actively optimizing your business’s website for higher search rankings? Known as search engine optimization (SEO), this involves a combination of both on-site and off-site processes to encourage higher rankings for one or more keywords. While it may sound like a laborious and time-consuming process, with the help of a professional seo agency, this particular marketing strategy can benefit your business in several ways.
#1) Increased Brand Recognition
As most savvy business owners already know, your brand is everything. Consisting of names, logos, slogans, mascots, sounds, color palettes and more, it helps customers remember who you and what you offer.
SEO helps to increase brand recognition by presenting the aforementioned brand elements for the world to see. When someone comes across your business’s website in the search results, they’ll see your brand elements. And the next time that individual wants to buy a product or service you offer, they may choose your business instead of a competitor.
#2) Traffic
Once you’ve optimized your website for a top search ranking, you’ll experience a flood of new visitors. The marketing agency Chitika conducted a study to investigate the traffic differences between different Google rankings. So, what they find? Chitika found that websites in the first Google rank received 32.5 percent traffic share, whereas websites in the 12th position receives less than one percent traffic share. The bottom line is that if you want organic traffic, you need to optimize your business’s website for search engines.
#3) Cost-Effective Alternative to PPC
SEO is also a cost-effective alternative to pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. PPC platforms like Google AdWords and Bing Ads allow advertisers to buy ad space on search results pages for their target keywords, paying for every click their ad receives. The problem with PPC, however, is that clicks can be expensive — very expensive. According to Google’s Keyword Planner Tool, for instance, the suggested bid price for “antivirus software” on AdWords is $12.81.
With SEO, however, you can get your business listed for these same keywords but without paying for clicks. Rather than paying $11 or $12 for each click, you’ll get clicks for free. And if you really want to dominate the competition, you can always use PPC marketing in conjunction with SEO, allowing your website to appear both as an organic and paid listing for the same keyword.
#4) Trust and Credibility
Internet users tend to trust high-ranking websites more than their low-ranking counterparts. When a user searches for a keyword in Google, he or she automatically assumes the top sites have been “vetted” by the search engine giant, in which case the user will feel more comfortable visiting these sites and buying their products or services.
#5) Measurable
With SEO, you can track key performance indicators (KPIs), including bounce rate, exit rate, unique visits, new vs returning visits, web browser usage, visitors’ regions and more. This is done by installing analytics software, such as Google Analytics, on your website. Once the software is installed, you’ll gain invaluable insight into your visitors’ behavior. If your site receives a substantial amount of traffic from a particular state, for instance, perhaps you should target this demographic in your other digital marketing campaigns.
What Next?
When optimizing your business’s website for search engines, it’s recommended that you use a workflow management system. Doing so allows you to keep track of which tasks you’ve completed and which ones you haven’t. Along with Google Analytics, a management system such as this can help streamline the optimization process.
It’s important to note that SEO isn’t something that happens overnight. Optimizing a website to achieve a top search ranking takes time and patience. If you continue to build backlinks and improve on-page signals, however, you’ll eventually score a top rank.