The Benefits of SEO

If you run a digital business, it’s essential to know the benefits of SEO. It’s all well and good offering a great product or service, but if you don’t have a strong online presence and rank well for targeted keywords, then you might not get the traffic you need to secure strong profits. And this could result in many professional struggles. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at 20 advantages of SEO.

1.  Organic Search Brings in More Customers

Did you know that 53.3% of all web traffic comes from organic search? Consumers are looking for answers and it’s the job of a search engine like Google to deliver the most relevant content. It’s perhaps no surprise then that the first five organic results account for 67.60% of all the clicks. And that climbing to the top position can almost double your click-through rate over the number two spot. This is why doing all you can to claim those top spots or to appear in Featured Snippets (Position 0) is an absolute must.

2. SEO Creates a Top Users Experience for Consumers

Page experience is now a ranking factor. This means Google will rank pages that meet certain performance metrics higher than those that don’t, unless that page has super amazing content. Google announced in 2021 that Core Web Vitals will be taken into account. These relate to page loading speeds, interactivity and visual stability and essentially force SEOs to care about the usability of their site. This has to be a good thing, right?

3. An SEO Strategy Leads to Much Better Content

Google processes over 6.7 billion searches per day and has algorithms trained to deliver the content that’s both useful and relevant. So, for your content to have SEO value it must include information that matters to the person making a search. This could be anything from location and opening hours to a menu or a blog sharing upcoming events. Your content must also fend off the competition by being unique, specific and of the highest quality.

Google also needs to know that your site is credible, as their reputation as a search engine is at stake as much as yours is as a business. So, show your site’s credibility by using original research, citations, links, reviews and testimonials. An author biography or testimonials from real customers can help boost your site’s trustworthiness and reputation. Images, infographics, graphs and such like can also make your site more engaging so these can also be incorporated into your content strategy. Try to eliminate all grammatical and spelling errors and avoid an excessive number of ads that could compromise the user experience.

4. SEO Improves Brand Awareness

If you manage to appear on the first page for specific searches, consumers will get used to seeing you there, even if they don’t click on your site straight away. This is great for brand awareness and helps to confirm your industry authority.

5. Local SEO Can Be Great for Business

When it comes to brand awareness, it’s also important to gain followers in your local area. This can be achieved through a well-thought-out local SEO strategy that targets location-based keywords and helps you rank for local searches. Things you can do to start dominating the results pages for specific regions include:

1. 1. • Creating a Google My Business Account
      • Optimising your content with local keywords
      • Creating location page content or a location-specific About Us page
      • Create content based on local news stories and events
      • Getting regular reviews from consumers
      • Optimising for voice search

Did you know that local SEO is especially beneficial for small businesses that have an offline presence as well as a digital one? A Google study revealed that 76% of people who perform a ‘near me’ search visit a related store within 24 hours and 28% of them make a purchase.

6. SEO Can be Cost-Effective

If you’re wondering why SEO matters, think about the cost of advertising your business swallows on a regular basis. If your PPC costs are high, a more organic approach might be the way forward. After all, if you manage to rank in the top spot for a specific keyword, there’s no need to continue your PPC campaign as you’ll continue to stay above the other results so long as you continue optimising your content and fending off the competition.

7. SEO Tells us What the Customer Wants and Needs

When it comes to digital marketing, it’s essential to understand what works and what doesn’t so that you can tweak your content strategy where necessary. SEO leads us in the right direction as ranking well relies on keeping a firm eye on analytics. Are you getting the clicks you expected for a certain campaign? Are particular articles performing better than others? What’s converting on social media? All of these factors can help you adapt to the needs of the consumer and will help you keep your eye on the ball.

8. Algorithm Changes Ensure You’re On Top Form

As an SEO, you can’t afford to get lazy. Google’s algorithm changes happen regularly. This can impact rankings, so to be on top form means constantly keeping an eye on the stats and researching best practices. For example, if you didn’t know about the Page Experience Update in June 2021, then you might still be presenting users with slow-loading content. In light of the update, you’re more likely to have fixed bugs and optimised for page speed accordingly.

9. SEO Makes You Aware of Your Competitors

Fighting for those top spots in the search engine results pages is far from easy. But if someone is ranking ahead of you for specific keywords, you need to delve deeper into what your competitors are doing that you’re not. What keywords are they targeting and how have they placed these keywords in the content? Is their internal linking structure on point and could you learn from the images they’ve used on their page. What about the content itself? Is it nicely divided up with keyword-rich headers? Is their content produced by figures of authority in order to meet Google’s Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) ranking factor? These are all questions you need to ask.

