Why Your Business Needs to Invest in SEO
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Did you know that 93% of website traffic comes from search engines?
Search Engine Optimization is crucial for every business. We often have businesses reach out to us wondering what SEO does for their business. Why is it important? And what are the benefits that come with investing in an SEO strategy? Check out this article to better understand the benefits SEO offers for your business.
What is SEO?
SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization, is the art of optimizing your website to achieve a higher ranking in search engines' organic results. It is also a way to enhance your website structure and technical background, making it more user-friendly, faster in speed and easier to navigate. SEO takes some time to take effect, so it’s important to be forward-thinking and plan ahead when creating an SEO strategy.
Why is SEO important?
We always tell our clients, SEO is more important than ever in 2022. Search engines, such as Google, attract millions of users per day, that are looking for answers to their questions and problems. If you have a website, blog or online store, SEO can help you drive organic traffic from search engines.
Also, the majority of search engine users click the top positions of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), so as a business, you want your website to be on the first page. This is so you can get your potential customers onto your website, rather than on your competitors.
SEO can put you ahead of your competition if done correctly, and below if not done right, we explain why.
Here is Why Your Business Should Invest in SEO:
1. Everyone uses search engines
Organic search is the #1 way people normally find a business's websites. This is so important because websites are usually the key component of the sales funnel. A website helps capture leads and, if you’re getting the right kind of traffic, it will lead to more conversions!
Different search engines, such as Google (the main one we all know), Yahoo, Bing and more, all enable you to do drive traffic to your site.
Google is the most visited website in the world. Accordingly, Google owns about 75% of the overall search market. YouTube, also owned by Google, is the second biggest search engine in the world. Majority of the world has access to the Internet, and visit Google at least once a day to get the information they need. This is why your brand needs to be visible and rank higher, so it can be seen by your target audience.
2. Build trust and credibility
Trust and credibility is everything. The goal is to have a strong foundation, with an appealing website that provides a great user experience and is easy to discover in search engines. With the trust and credibility of your brand, you want authority.
Including the above, there are more elements that go into establishing authority on search engines like Google, including:
A. Quality Backlinks: Backlinks are external links to your website, that show the transition from one site to another or one page to another. They help index your website's pages correctly and help search bots rank them correctly accordingly to its content. It is an essential component of the SEO process.
B. Positive User Behaviour: It’s crucial to analyze what people do on your website. Are users landing on your website and leaving immediately? Are there certain pages users spend more time on than others? Spending time on this factor will help greatly with the SEO process. Key things to look into are landing page, exit pages, average time per session and bounce rate.
C. Machine Learning: Machine learning is a sub-field of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the ability of computers performing tasks that would normally require human intelligence. Now, machine learning allows computers to learn algorithms. In simpler terms, search engines like Google, are learning how to help their users find better results that are most related to their search. If your content does not provide users with what they are looking for, you are going to have a difficult time ranking in the top positions. These machines are continuing to learn more and more, so this is something to be aware of and keep in mind when you’re developing your website. Do this by preparing website content strategically and researching long-tail keywords (phrases we search for).
D. Optimize Your Website: You need to optimize your site structure, links, keywords, meta tags, meta descriptions, canonical tags, URLs and content like photos and videos. You also need to optimize for mobile and overall website usability, in order to drive more traffic and attract potential customers. The key here is consistency. Consider: do keywords on your webpage match the keywords in the title of the page, the URL, and meta-description?
Trust, credibility and authority is not built overnight. It takes patience and commitment but the value of the end result is an investment you won’t regret.
3. A Better User Experience
Quality user experience is crucial for many reasons. You need to help your customer find what they want, and in the simplest way you can do it. Fewer clicks and a quick process helps with a positive user experience, which will help with your authority, as we had mentioned earlier.
If you haven’t already, definitely optimize for mobile. 87% of smartphone users use search engines at least once a day, and 61% of these users are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site. To ensure a seamless mobile experience, you need a fast website. You need a website that is easy to read and navigate, even on mobile, which is a much smaller screen size. You don't want your viewers to have to zoom in to find specifics on your website. And of course, you want to be straight to the point. Make everything as simple as possible. Prompt visitors with a clear call to action to help simplify the sales and conversion process.
4. Local SEO
Three things that every business wants: engagement, traffic and conversions. You can get this through local search. SEO aims at optimizing your digital properties for a specific town, city or region, so your relevant customer base can find you more easily.
This is done by optimizing your brand's website and content, including local citations, backlinks and local listings that are relevant to your location and industry.
The easiest way you can start this is by creating a Google My Business listing and listing all social media profiles. It's also very important to ask your customers for reviews on Google, or other platforms you are on, whether it's Yelp, Industry review pages and others, which of course, depend on your business.
5. Long-term orientation
As a business owner, I’m sure you want you brand to withstand the test of time. SEO plays a huge part. If done right, SEO will make a great impact within the first 6 months to 1 year from implementation. These actions will have an impact that will last several years. When it comes to search engine ranking, it's all about authority.
The more SEO time, effort and budget that you commit, the better and longer your website will stand, especially in the long run.
How Do I Get Started?
Optimizing your website takes time, planning and a lot of patience to achieve the results you want with Search Engine Optimization. If you are willing to invest the resources and time with the right SEO team, the end results you'll see are well worth it.
It will help boost your credibility, drive more website traffic and improve your website visibility. You'll receive all these results without having to spend any money on ad space.
To get learn more about Search Engine Optimization and how it can help your business, contact the Bold x Collective team at our Toronto digital agency.