Do you need to implement an SEO strategy? Definitely! Check out these simple reasons why you need to start taking SEO seriously.
Nowadays, it’s likely that you’ve heard the marketing term Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short. What is this magic phrase that can potentially elevate your business to a #1 ranking in Google?!
Well, SEO is a series of techniques, methodologies, and processes which you can apply to your content that aim to improve your ranking on a search engine results page (SERP). The SERP is the page that lists all links related to a given search term or phrase.
Click this link to learn more about the basics of how SEO works.
But the real question is, do you really need to focus on SEO to have a successful marketing strategy?
Can’t you simply use social media to promote your business? When you build a website, shouldn’t that take care of your SEO entirely?
Want the short answer? Well, here it is---nope.
SEO absolutely matters! Whether you’re an established business or just starting out, spending time on your SEO is a MUST. Without focusing on an effective SEO strategy, your beautiful website that you’ve spent time and money creating can become nearly impossible to find online.
Still not sure SEO really matters? Here are some more reasons why focusing SEO is one of the best things you can do for your business:
1. Search engine visibility is important
In digital marketing, if your business can’t be found online, it will be much harder to generate new business. There are literally millions and millions of businesses on the Internet, many of which are in your same area or industry. Everyone is competing for online visibility, and the competition is unbelievably fierce.
Good SEO practices are the best way to ensure that your business is ranking highly in a search engine results page (SERP). Plus, many SEO practices are 100% free!
2. Effective SEO techniques attract the right clients
For example, your business might be selling Victorian-style furniture. Antique collectors, owners who have bought old-style homes, and people who simply love the classics search the Internet for businesses selling these items.
With a good SEO strategy in place, these types of people (also known as your “target market”) will find your website as they start their search online. On the other hand, without focusing on SEO, these potential clients won’t be able to find you when they’re ready to make a purchase. That’s a huge opportunity lost.
When it comes to good SEO practices, knowing your target market is paramount. Knowledge about your market will inform you about what your clients are looking for and what keywords you’re going to use. When you are aware of the search terms that they are using, then you can naturally insert those keywords into your content. Here’s some more information about researching the right keywords and adding keywords into your content.
Google indexes and ranks your web pages according to these target keywords. As a result, your website ranks higher in SERPs, becoming highly visible during searches. Of course, with high visibility, you get higher traffic from viewers who are most likely to buy your product or service.
3. You do the SEO work, not search engines
Search engines DO NOT do SEO for you. A search engine searches your web page, indexes it, and calculates your ranking through a set of algorithms. Setting up a strategy that improves your chances for search engines to search, index, and rank your web page is YOUR responsibility.
Great SEO techniques such as publishing top-quality content, inserting keywords, using meta descriptions, etc. are all about increasing your value to your potential clients. In turn, this makes your content more attractive to the search engine’s algorithm, which will help propel your website up and up in search results.
4. SEO gives great value to your website
SEO attaches a higher value to your website than social media actions; Pinterest pins, Twitter retweets, or Facebook likes. Yes, the number of likes, reactions, etc. may look good, but really, how many of those interactions are driving people to your website to buy your product or service? Likes from friends and family are great and your uncle Seth is going to like everything you post, but are they really your target market?
Instead, spend more time focusing on creating website content that provides real value for your potential customers. No, you may not get the same instant gratification that comes with a like or retweet, but you’ll hard work will be worth it when the next person that buys your product says they chose you because of your website.
5. You don’t have to overly rely on social media
Many business owners feel that they only need social media channels to market their business online. After all, social media is an extremely popular and effective marketing channel. However, an over-reliance on social media can actually be risky for your business. That’s because social media tends to wax and wane. Do you remember what happened to Friendster, Multiply, Vine, and Google Plus? Sure, they had their heydays; but changes in technology, user preference, and even events in the real world rendered them obsolete. So you can imagine how terrible it must be for businesses who relied fully on them?
And here’s the thing: to be successful with social media marketing, you need to pay and continue paying. That’s because in social media, paid advertising is quickly becoming the only way to get noticed by new users. Using hashtags still work, but this strategy offers limited returns.
Building a website, publishing valuable content, and applying the best SEO strategies will give you long-term benefits. Think of the content on your website as fine wine; it continues to get better and more valuable with age.
While social media gives you a chance to be “the next best thing” or even gives you the opportunity to go viral, it is always fleeting. One day, that virality will be gone. On the other hand, optimized, interesting, relevant, and useful content will be preserved if not increase its value over time.
Definitely, a good SEO strategy gives your website even better leverage.
6. SEO helps increase your global visibility
Unless you’re paying for digital advertising, your social media updates can only be seen by your contacts, followers, and subscribers. But as a business, one of your main goals is to attract new customers. So how do you reach out to those who aren't aware of your business? Or to those who haven’t subscribed to you?
A website, on the other hand, can be seen by everyone! And of course, you can increase your visibility by applying proper SEO techniques.
7. SEO tools let you analyze your website’s performance
A key ingredient of an effective SEO strategy is to know who your target audience is and what their browsing activity looks like. The best thing about this is that you can track SEO stats by using tools like Google Analytics.
Google Analytics shows you vital information, including:
- how many website visitors you have
- how many views you are getting for a web page in a certain period
- what keywords your viewers are using, and other important information
The tool even shows you demographics such as the average age and gender of your viewers, or where most of your viewers are from.
The best part? IT’S FREE!
8. Technical SEO can add even more benefits
SEO is not just about adding keywords to content. It also has a technical aspect to it. With the help of an SEO expert (or if you have the know-how yourself), you can add meta descriptions, instruct robots which links to scan, redirect pages, and more. That means you can customize your web page and make it even more search engine friendly.
Indexed pages have this cool tendency to stay in a SERP for quite some time. Their rankings may fluctuate, but they remain visible as long as they’re regularly updated. In fact, we have a number of blog posts published several years ago that are still being visited today!
9. Your competitors are doing SEO. You should too!
Last but not least, it is likely that your competitors are also aware of the value of SEO. In fact, they are probably implementing SEO strategies right now! It could be basic stuff, or they may have hired SEO experts to help them. Whatever the case, if you don’t do SEO yourself, you will get left behind and you can’t afford that. That’s why, you need to come up with your own SEO strategies as well to retain or even improve your competitive edge.
Yes, SEO really matters as it is a vital strategy to the success of your business. If you do everything correctly, you will rank high and stand tall in the face of fierce competition. Take the time to visit Folio Websites and find out how our SEO techniques are built into the platform, making it easy for you to implement your SEO strategy.