Let’s start this discussion by remembering a few keywords as to why SEO is important: marketing, ranking, and profit. See what we did there? Keywords, SEO, you get the point.
SEO has long been utilized by businesses, brands, and companies to ensure that they stay relevant or searchable in the digital landscape. Today, it’s almost as if you don’t exist on the internet you pretty much won’t be successful in your endeavor.
SEO is especially important in businesses, like we mentioned above, it’s a means to market your brand, it’s a means to rank in Google arguably the largest search engine today, and lastly, it’s a means to ensure to profit for a successful venture.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why SEO is important for business.
…a quick review
What is SEO? SEO is pretty much a collection of strategies, best practices, and techniques to help your website rank higher in Google as in Page 1 higher. You may already know that getting to page one much more ranking number 1 on searches is a daunting task and if ever you get there, it’s all going to be because of SEO or search engine optimization.
In essence, there are two kinds of SEO, here is what we call on-page and then off-page SEO. On-page SEO is pretty much the things you do within your website to rank it and off-page SEO refers to the factors that affect your ranking from other websites.
There are so many factors to consider and to work on for your website to rank but don’t despair, there are experts that can help you and some other white hat techniques that will definitely get you more organic traffic and get your website (and business) off the ground.
Why is SEO important for businesses?
SEO helps businesses build better websites
If you follow all the best practices when it comes to on-page SEO and apply it in terms of building your website, no matter how small or large your brand currently is, you’ll definitely get a lot of organic traffic because of it.
Your website will be uncluttered, faster, and more user-friendly making a visitor’s experience even better. A clean website because of SEO tends to stay longer and so you more opportunities for business. This helps them find what they are exactly looking for and if they can do it easily that’s going to be profitable for you.
SEO makes your target market or audience happy and the happier they are the more likely they will convert.
Get the ball rolling for small businesses
For small businesses, the digital space can be really tough and we’re not even talking about the general competition when it comes to startups. But SEO gives everybody somewhat of a level playing field.
If it is implemented properly, small businesses can get their brand off the ground faster and gain more customers in the process. All you need to do is know the right techniques, work with the right people, and be patient enough until you get great results.
It’s an affordable marketing strategy
As mentioned, SEO is one way to level the playing field. Small and large brands alike need to abide by the rules so they can rank higher and SEO is somewhat cheap considering the benefits that it can yield for your endeavor.
There’s just one important thing to consider here, as a brand, you can’t think of SEO as a marketing cost solely, instead, think of it as an actual investment that you’re going to have to make so you’ll stand out. Most often than none, investing in SEO strategies will prove to be fruitful.
SEO builds relationships with your target market
Given that SEO helps in building a user-friendly website, you are already working your way into earning the trust of your target market. If you rank higher, then most of the time that will reflect on the credibility of your website thus giving your brand a chance.
You then become the authority on your niche or field. Don’t get us wrong, this process takes time and it can be really challenging but nothing is impossible here. It can be attained with patience, perseverance, and wit when it comes to taking advantage of the rules of SEO.
It’s standardized
There are a lot of reasons why black hat SEO should not be an option for anyone building a brand or business out there – it does not work! You are only wasting your time, money, and energy on these black hat techniques as Google standardizes and makes changes to the algorithm yearly.
That means that any loophole will be fixed so no one can hack their way into the rankings. It’s all fair game and that’s how it should be to maintain the credibility of the searchers. This makes sure that everyone finds exactly what they are looking for as much as possible yielding a positive experience online.
It’s for the long-term
Your efforts in trying to rank the right way won’t go to waste as long as SEO is around. The market evolves and as mentioned, Google updates the algorithm yes but the best practices and the already implemented ones on your website should hold their ground.
And yes, you still need to update yours regularly and it’s still highly recommended to adapt but as long as you are on the right track, to begin with then you should not have any major issues.
Ultimately SEO is a fair and valid way that you can hack yourself into relevancy in the digital space. If you want to gain traction, expand, or hold your ground then you’re going to have to play by its rules.
Once again, remember our keywords above and the bottom line that SEO will gain you traffic, business opportunities, ROI, and help your brand stand out, gain credibility, and make a mark.
Learn SEO yourself or partner up with experts. Invest in SEO if you want to have a fighting chance. It’s important for ALL businesses.