Key Benefits of SEO for your Business
Recognising the Key Benefits of SEO for your Business
In the past, operating a traditional brick-and-mortar store was a fine way to do business. But nowadays, if you want any chance of establishing yourself as a small business, or a serious competitor in your field of specialism, you’re probably going to have to turn to the world of E-Commerce. Why? Well, more and more consumers are deciding to carry out their shopping online.
There are countless benefits to doing this.
By shopping online, they’re not confined to opening and closing times that may clash with their personal pursuits. They can shop during their commute, on their lunch break, early in the morning, late at night, or any other time that is convenient for them.
They can also shop locally, wherever they are, rather than having to drive or take public transport to a tangible store. On top of this, many retailers have found that operating online comes hand in hand with lower operational costs, which can then translate to lower costs for the consumer, placing them ahead of the competition thanks to more competitive pricing.
Alongside general convenience, E-Commerce proves particularly useful in the times we’re living in right now. The coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic have seen many physical stores have to close to slow the spread of the virus. Consumers feel much more comfortable shopping online and having items delivered to the safety and comfort of their own homes.
Now, if you’re going to be an online hit, you’re going to have to focus largely on one area in particular – SEO. This is a term that is thrown around a lot, but that many people don’t actually understand. But not to worry.
Here’s all of the introductory information you need on the topic, including a few key benefits of SEO and how it can help your company to experience increased sales and success!
What Actually Is SEO?
Let’s start out with the basics – what actually is SEO? Well, put simply, “SEO” stands for “search engine optimization”. It is a common and popular business practice that entails the specialist optimisation of your website in order to draw as many search engine users as possible onto your website.
Anyone who has a website will be well aware that you need as much traffic as possible to pass through your site in order to expose your products to potential buyers and to secure sales, generating an impressive profit. Of course, there are likely endless other brands competing to get these consumers onto their websites instead of yours and this is where SEO comes into play.
The aim of SEO is to get your website to rank as highly on search engine results pages as possible. You want your website to rank on the first page – preferably as high up the first page as possible. When customers use search engines to search for something, they’re interested in buying, they very rarely go beyond a search engine’s first or second page. By ranking highly, you’re much more likely to generate clicks and page hits, which can convert into sales.
Key Benefits of SEO for your Business
As we can see, the main benefit of SEO is drawing high-quality traffic to your website. This, of course, can maximise sales and consequently maximise profits. But what are some of the other benefits of SEO and what places it above other marketing strategies? Here are just a few perks that you should know about!
1. SEO is relatively low cost
When you pay for SEO services, you get a lot of value for money. Alternative means of advertising and drawing people to your sites, such as PPC advertising and other forms of digital advertising, can prove to be a pretty high cost. With SEO, Google’s organic rankings are based entirely on what the search engine’s algorithms deem to be most appropriate for the search engine users.
Once you’ve taken the initial steps to rank highly for certain keywords, you can draw organic traffic to your site for months on end without incurring any extra cost. You don’t pay for each individual who makes their way to your page. It’s only the initial investment that you make that you’ll find yourself charged for.
2. SEO gets more clicks than PPC
You may have noticed that we briefly mentioned PPC advertising above. PPC stands for pay per click and is a form of advertising that can place your website at the very top of search engine results and drive clicks and visitors to your site. However, studies have found that SEO generally gets more clicks than PPC – even though PPC ranks higher and is paid for. In fact, 71.3% of search engine clicks land on organic search results placed below paid ads.
Of course, it’s difficult to give an exact reason why this happens. However, it is assumed that search engine users trust Google’s genuine recommendations over paid ads. Regardless of whether this reasoning is true or not, the stats speak volumes and SEO seems to be a much better area to invest in than PPC in particular.
3. SEO can boost your reputation
When you engage with SEO, you will see reputable third-party sites in your field or industry backlinking to your website. This doesn’t just boost your SEO rankings. It can boost your business’ reputation too. If consumers interested in the products, you’re selling see your company or products recommended on third-party sites that they trust, they’re more likely to have confidence in your brand and to entrust you with their custom. Getting prominent sites and other influencers to talk about your brand builds awareness and demand in its own right!
Of course, there are plenty more Key Benefits of SEO for your Business that come hand in hand with focusing on your website’s SEO. However, those listed above are some of the most important and beneficial. So, start focusing on your business’s SEO and do all you can to optimise your site in order to rank as highly as possible. Given a little time, you’ll definitely see an increase in brand exposure, page views, and ultimately, sales.