In this article, I have discussed the various aspects of Search Engine Optimization and explained why SEO is important for any business. For anyone looking to invest in SEO to grow their website or business, this guide can help them make the right decision.
What is SEO? – (Explained in Simple Words)
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. As the words say it is the optimization for search engines.
What are Search Engines?
Any web platform that enables users to search for information by using keywords or characters is a Search Engine.
Google is the biggest search engine, and most SEO is done around it, as it holds up to 90% of the market share. Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, Baidu, and DuckDuckGo are other search engines in the market.
Moreover, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms also have in-built search engines to find relevant information easily. So, simply Search Engines are where people write a word or characters to find the best available information.
How is the best Information Shown?
To show the best information to the users, Google has a complex algorithm system that analyzes the webpages and shows the most useful & relevant result within one second. (See more: https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/how-search-works/ranking-results/).
Therefore, best SEO practices are applied to these web pages, home pages, landing pages, product pages, category pages, articles, posts, etc to align with Google’s ranking system.
This will help your business or website to get free traffic from Google by ranking high on page 1.
Key Elements in SEO
Understand the Impact of SEO on a Business with an “Example”
For example, someone searches for: “Best Dog Food for German Shepherd” on Google. The user’s intent here is to find the best dog food for his/her German Shepherd. The result will show:
As you can see there are the top 3 websites displayed for this search query.
The top 3 websites on page 1 of Google usually receive 57% of the clicks. Google displays 10 websites on the first page, but being on the second page results in only 0.63% of the second page.
So, the main goal of SEO is to rank websites, businesses, and pages as close to the number 1 position as possible to get more clicks and leads.
According to Ahrefs Traffic Checker, the first website for the keyword “Best Dog Food for German Shepherds” is getting around 4,000+ monthly traffic on this single article. These are 4000 users who come to that website via Google to get info on the best dog food.
Now, if someone is involved in Dog Food Business manufacturing or distribution and has an e-commerce website where people buy dog food. If 4000 come to the website from a single article and there is only a 2% conversion rate, this would result in 80 customers converting from the SEO optimization of that single post.
Also, there is search intent that plays its part in conversion rate.
For example:
The “Best Dog Food for German Shepherds” has an informative search intent. This means the searcher aims to gain knowledge about the dog food rather than to make a purchase.
In contrast, if someone simply writes “Buy Dog food in North Carolina,” that indicates transactional intent. In this case, the conversion rate will be very high because the user has a strong intent to purchase the product.
SEO agencies that work with businesses understand the sales funnel and balance the strategy to create brand awareness with informative keywords and drive conversions with transactional keywords.
Now, we hope you understand the concept. Let’s now discuss all the seven reasons why SEO is so important for a business.
7 Reasons Why SEO is Important for a Business
1. Increase Trust & Credibility
When your business is on Google and People search via your brand name. There is a sense of credibility and trust that is generated. It’s the top layer in SEO strategy to create a brand that reflects quality.
The whole plan is to build trust and credibility. For that purpose, the first main thing an SEO professional does is to make sure the website is visually appealing, user-friendly, and reflects a true high-quality brand.
Next is to create content that gives users what they’re looking for, whether it’s information, answers, products, or services.
When a business appears high in search results, particularly on the first page, it indicates that search engines consider it a reliable source of information.
This increases people’s faith in the brand and encourages them to visit the website.
People tend to trust organic search results more than paid ads, thus SEO helps firms build trust and attract more people to their websites.
2. Better User Experience
Good SEO practices promise the best user experience which results in satisfied users, more traffic, and more conversions.
It should be easy for a user to find whatever information or product he is looking for.
With its algorithm updates and customer satisfaction metrics such as bounce rate, Google can now determine if a website is user-friendly.
If visitors cannot find what they need on a website, they are likely to switch to some other website. Therefore, business needs to implement SEO techniques, that focus on creating fast, easy-to-navigate, mobile-optimized, and efficient websites.
Even the choice of text sizes and colors affects the user experience, so the contrast level should be kept in mind.
So, in short, an effective SEO strategy promises a better user experience, which makes sure people have a good time on your website. That ultimately results, in more people visiting your site, staying longer, and and higher chances of conversion and customer retention.
3. Increased Conversions, Traffic & Growth
When people search online, they often use Google. It’s the biggest search engine, much bigger than others like Yahoo or Bing.
Google is so popular that most people with the internet visit it at least once a day to find information. Because Google is so important, businesses need to follow its algorithm rules to be seen online and visible to customers.
So, by doing SEO you are in the good books of Google, which promote you on the premium top positions of page 1. This can increase traffic and attract high-quality leads who are more likely to become customers.
For instance, if you operate an online coffee e-commerce store on WordPress or Shopify, ranking at the top for high-converting transactional keywords such as “buy organic coffee online” can attract a significantly larger number of purchasing customers compared to spending a large amount of money on ads to drive traffic to your website.
