You must have heard the term ‘SEO’ before. It’s quite a popular digital marketing tool aimed at streamlining websites, improving user experience, and generating web traffic. It contributes greatly to the growth of any business that uses the tool, but before you go on investing in it, isn’t it better to understand what is SEO and its role in the marketing process? Here is everything you need to know.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization, often abbreviated as SEO, is the process of making a website more appealing for search engines. When you hit enter on a search query, a search engine gathers websites and lists them in a particular order. This order depends on a set of ever-changing criteria controlled by the engine’s developers. These criteria aim to list first the most relevant results from the most relevant websites, but not just that. In addition to several other factors, the websites are also ranked according to how easy they are to use, how popular they are, and how much they can handle web traffic.
SEO makes your website as relevant and as useful as possible by optimizing content and by eliminating useless texts and media. The process also includes making the website easy to use, generating buzz around it through quality backlinks, and increasing the website’s speed.
The Role of SEO
● Increases Web Traffic
When you’re on the web looking for an answer or a product, do you open the first two or three websites, or do you go down to the end of the search result page? The top websites on a search list are more likely to get the bulk of web traffic since they are deemed by a search engine to be the most accurate. Digital marketing is all about letting people know who you are and a large portion of that depends on getting more people to visit your website. By catering to the search engines’ preferences, you’ll be guaranteed a place for your website at the top of the list which means that more and more visitors will be coming your way.
● Contributes to your Brand
Another benefit of SEO is that it makes your website better as a whole. User experience is one of the most important factors that contribute to brand image and identity. Plus, it’s how you market your brand. For most potential customers, your website is the first thing they see of you. If their web experience is horrible, it’s not likely that they will come back for seconds whether online or on-ground. Keep in mind that it differs whether your business operates in Mexico, Canada, or Florida. If you’re operating in the latter, then it’s smarter to opt for a Destin SEO firm as opposed to another firm with no awareness of your local market. Because your brand depends on your market, customers, and demographic, you need someone who understands the market to help make the user experience more appealing.
● Increases Chances of Lead Conversion
Let’s take a look at the sales funnel. It starts with getting awareness through leads, then piquing customer interest, following up with them to get them to make a decision, then finally, converting the potential customer into an actual customer. SEO helps in getting you the awareness you need by increasing web traffic, but it also helps in lead conversion by coaxing potential customers through the other stages of the funnel. Once your customer is interested, a good-looking website will keep up this interest and optimism towards your business. Your useful, stream-lined content could then easily convert them to paying customers. Meaning, even if you’re not pursuing customers, a search engine optimized website functions as a lead magnet and converter on its own.
How Effective Is It?
There is no question about the effectiveness of SEO. The statistics and research studies speak for themselves. If 75% of internet users never bother to check anything beyond the first search results page, and if 81% of the users search the internet for a product before making the purchase, it’s ridiculous to believe that ranking higher on search lists has a minimal effect. That being said, it’s important for you to understand that, while revolving around weeding out the good websites from the bad, the criteria for SEO changes regularly. It’s not enough to optimize your website once, but regularly to stay on top of the changes.
Business owners often make the mistake of trying to monetize the pros and cons of SEO before seeing its effects. We’ve already established that SEO is one of the most effective digital marketing tools, but as with the rest, you cannot judge it before you see what it can do to your company. Even if you are number one in your market, SEO can still help you generate more leads, increase your sales, and further separate yourself from your competitors. That’s why the best way to go about SEO is to give it a try before you develop a rigid budget for it.
