Why Should You Care About SEO Anyway?
Okay, so SEO is a way of helping to make your company get more visibility online, but aren’t there any other ways to do that? While PPC (pay per click) advertising and social media campaigns do have their place, there are many reasons that SEO rises above the rest as the best way to increase your online presence. Here are 5 reasons why you should care about SEO if you don’t already:
1. It works
First and foremost, SEO works if you’re doing it correctly. In the hands of the right people, a great SEO strategy can increase your website rankings in Google, get you the clicks you’re looking for, and make your business more profitable than before. As Joshua Guerra, CEO of the marketing firm BIZCOR explains: “As long as you are focusing on optimal user experience while performing methodic SEO strategies, you will be rewarded with higher rankings and organic traffic.”
2. It’s cost-effective
If you’re always worrying about funds and budgets, you’ll be happy to hear that SEO is generally very cost-effective. SEO is almost always cheaper to orchestrate than PPC advertising, social media advertising, purchasing email leads, and a wide range of other online marketing strategies.
Search Engine Optimization tends to have a very good ROI, and you don’t need a ton of upfront capital to invest in it – you just need to hire a good team or consultant that knows what they are doing.
3. It increases your brand visibility
Every brand needs to maximize its visibility to its customer base; otherwise, what’s the point? SEO done correctly can help to bring your brand to an internet user who may not have been familiar with you before. If your small candle-making business comes up when someone searches “independent candle shops” in Google, you have an opportunity to hook in a new customer.
It’s also worth remembering that 80-90% of consumers look at online reviews before making a purchase these days, whether they’re in a store or shopping online. If a customer goes to search for your business and can’t find you, it reflects poorly on your brand.
4. It builds credibility and trust
If you have a website with good content that is well-optimized for SEO and a positive user experience (UX), then you’re going to build up credibility for your brand. This is especially useful for young companies that are trying to get a foothold in their space and establish themselves as a reputable brand. If a customer can find your website easily, and this generates a fast-loading website full of valuable content, you start to look more and more trustworthy. If done correctly, you build lifetime customers this way.
5. Your competitors do it
Even if all the other reasons haven’t convinced you that SEO is a great investment for small businesses, then face the reality that your competitors are already doing it.
If your competitors are investing in SEO, but you’re refusing to give it a try, they will slowly begin to steal potential customers from you just because they’re just much easier to find.
Using SEO helps you to stay in the know about the latest business practices and makes it easier for you to stay on top of competing businesses in the never-ending search for customers.
If you’re not investing in SEO, your competitors will. Once a company has ranked #1 for your keyword of choice, you now have 1 more competitor to compete with – and it’s only going to be increasingly much harder for you to catch up.
SEO can make or break your business in the digital age, so make sure you take it seriously!