10. SEO Allows You To Target Specific Audiences

SEO is great as it allows you to target specific audiences. For example, a pool installation company might want to target homeowners and commercial customers with different content types. This can be done via intent-driven keyword research and by creating separate service pages tailored to the needs of each client. While one service page might target the keyword ‘residential pool installation services’ the other could target ‘commercial pool installation services.’ The same could apply to a language school. They might want to create one batch of SEO optimised content targeting teachers, and another targeting students.

11. SEO Offers 24/7 Promotion

The internet doesn’t sleep. So as long as you’ve an online presence and have worked hard to optimise your pages, consumers will be able to find you whenever they make a relevant search – be it first thing in the morning or while you’re sound asleep at night. SEO content also doesn’t disappear if your budget runs out, such as with paid advertising. That’s why it’s such a popular choice with businesses looking to grow without overspending.

12. SEO Allows for Long-Term Creativity

SEO is not a short-term strategy. It takes a while to see results, so make sure the CEO is aware of this if you’ve been brought in as a resident SEO expert. One thing SEO does allow for, however, is plenty of creativity. Once you know the main keywords to target, you can then create branch-off content ideas that’ll attract your audience. This can be blogs and articles, e-books and whitepapers, video scripts and more. Blogging, social media, email marketing and generally growing the reputation of your brand can all lead to a positive SEO performance.

13. The Right Strategy Can Encourage New Connections

Link-building is an important part of SEO. The more links you get from sites of authority, the more reputable your site will appear in the eyes of Google. This means your networking game should be on form. Try to make connections with high-ranking sites in your industry. You could also reach out to influential bloggers on social media and see if they can include links back to your content. For this to work, your content has to rock. If it does, it might even be picked up organically by people hoping to reference your amazing work.

14. SEO Makes You Think About Your Site

Google must index each page in order for it to get any organic traffic. Internal links help Google find, index and understand all of the pages on your site, so it’s really important to think about your sitemap and how your content links together. You can also use internal linking strategically in order to improve the PageRank of important pages. After all, the more quality links a page has, the better the PageRank.

15. SEO is PR

As you’ve probably already discovered, getting a PR placement for your brand in a top publication is far from cheap. But you don’t have to rely on pricey news outlets to spread the word about what you have to offer. SEO is PR. And by including evergreen, keyword optimised and news-related or seasonal content in your strategy, you’ll make sure your name gets seen for a wide range of searches. Many well-written articles get few hits because they’re not promoted enough, however. So if you really want to showcase your talents, be sure to post links to your content across social sites for maximum exposure.

16. SEO Can Fuel Your Social Media Strategy

SEO can fuel your social media strategy. This is because it’s all about creating unique content that people will want to read. So, if you’re trying to rank for Glitter Nail Extensions and have written an excellent how-to piece for your site blog, why not post this to social media? You can also offer incentives to improve brand awareness and increase site visits. For example, many brands offer people the chance to win products if they like and share their posts.

17. SEO Can Improve Your Social Media Following

Improving your visibility in organic search means that more people will get to know you and consider you to be an authority in your field. If they enjoy your web content, they’ll want to know more and are more likely to find you on social channels. At the same time, engaging with followers on social media can also result in them visiting your website or thinking of your brand if they need a particular product or service. It’s all about creating a reputable brand reputation and getting your name out there.

18. You Can Optimise for Featured Snippets

Believe it or not, you can speed past Position 1 on the SERPs straight into Position 0, so long as you’ve content that’s relevant to a search. With Featured Snippets, Google is looking for an informative answer to a question. The content should be relevant, useful and include any useful stats that clear up the query. For this reason, many content creators are dividing their pages into question and answer sections as this can be easily pulled into Featured Snippets.

19. SEO Will Fend off Competition

More and more businesses have gone online due to the pandemic. Many haven’t had a digital presence before and are new to SEO. So if you’re skilled in what you do, you’ll hopefully fend off any new competition for a while. But there’s no time to sit back and get lazy. Consumers love new brands and products and are fickle in terms of loyalty. So you want to make sure you’re constantly delivering new and exciting content.

20. SEO is Trackable

When it comes to SEO, it’s important to track your progress. Firstly, you can see the result for any specific search term just by typing a search into Google. If you’re not ranking, there is plenty of work to be done. Secondly, you can use tools like Google Search Console to get a better idea of what people are typing to find you and what keyword you’re ranking for. You can even take dives into the health of your site in order to improve the overall experience and such.

SEO is a hugely important part of business, so speak to Whitefish Marketing today for strategy advice tailored to your company.

About Chris Surridge

Chris is our marketing director. He comes from a split background in automotive and accountancy marketing, having worked with such brands in the past as Lookers PLC, Mercedes Benz and Vauxhall, as well as working with governing bodies such as ACCA and CIMA in the accounting world.