If you have a blog or a business that runs online, or if you are even closely related to the web world somehow, you would know what Search Engine Optimization is and actually how important it is.
In the digital world, one cannot imagine existence without search engine optimization.
It is of prime importance to make your business grow and avoid it from becoming static.
If you ask what is Search Engine Optimization, you will get a very brief answer that will round up the entire concept of the idea.
But to get into the depths of SEO and to understand how it actually works, it might take you years.
All the internet biggies that exist today and are considered to be the major names in the industry have all spent, years in their initial stages trying to figure out what SEO is, how it works and why is it important for them to grow.
Even today all the new blogs and websites that are coming up cannot undermine the importance of SEO.
So let us have a detailed look into what SEO is and how it works.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the method that aims to make a website’s visibility grow in an organic manner, that is something that you don’t have to pay for, in search engine results.
For example, when you search for something on Google, the results that show up right on the first page are all the websites that did their SEO right.
Search Engine Optimization includes both the technical and creative aspects that are required to improve a website’s rankings, boost traffic and increases its presence and awareness in the search engines.
There are plenty of aspects to successful SEO and you cannot really distinguish which of it is more important than the other.
Sometimes SEO depends on the keywords that you used on your page and the way other sites link to you on the internet. Sometimes it is simply you making sure that your website is built and properly structured in a way, which search engines find easy to understand.
But SEO does not only mean building a website that is search engine friendly. Search Engine optimization is also about continuously working to make your site better for the readers. These two principles go hand in hand.
When other marketing techniques require you to reach out to your audience to advertise your product, it is SEO that gives you the power to reach out to your audience when they are looking for something particular on the internet.
If that search is related to your product or the services you offer, the user is happy to find that information and then lands up on your website. That is the purpose of SEO.
Compared to other forms of marketing like email marketing or even print ads which have a close rate of just 1.7%, SEO has an unbeatable close rate of 14.6%.
SEO is the technique that helps you to improve your website’s visibility on the web without having to pay for it. Of course, there is a thing called paid search results, but SEO is all about organic search results.
Why is SEO Important for any Website?
Everyone resorts to SEO to increase the visibility of their website.
A lot of new websites and blogs on the block do it because everyone is doing it, without actually understanding why SEO is important.
While we have already mentioned that SEO is a very broad term and has many aspects, we can have a look at some of the most important reasons, why search engine optimization is important for a website.
1. Top 5 in search engine results page:
When people are searching for something on the web, they generally do not have much time to go through all the search results that pop up on the page.
Also, users have a tendency to think that anything that comes after the first 5 results on the search engine page might not be good or informative enough.
That is why users rely on the first 5-6 search engine results that are generated after the user searches for anything.
Hence every website aims to be in the top 5 on the search engine page so that they get maximum organic traffic.
To do this, a website has to do search engine optimization and be at the top of search engine results.
2. Users have immense trust in search engines.
Internet consumers from around the world resort to the web to search for or to know about a variety of things. They believe that search engine generated results are very trustworthy.
So, if your website pops up in the first 5 results on the search engine page, the user automatically thinks that your website is informative and trustworthy enough and then he keeps coming back to your website every time he needs some information on that particular niche.
This move builds your credibility in the market and also boosts your traffic over time.
3. Search Engine Visibility:
When your website’s SEO is done well, it also inevitably promotes your website on various social media platforms.
When a user finds your website in the first 5 or 6 results on the search engine page continuously over a period of time, there is a high chance that the user might share your page or that particular article on his or her social media pages.
And even one share on a social media platform can do wonders for your website.
So, search engine optimization not only leads to better visibility on search engines but also on social media without you having to incur any additional cost.
4. Better SEO:
Better SEO also keeps you ahead in the highly competitive web world.
For example, if two websites have similar articles or similar information, the website that has better SEO will come ahead of the other website on the search engine results page.
That is why every online business is so focused on maximizing and making better use of SEO.