When people search for products or services online with keywords like “buy organic coffee online”, they’re often ready to buy.
That’s search intent for you. SEO works wonders when your strategy involves optimizing your entire business around the search intent of highly profitable keywords within your niche.
4. More Targeted Local Customers
Get more targeted local customers for specific cities, and neighborhoods with the help of local SEO strategies.
Like “Wedding Photographer in New York” or ” Dentist near me” for local audiences. For these keywords, Google uses the person’s location to show local results on the page.
To attain high rankings for location-specific searches, local SEO techniques are implemented.
This includes getting links from local sources, creating a Google Business Profile, mentioning local business addresses on the website, including business in local citations, targeting local keywords, etc.
5. SEO is Cheaper & Effective than Other Digital Marketing Methods
SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy compared to paid advertising, such as PPC (Pay Per Click). With PPC, there is a high upfront cost as you are charged every time someone clicks on your sponsored links. While you may receive traffic immediately, you have to keep paying to maintain visibility for your business.
SEO continues to drive traffic even after you stop investing, making it a smart investment for businesses.
It involves project-based expenses, which vary according to the website size, current ranking, and other factors.
If done right, SEO can continue to deliver results for years. It is easy to measure, and grow with your business, and keeps its value over time.
6. SEO Results Are Mesurable
SEO is also measurable as results can be tracked and improved over time.
There are tracking and analytics tools that provide all the necessary data to evaluate the performance of an SEO strategy.
Using this data, one can analyze which pages are performing well and which ones need more work to be done.
Furthermore, It helps to identify the keywords the pages are ranking for, and which keywords are generating the most revenue for the business.
There’s a lot for an SEO expert to review and connect the dots.
Most SEO agencies and professionals send monthly performance reports to their clients to show the progress using data.
7. SEO is here to Stay
Every year, Google is aggressively coming up with algorithm updates that are changing the SEO game.
With new search engines entering the market, like SearchGPT by Open AI, there may be some changes in how SEO is done.
However, none of this will deter people from seeking information or purchasing products and services online. They will continue to use search engines to find what they need. On the other hand, companies will always seek the most cost-effective way to reach them.
So, SEO will be here and is going nowhere shortly.
Although SEO’s role might change and strategies evolve, ultimately, SEO will continue to help businesses find and take advantage of new opportunities in organic search.
This problem is only for those people who are stuck with old ways of doing SEO.
I’m already using new techniques and approaches to rank high. For instance, I created a new content creation protocol from scratch just to be on par with every change in the SEO industry in 2024.
What type of Business Can Use SEO?
Any type of business that wants an online presence and whose customers use the internet can benefit immensely from SEO.
There are more than 3.1 trillion searches conducted on Google each year. How can any business afford to miss out on such a huge customer base?
Every business has customers searching for them or their products and services on Google. SEO connects those customers with the best businesses. This creates a win-win situation.
Here are a few businesses that are using SEO the most:
- Home & Repair Services: Plumbers, Electricians, Contractors, etc
- Medical Services: Dentists, local clinics, etc
- Legal Services: lawyers, legal consultants, etc
- Food & Drink: Restaurants, bakeries, cafes, etc
- Professional Services: Movers, Photographers, Financial advisors, etc
- Real Estate: Agents, Dealers, etc
- Cosmetic and Beauty Services: Spa, Hair Salons, etc
- E-Commerce (Any type of online store)
SEO for E-Commerce Store
Although, many e-commerce initially focus on going towards social media advertisement during the first state. But, the Return on Investment(ROI), which SEO provides is much higher than any other marketing campaign.
It’s just like most of them don’t realize the impact of SEO.
Many successful e-commerce stores are using SEO to get free organic traffic from Google, immensely increasing their sales and cutting their ad expenses.
Here is the example of lunasandals.com, an e-commerce shoe business, which is getting almost 42% organic traffic from Search. If this much traffic was acquired from social media ads, then that would have cost them a hell lot of money.
But fortunately, they made the right decision. Their traffic will now be long-lasting and will grow with the right SEO strategies.
Can You Do SEO Without Hiring an Expert or Agency?
The very basics of SEO are not rocket science. They are easy to understand. For example: Using primary keywords in the H1 heading, introduction and naturally in the body can be executed.
But what about LSI words and users’ search intent? or knowledge about crawling, indexing, structured markup, etc. These are just a few parts of an effective SEO program.
So, the basics are not enough. That will not provide you with the desired result.
The changing nature of SEO requires a dedicated team or an SEO expert to implement an effective strategy that encompasses all fundamental and advanced elements.
Secondly, the process is time-consuming. You can’t be involved in business operations and management as well as SEO.
You can either invest time and money in taking courses and experimenting with your website or opt for a reputable SEO agency.