10 Reasons Why Your Website Absolutely Needs SEO

What is SEO? All major search engines such as Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo have primary search results, where web pages and other content are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. To appear on the top of the list, people pay for Google advertisements. To get there organically, you have to optimize your site in various ways that lets the search engine know that when a user types in something like “Affordable cars for sale” on Google, that your website is about “Affordable cars for sale” and should be displayed on the listing.

Many businesses and website owners know (or think they know) that they need SEO work done for their website but never really get around to it. This may be for several reasons. An SEO audit sounds expensive, there may be perceptions that it might not work, and the website owner might not even be sure or knowledgable about the actual work that goes into getting a website to be search engine friendly. Thats okay. Business owners are some of the busiest people around, and one cant expect them to be completely, 100% knowledgable in all aspects of running and operating a business.

SEO will certainly improve a website’s overall searchability and visibility, but what other real value does it offer? Why is SEO so important? Why should you bother? After all, you have a website already. You’ve got a few posts going out across social media and have enough sales to keep you going steady. Why invest in SEO in the first place?

These 10 reasons should offer some clarity, regardless of the industry or business size, as to why businesses need SEO to take their game to the next level.

 

1. Organic Search Traffic Is Very Often the Primary and Biggest Potential Source of Website Traffic:

Organic search traffic is a huge part of most business’s website performance, as well as a critical component of the buyer funnel and ultimately getting users to complete a conversion or engagement.

As many web and marketing experts know, Google owns a significantly large portion of the search market than competitors like Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and others.

That’s not to say that all search engines don’t contribute to a brand’s visibility, they do, it’s just that Google owns about 75% of the overall search market. It’s the clear leader and thus its guidelines are important to follow.

But the remaining 25% of the market owned by other engines is obviously valuable to brands, too.

Google, being the most visited website in the world (as well as specifically in the United States), also happens to be the most popular email provider in the world (with more than 1 billion users). Not to mention YouTube is also the second biggest search engine and also owned by Google.

We know that a clear majority of the world that has access to the internet is visiting Google at least once a day to get information.

Being highly visible as a trusted resource by Google and other search engines is always going to work in a company’s favor.

 

2. SEO = Trust & Credibility

The goal of any experienced SEO expert is to establish a strong foundation and authority for a beautiful website with a clean, effective user experience that is easily discoverable in search engines.

Many elements go into establishing authority. In addition to the factors mentioned above, authority is accrued over time as a result of factors like:

• Quality backlink profiles (other websites that mention and link to yours)
• Positive user behavior (low bounce rate and high times spent on page)
• Optimized on-page elements and content.

But establishing that authority will do more for a brand than most, if not all, other digital optimizations. Problem is, it’s impossible to build trust and credibility overnight — just like real life. Authority is earned and built over time.

 

3. SEO = Great User Experiences

Many website owners want better organic rankings and maximum visibility, but few realize that optimal user experience is a big part of getting there.

Google has algorithms that determine if a site has a good user experience, or UX. Is your website mobile responsive? Does it take more than 3 seconds to load?

Is your internal navigation and link structure clear? Customers know what they want. If they can’t find it, they’re going to leave your website and go somewhere else.

It’s a very common mistake for the website owner to look at his or her website and think “I like it and it makes sense to me”. That’s great and all, but you are not your buyer.

You are not your target demographic. Get an outside perspective to critique and gauge how your website really looks and feels to an outsider. It may uncover more work that needs to get done and uncomfortable truths, but it’s the only way to truly make your website better.

 

4. Local SEO Increases Engagement

With the rise and domination of mobile traffic, local search has become a fundamental part businesses’ success.

Local SEO aims at optimizing your website for a specific vicinity, so people can find you quickly and easily, putting them one step closer to a transaction.

Local optimizations focus on specific towns, cities, regions, and even states, to establish a viable medium for a brand’s messaging on a local level.

 

5. SEO Impacts A Buyers Intention

Customers most often do their research and compare different services and options before committing. Being on top of a search engine result listing tells a potential customer that you are well established in this space and that will undoubtedly impact the potential buyers decision in a positive way. A website must be visible in the places people need them for a worthy connection to be made. Local SEO enhances that visibility and lets potential customers find the answers, and the businesses providing those answer.

6. SEO Is Always Evolving

Having a one time, SEO fix is better than nothing, but if your site isn’t consistently re-evaluated, it will fall behind. Google makes improvements to its search algorithms all the time that impact your website’s visibility. It’s great to have SEO implemented on a website, but if it’s a short-term engagement because of budget constraints, etc. and the site isn’t re-evaluated consistently over time, it will reach a point where it will fall way behind. The way the SEO world evolves, basically at the whim of Google, requires constant monitoring for changes to stay ahead of the competition.

7. SEO Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

Sure, an SEO expert coming in and doing some magic costs money, but so does paying for hosting and a domain name for a website that is barely getting any traffic. SEO is relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things, and the payoff will most likely be huge in terms of a website’s and business benefit and bottom line. This isn’t a marketing cost; this is a true business investment. Good SEO implementation will hold value for years to come and like most things in life, will only be better with the more attention and investment it gets.

 

8. SEO Is A Longterm Investment

SEO does have a noticeable impact within the 6 months – 2 years of action being taken and many of those actions will have an impact that lasts more than several years. A great thing about SEO is that it yields quantifiable ROI’s. With proper web tracking and analytics tools, you can see with your own eyes if you’re getting good results.

9. SEO Brings New Opportunities To Light

High-quality SEO will always find a means of discovering and leveraging new opportunities for websites to, not just be discovered, but to prosper. For example with keyword research, a vital part of SEO, you will identify new areas of business to expand to that can satisfy a new, still not fully supplied, need in the market.

10. If You’re Not On Page 1, You’re Most Likely Not Winning The Click

Studies shows that the first three organic search ranking positions result in nearly 40 percent of all clicks, while up to 30 percent of all results on Page 1 and 2 don’t get clicked at all. Most people don’t click past the first page of the Google search result page unfortunately.