5. Using SEO to Build Brand Awareness:
SEO is also good for your brand image. Even though we have established this in a previous point, there is more to it.
SEO does not only mean that your website has to appear in the first few positions in search engine rankings, but you also have to make sure that once the user lands on your website, he should keep clicking through your website.
Users are never really satisfied with researching on just one website that pops up on the search engine page.
They tend to keep clicking and keep searching using different keywords and related terms, even if it means visiting various websites.
So, when a user lands on your website, you have to make sure that the user stays on your website for as long as possible.
When the user keeps on searching using different keywords and terms, and your website keeps on displaying the exact results that the user wants to see, it massively adds to your brand image.
If your website is able to display everything that a user wants to see, there are chances that from the next time the user will straightaway visit your website and not search for keywords on search engines.
6. High ROI in SEO:
The rate of the return on investment is the highest in SEO among all other forms of advertising.
Be it traditional forms of offline advertising or other forms of internet marketing, nothing can really match up to SEO when it comes to high return on investment rates.
7. Inbound Marketing and SEO:
SEO is an inbound form of marketing, which means that it allows a website owner to market itself and reach out to people right when they are looking for something, be it a product or a service, that your business provides.
The SEO form of advertising does not even annoy a user, unlike other forms of marketing, where constant pop up ads block the reader’s view of the article he is reading, nor does it interrupt a TV show or something you are watching on television.
Your website just shows up in a place where the user is looking for similar options
Also, unlike other forms of marketing, in SEO you do not have to convince the user to buy your product or to avail your service.
You just have to appear in their range of sight and in the space where they are looking for something.
That makes a user believes that your website is the right place to visit. With SEO done right, half of your job of boosting your business is already done.
Why Your Business Should Invest in SEO?
Now that you know how SEO benefits a business in the web world, it is about time that your business should invest in SEO too.
Apart from all the reasons listed above, there are many more valid and logical reasons as to why a business should invest in SEO. Let us have a look at them.
1. It is a cost effective method to boost your business:
When we talk about internet marketing, there are various forms of that.
PPC advertising, social media marketing, and even purchasing leads for email marketing are the various other forms in which a business can market itself on the internet.
But these methods are all cost driven, that is, the website owner has to pay a certain sum of money from his pocket to use these tools and make the best out of it.
For search engine optimization, the owner has to pay nothing.
The PPC form of marketing surely give you more revenue, and social media is more important for your brand image, but none of them can even come close to the amount of organic traffic that SEO generates.
2. Search engines account for a huge amount of market share
Almost 80-90% of customers check for online reviews before making a purchase, both online and offline.
In times to come, this percentage will only increase.
In such a scenario, if you want people to look up for your business or products and services, then it is time to invest in SEO.
If you cannot generate organic SEO, people won’t find you and will instead go to your competitors. That would mean death for your business.
3. Your competitors are doing it
In a market where competition is so strong, you don’t really want to be left behind, do you?
When all your competitors are constantly moving ahead in the SEO game, you lagging behind will kill your business.
Also, SEO is a never ending process. It is growing every day and several businesses around the world are keeping up to it.
So you not only have to optimize your SEO to stay in the competition but you also constantly have to update it.
4. If you don’t have an established content profile, it will damage your business:
Google is constantly updating its algorithm for its search engine and that is changing the way it’s looking at websites.
Factors like social media indicators did not even exist a few years ago.
But now they are highly important in terms of your website ranking. One of the factors Google looks at while evaluating your website is your content profile.
If that is not good enough or healthy enough, it might potentially damage your business ultimately.
Google even doesn’t give your website the Adsense approval if the content profile is not properly built and well maintained.
Conclusion:
To conclude, we have successfully established the importance of SEO for your website and why every business should start investing in SEO if they haven’t already.
Establishing SEO and keeping your search results rankings consistently high might take time, but it is very important for the growth of your business.
If there is no organic traffic, then there is no point of updating your website regularly. Without search engine optimization, your business will never be able to flourish or attract traffic.