8 Reasons Why Your Website Needs Search Engine Optimization

Today's consumers rely on search engines to help them find everything from restaurant recommendations to B2B software providers.

This means that no matter what your business offers, your target audience is likely searching for products or services similar to yours on search engines like Google.

And if you want to attract them to your site, you need search engine optimization.

But if you've spent a lot of time exploring your options with digital marketing, you've probably heard it before.

Once you accept this, however, the next logical question is how to do search engine optimization.

So on this page, we'll explain what makes SEO so important, as well as some search engine optimization techniques and search engine optimization tools you can use to increase your online visibility.

An introduction to SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a strategy to improve your site's ranking in search engine results.

This involves identifying what keywords and phrases your target audience uses when searching for products or services similar to yours, then working to rank well for those searches.

Of course, this is a simplified explanation - and you can check out our resource on "What is SEO" for a more in-depth look at search engine optimization.

8 Reasons Why Your Website Needs SEO Optimization

Today, SEO is an essential part of any effective marketing strategy.

But to fully illustrate its importance, let's go over some of the reasons why you should optimize your site.

It can help you build your brand

Although branding is often considered a more traditional marketing strategy, while SEO falls firmly into the digital category, both involve similar steps.

Building a brand requires consideration of both what you deliver and what others say about it.

And when you look at the steps involved in optimizing a site, the factors are similar. You need to create content that fits your audience's needs and interests, then find ways to earn links to that content from other sites.

If you keep this relationship in mind while developing your SEO strategy, you can choose keywords and create content that matches the image you want your brand to have.

Then, your online presence will reflect your ideal branding – and help you establish it with your target audience.

An optimized website earns more traffic

On the surface, the goal of SEO optimization is to improve your site's ranking in search results.

But more than that, the purpose of getting a high ranking is to attract more traffic – and ideally, convert that traffic into customers and leads.

And in case you were wondering, it works.

For example, take a look at the organic traffic report below from a Siege Media case study.

Over the course of a year, this brand new site grew traffic from zero to over 100,000 visitors – entirely from SEO.

If you want to bring more users to your site, SEO is the best way to achieve this goal.

SEO does not require you to pay for ad space

One of the biggest advantages of SEO is that it does not involve paying for ad space.

Consider how traditional advertising campaigns work.

You specify a place you want your brand to appear, whether it's on a specific TV channel or radio station, or on the pages of a magazine or newspaper.

Then, you pay the company that owns that media for the placement. You can pay for your ad to run for a specified period of time, or within a specified number of times. As soon as that time is up, your ad stops showing — and stops generating results for your business.

The top two listings in this screenshot are pay-per-click, or PPC, ads, as indicated by the small "Ads" tag.

As with traditional advertising campaigns, earning one of these spots involves ongoing costs.

Of course, if you're familiar with PPC, you know that advertisers only pay when a user clicks on an ad and visits their site. This definitely gives it an edge over traditional methods.

Still, each visitor incurs a cost – and the minute an advertiser pauses their campaign, they stop showing up.

But sites appearing in organic results, directly below those ads, aren't paying a cent for those rankings.

Although they've likely invested a significant amount of time and money into creating pages that are ranking in those niches, those pages appear on the one because Google's algorithm thinks they provide value to users. .

As a result, they are earning traffic without spending a cent.

This helps your target audience find your site

SEO can help get your business in front of your target audience as they are actively searching for information.

And considering how common it is for consumers to use search engines to find information about products and services, this is a huge opportunity.

In fact, 62% of consumers turn to search engines first when they want to learn more about a new business, product or service – and 41% use them when they're ready to buy.

This means that if you want your business to be part of a user's online search process, it needs to show up in search results for keywords related to the products or services you offer.

Also, according to the same survey, 48% of consumers prefer to visit a business's official website to learn more about them.

So a strong online presence will not only help you reach your marketing goals but also enable your target audience to search and buy in a way that works for them.

It increases your credibility and authority

The Internet has drastically changed what the sales process looks like for many businesses.

That's because today, consumers have access to a wealth of helpful resources that can help them learn about their options before they talk to a sales representative.

And with SEO optimization, you can be a part of that learning process.

This is especially true if you combine your SEO efforts with content marketing. When you create informative, valuable content, you have the opportunity to build trust and credibility with potential customers early in the research phase.

First, a user finds your site by searching for information related to your industry and seeing one of your resources in the search results.

Then, they read that source. If they like it, they can share it with their friends and subscribe to your email list.

This is where the process gets a little slow.

That user may return to your site multiple times and read your email content regularly over the next few months without taking action.

And if you're used to the traditional sales process, it can be frustrating.

But with each piece of content they read, you're establishing your brand as a trusted, authoritative source of information.

Then, when they're finally ready to make a purchase or talk to a sales rep, they'll know which company to turn to—and do so after all the helpful information you've already provided for free. will be comfortable.

This can help you stay ahead of your competitors

As you optimize your site, you're not just working to improve your site's rank on the results pages.

You are going above and beyond your competitors.

Just consider that the first result on any given results page gets an average of 20.5% of clicks. From there, the second result gets 13.32%, and the third gets 13.14%.

This means that as you move up in the search results, you'll earn a greater percentage of clicks for your targeted keywords - and your competitors will earn less.

It improves the user experience

Google's ultimate goal is to provide the best possible results for its users.

As a result, many of their algorithm updates focus on ensuring that they are directing users to sites that not only provide relevant content but also provide a great user experience.

So today, technical factors such as mobile-friendliness, usability, and site speed play a bigger role in the ranking than ever before.

While this means that your site may require a little more professional help to optimize, it also means that you will be constantly improving the user experience your site provides.

And when you consider the impact of user experience on conversion, it can have a significant impact on your sales and revenue in the long run.

It is easy to measure

Finally, one of the biggest advantages of search engine optimization.is that you can measure almost every aspect of your results.

Unlike traditional methods, which often rely on looking for correlations between ad campaigns and sales, it's easy to see the return you're getting from your SEO investment.

You can use tools like Google Analytics to monitor your traffic, referral sources, conversions, and any other metrics important to your business.

That way, you can accurately assess what's working — and what's not — and be confident that you're allocating your marketing budget to the strategies that have the greatest impact on your most important goals. put