These days, you hear a lot about SEO, which is short for search engine optimization. You also hear a lot about how critical it is for businesses in today’s marketplace, and for a number of good reasons, that’s true. In fact, any business without effective SEO is going to have a great deal of trouble growing, thriving, and even getting by.
There are a lot of aspects to SEO, including keywords and phrases, branding, digital marketing, blog posts, and more, but basically, SEO involves the efforts you take to improve your business’s ranking in search results.
Think about it. When you do an online search, how do you decide which results to click on? If you’re like most other people, you don’t look past the first few that turn up, and if your search engine returns results in pages rather than one seemingly endless list, you almost certainly don’t look beyond the first page of results,
So it’s little wonder that marketing experts place so much emphasis on SEO these days. Since so many people look for businesses via online searches now, if your business isn’t turning up among the top results, it’s not going to be seen by very many people.
Your business absolutely needs SEO, then. SEO generates leads and sales, helps build brand awareness, helps increase your website traffic, and more. Altogether, SEO helps grow your business.
Let’s take a closer look at ten reasons why your business absolutely needs SEO in 2023.
1. Brand Awareness
The more your website is turning among the top search results, the more people there are seeing you and becoming aware of your brand. Brand awareness helps customers associate certain traits, values, products, and services with a company. Increased awareness of your brand, along with positive experiences with both your website and what you offer, makes it more likely that in future searches, customers will specifically look for you rather than seek generic results.
2. Trust and Credibility
As customers see your business more and become more familiar with it, you develop trust and credibility. The more visible your business is and the higher it appears in search results, the more likely it is that customers will form an impression that the business is a leader in its field. Of course, that makes it more likely that they will decide to stay on your site and become a paying customer.
3. Sales and Conversions Driver
Everything starts with convincing the user to visit your business website. Good SEO gets people there, and once they are, there’s a good chance they’ll stay and look around. Every minute they spend on your site makes it more likely that you’ll get a sale or some other conversion. Even if all they do is sign up for a newsletter, you now have their attention and have a way of connecting with them. And remember: just because they’re looking for Product A doesn’t mean they won’t find and purchase Item B or C as well.
4. Better User Experience
What usually happens when you visit a site that provides a poor user experience due to slow loading, clunkiness, difficulty in navigating or finding information, or something else that detracts from the experience? You may leave that site and never return.
Good SEO improves the user experience in a couple of ways. First of all, pages that come up higher in results are likely to be better pages as well, and people usually have a good experience with those sites. Second, part of SEO is making sure links work. Pages load quickly. Useful content is abundant and easy to find, etc.
5. Mobile-Friendly
Not only are most first impressions of a business experienced online now, but they’re also happening on mobile devices, especially phones, more and more. Effective SEO will help your site perform well in mobile searches and also be mobile-friendly so that customers can engage anytime, anywhere.
6. Easy on the Budget
If you’re familiar with SEO techniques, are skilled at it, and have the time for it, you can do all or most of your SEO on your own. However, t likely even if you decide to hire an SEO specialist, this will be more cost-effective than traditional advertising, cold calling, and other traditional marketing methods. Plus, SEO should pay for itself over time through an expanded customer base.
7. Targeted Audience
Another benefit of SEO is that you can target your marketing to the audience most likely to be interested. That way, you don’t waste precious time and resources reaching out to broad audiences, mostly including people who aren’t likely to engage in hopes you find a few who are.
8. Competitive Edge
The competition doesn’t sleep, and neither can you. Effective SEO includes ongoing analysis of trends and keywords so that you establish and retain a competitive edge. This can also include seeing what’s working well for the competition and incorporating those approaches into your own.
9. Measurability and Adaptability
With analytical tools, you can measure the performance of your SEO, which is dynamic because the market is always changing. This way, you can scrap or change what isn’t working, build on what is, and always modify and adapt content based on the changing conditions in the marketplace. Not staying current puts you at risk of dropping in the rankings, which is going to mean lost or missed customers, hurting the bottom line.
10. Conducive to Long-Term Strategy
Finally, as your SEO works for you and your business grows, you’ll learn to make it a part of your long-term business strategy. Although you can’t let your SEO efforts slide, keeping up with it will get easier over time as you become more familiar and comfortable with it.
Improve Your SEO with Hughes Media
Atlanta digital marketing agency – Hughes Media is a top-rated SEO agency, and we know that it’s easier to talk about good SEO than it is to implement it. That’s why our team of digital marketing experts is available to help you customize and maximize your SEO to fit your exact needs. We’ll partner with you every step of the way and help you grow your business and build your brand.
Schedule a consultation today!
About the Author:
Deedra Hughes
Experienced President with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in Digital Strategy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Integrated Marketing, Advertising, and Pay Per Click (PPC). Strong business development professional with a Bachelor’s Degree focused in Communications from Ohio University.