How Can SEO Help Your Business Grow?
Every business, big or small, needs some kind of Internet exposure today. Because that’s where the world is headed. And if your business doesn’t catch up, it is bound to stay behind.
However, there are many moving parts to a business that one needs to manage, even if it’s small. Right from taking customers’ calls to fulfilling orders to dealing with other business related activities. In between all of this, focusing on digital marketing or even taking a start on promoting your business online can take a backseat.
Besides that, as you move forward, you face a ton of options when it comes to marketing. And things get confusing as to what you can or should do to tap into the vast power of digital marketing.
One simple way to start or enhance your digital marketing journey is with the help of search engine optimization or SEO. Even though there are multiple ways to promote your business on the web, nothing comes close to the power of SEO, as it is known to fetch you a high ROI when applied effectively.
Here’s how SEO can help you in the long run…
- It lets you drive targeted, organic search traffic that is relevant to your industry.
- It helps your brand gain higher visibility and more exposure.
- It makes it easy to attract people that will convert into customers/clients.
Now, a lot of businesses still have a misconception about SEO: that it doesn’t compare well with the popular form of marketing: word of mouth.
What they fail to realize is SEO is the word of mouth of the Internet era. It’s a whole new way to gain more referrals for your business at a lesser cost. When you look at traditional word of mouth marketing, you find that it is not as scalable as search engine optimization, which makes SEO much more powerful.
If you look around, you’ll find that every business that’s determined to grow is taking SEO seriously. Gone are the days when SEO was only an option. Today, it has become an integral part of an effective digital marketing strategy. The kind of potential it can create for a business is nothing to ignore.
Here are a few stats:
- 90% of overall traffic on the web is generated by search engines.
- 57% of B2B marketers believe SEO is the top leads generator when compared to other marketing methods.
- 81% of people use search engines to do do their homework before committing to a big purchase.
- 64% of Internet users depend on the search engines to decide whether to buy something or not.
Having a well designed website is only one part of the equation. The other part is to make sure it is structured the right way with high quality content. Content that not only appeals to the visitors but also the search engine spiders. When you work on improving your site’s structure and content, you’ll see the impact on your business growth in terms of leads and sales.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization consists of a set of practices that help your website gain more visibility on the search engine results pages. On the surface, SEO may seem simple. But it’s much more than what meets the eye. It requires you to focus working on multiple factors so that you can have a real SEO strategy, that goes beyond optimizing for search keyword phrases that people use.
In order to make the most of SEO, you need to know how search engines operate and what they want from you. You need to be aware of how your target audience uses search engines like Google and the common things they regularly search for.
The idea is to not only make your website relevant to the interests of the search engines, but also your target audience using them. Once your website is indexed and is ranking on the first page for your target keywords, you’ll see for yourself that getting real SEO help to grow your business is worth it.
While having a considerable amount of content on your website is good for SEO, it’s simply not enough. You also need to ensure your site’s well-structured from the design/development point of view. And has content that is targeted and relevant in every way.
When it comes to ranking one website above another, search engines like Google like to focus on the quality of the content along with the overall structure of a site.
Also, do keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process, not a one time thing. All the major search engines are constantly refining and upgrading the way they rank websites, which means you need to keep up with the regular updates. Only then can SEO help you generate more business in the long run.
The ultimate objective of any search engine is to give its users the most relevant results. And as a business, you cannot ignore that.
How Exactly Can SEO Help You Grow Your Business?
Your business obviously has a target market it is catering to. By creating and publishing relevant content (on a regular basis) that focuses on topics related to your business, you have a chance to reach out to your target audience via the search engines. And if your content is worth it, then search engines like Google will not hesitate to rank you higher. Which helps you generate targeted traffic to your site at no extra cost.
Now, once people visit your website via Google, you also need to know how to engage with them by giving them what they are looking for. Your content needs to work in conjunction with your business goals so that you can build real trust with your visitors. Successful SEO is not just about getting people to your site. It’s also about getting them to take the right actions once they are there.
When you seek real SEO help to generate targeted traffic, you also need to know why you want people to come to your site. What kind of action to you want your visitors to take once they hit your website?
- Do you want them to fill out a quote or your contact form?
- Or you want them to opt-in to your email list?
- Or simply hit the buy button to buy your product or service?
The only reason you are looking for SEO help is because you want to get more business from your website, right? But that’s only going to happen when you have utmost clarity on how you will convert the SEO traffic you generate. If not, what’s the use of investing your precious time and money into SEO?
Remember, visitors to your business website are only valuable when they interact with your content in a way you want. If not a direct sale, you at least want them to give you their contact information so that you can follow-up later. The last thing you want is people visiting your website via search engines and leaving, never to come back again. That’s only going to give a you a negative ROI.
Growing your business with proper SEO help is not rocket science. As long as you know what a customer means to you and how you will be converting your visitors into sales, every single visitor you get from Google will be worth it.
Let’s now look into a few ways SEO can help your business go to the next level in terms of both, traffic and revenue.
9 Ways on How SEO Can Help Your Business
#1: SEO Boosts Inbound Traffic
When it comes to generating more business, there are is no doubt that you need to generate more exposure to your offer. Which means you’ll have to focus on various marketing methods to get more website traffic that can be converted into sales.
However, running ads or indulging in old-school, outbound marketing practices such as cold-calling can prove to be expensive, especially if and when you are starting out.
Your aim should not only be to reach out to your target audience, but also do it in a cost-effective manner. You’ll see that many businesses today rely on SEO to market their business. Mainly because it helps you attract quality inbound traffic.
The best part about this inbound traffic is that it’s targeted and grows with time, given that you are putting in regular effort or are getting ongoing SEO help from a reputed agency like 1stpage.ca
The bottom line is, search engine optimization can help you gather qualified leads without being too heavy on your wallet. Which can make it easy for you to save money on any outbound marketing activities, and focus more on what works.
#2: SEO Leads to More Customers
Let’s face it, having a business website that is well-structured and informative is a great way to differentiate yourself from the competition and at the same time get more customers. However, if nobody relevant finds your site, it’s not going to do its job, no matter how professional it looks.
Regardless of the stage your business is at, you need to have a consistent flow of potential customers so that you can get more sales or win more clients. And your website happens to be an important tool in doing so.
Can SEO help you get more customers from your website? Of course, it can! Because people that are potentially interested in your products/services are right now searching for them on Google and other search engines. With the growth of smartphone usage, this probability is even higher.
When people are in two minds about buying a product or service, they typically do their research online. When your website is optimized for the right keywords, you can be at the right place at the right time.
In a way, SEO makes it simpler for people to make a buying decision, and when done right, can bring your prospects closer to buying your product/service over your competition. When you get proper SEO help, you’ll be able to increase the chances of more people going through your buying cycle.
Every business needs customers, and yours is no different. By focusing on getting SEO help, you’ll double your chances of finding the right customers when compared to businesses that don’t use it.
Increasing your customer base goes beyond just getting more exposure. You need targeted exposure so that the customers you find are qualified enough. And SEO helps you with that as it not only lets you attract the right kind of traffic but also lets you identify/focus on those channels that are not “time wasters”.
Agreed that SEO doesn’t give you overnight results, but the results you get by applying it consistently will speak for themselves.
#3: SEO Helps Build Trust + Credibility
Establishing real authority can and will positively affect your business, but it will not happen fast. Your brand will have to work on earning authority over a period of time.
Fortunately, effective search engine optimization can help your brand build trust and credibility in the eyes of Google, which can lead to more traffic.
Also, there’s a strong belief amongst search users that a credible business can always be found on the first page of Google. Your prospects will see your business site having higher authority when they see you ranking high for the right keywords. Which will obviously lead to more targeted visitors that convert into sales.
#4: Local SEO Equals More High Converting Traffic
It doesn’t matter what niche you are operating in, local SEO can and will help your business grow when done right. Why? Because more and more people are using their mobile devices to search for businesses like yours on a local level. Which makes local search an integral part of your business’s online marketing strategy.
When you focus on local SEO, you’re able to optimize your business site for a specific geographic cation, making it easy for people nearby to find your business and ultimately increase the chances of making a sale.
Also in local SEO, you’ll be able to build citations. Building citations on review and online directory websites will boost your online visibility. You see, most local searches are done when users are actively searching for a business or a certain product. So if they will be able to find your business at the right time, it will surely increase your conversions.
Here are a few tips to apply to get the most out of local SEO:
- Get your business listed on Google My Business, which is a free tool that helps businesses manage their digital presence across the Google ecosystem.
- Keep your contact information updated and in sync across your site and other places such as your social media pages, directory listings, etc.
- Seek more reviews because they happen to be a local ranking factor and help your listing positively differentiate from others.
- Create high quality, local content related to your niche market as it can help you improve your local search rankings.
- Acquire targeted local links by building relationships with (high domain authority) local sites operating in your industry.
#5: SEO Fetches You More Business Referrals
It’s an established fact that ranking on the first page of Google for targeted keywords lets you attract potential customers. The higher you rank, the more attention you get.
But another hidden benefit of SEO is that it helps you get on the radar of complementary businesses. These are businesses that aren’t directly competing with you, and may have an audience or customer base that complements yours.
This means you can have more relevant businesses get in touch with you and actually give you referrals. And since an average business is bigger than a regular customer, their referrals are bound to be bigger and more consistent.
For example, let’s say you run a web design business. You can have a content creation agency pass you referrals or even white label your services to package and sell with their own. The possibilities are endless when it comes to partnering with other businesses, and with effective SEO help, the chances of such businesses finding you grow manifold.
#6: SEO Gives Your Business Long-Lasting Results
One of the biggest challenges with traditional marketing methods such as running print ads, outdoor ads or getting a half a minute ad spot on a popular radio channel is that they are time bound. In other words, if you do not generate results in a certain time frame, you lose your precious advertising dollars.
SEO, on the other hand, lets you take advantage of the evergreen nature of the Internet and helps you stay in the forefront. It gets you long-lasting results, given that you are putting in ongoing efforts to stand out from the competition. Because interest in your business related topics may grow over-time, and with that more and more people will find your business via search.
A lot of businesses looking for SEO help see it as a slow process and one that doesn’t give instant results as offline ads. However, since SEO helps you gain edge over the competition over a long period of time, the delay in getting ranked should not matter. Once you invest in SEO, you will be able to gain real visibility for months or years to come. This not only gives you a better return on investment but also allows you to prepare your business for other digital marketing activities.
Although SEO is evolving over time and there are many chances that keep happening, it gives you ample amount of time to adjust to these changes. So even if your business doesn’t implement every single SEO technique out there, it can still rank well given that your website lives up to the expectations of users and search engines, both.
If you want your website to actually benefit from SEO and outrank your competitors, you’ll have to put in serious effort and time into into. Because that’s the only way you’ll be able to maintain your rank in the long run. If not, you can always work with our SEO professionals at 1stpage.ca to help you take care of it.
#7: SEO Has the One of the Best ROI’s
Whether you compare SEO with offline advertising or other digital marketing methods, you’ll see that it can help you achieve a high ROI at a lower cost. While there are many reasons as to why SEO has one of the highest ROI’s, the main reason is that it lets you connect to the right people at the right time. It’s an inbound marketing strategy that is proven to work in terms of allowing you to market to your target audience.
People don’t mind SEO because they hardly notice it. It’s not an interruptive form of marketing where you are forced to watch or read an advertisement. You don’t show up until and unless they are explicitly searching for a business like yours.
Forget about hard-selling to your prospects when you are doing SEO because the last thing you want to focus on is pushing them to visit your website or try your product. When they see your product pages ranking for the keywords they were searching, they’ll be convinced that you are right business to work with. Doing proper SEO makes your digital marketing journey easier as interested people reach out to you, instead of you searching for them.
#8: SEO Makes Your Site More User-Friendly
Quality SEO is not just about adding the right keywords or building links from relevant sites. Gone are the days when SEO was only about finding websites. Today, it’s about finding the most appropriate websites with the most friendly user experience (UX).
Google doesn’t want to send its users to a poor-looking, slow-loading website with a bad navigation. It wants to give its users a user-friendly experience. When and if you take SEO help from a professional, he/she will work on enhancing the complete user experience of your business website.
Everything from the speed of your website to how mobile-friendly it is can make a difference to your rankings in the search engines. These factors will also impact the conversion rate of your site, so it always makes sense to improve the user-friendliness of your website.
#9: SEO Helps Increase Brand Value
Your potential customers will trust your business more if you have worked on building brand value. Having a strong brand value is integral for any business, especially the one that is starting out.
The good thing about SEO is that it lets you increase brand value without increasing your costs. With a small investment, you could be on your way to build real brand value that ultimately helps you get more customers.
If you look at the print and media advertising space, you’ll find that it is super expensive to boost your brand value using the traditional marketing methods. Using SEO to build primary brand value in your target industry makes sense for any business that wants real-world results without having a huge investment at stake. Which automatically makes SEO one of the most reliable tools to increase visibility in your market and boost your business’s reputation.
Ready to Get SEO Help?
You’ve read this blog post because you want SEO help for your website. We’ve told you what you needed, so now it’s time to implement it. Be confident in your SEO journey when you work with our SEO professionals. Contact one of our representatives to get started. We will audit your site and create a custom SEO strategy for your business.
