Trying to grow your business without spending gobs of money? SEO *cue the Hallelujah chorus*. While it can seem daunting at first (there’s a reason why there’s an entire industry based on these three little letters), a little patience can go a long way. SEO is absolutely worth the time and effort – but don’t just take a marketing agency’s word for it. Here are 5 real and tangible benefits that search engine optimization provides to business owners (and is just the tip of the iceberg as to why is SEO important). 

First off: What’s the Big Deal About SEO? 

If you’re still not sold that SEO is something worth investing in, this section is for you. But if you’re already a believer (#contentisking #curationisqueen #userexperienceovereverything) and well-aware of the long-standing benefits of proper SEO implementation, then you can go ahead and skip to the next section.

No matter how old, established, or well-known your business may already be, search engine optimization can take a business from good to great, and beyond. And for new businesses that are just starting out, SEO can launch you from obscurity to a household name. Here are a few statistics that demonstrate the incredible potential of search engine marketing:

• 53% of all website traffic comes from organic search (that’s 1000% more than from social media)
• There are an estimated 3.5 billion searches on Google per day
• The #1 result in a Google organic search result has an average click-through rate of 31.7%

SEO helps drive traffic to your site, improves your site usage rates, and lifts your conversion rate. All of these factors signal to search engines that your business is what the people want. This, in turn, makes them much more likely to promote your business on the highly-coveted front page of search results. Once you’ve made it there to the Holy Grail of SEO marketing, search engines will do the heavy lifting when it comes to bringing in new revenue.

5 Reasons Why SEO is Important to Business Owners

1. Get discovered by potential customers

Increased website traffic is probably the most well-known benefit of SEO. When done properly, search engine optimization provides invaluable exposure to potential customers that may not have (ever) discovered your business otherwise- hello brand awareness! More importantly, if you choose your keywords wisely to be ones of high intent, you can tap into users at the buying stage. So you’re not just bringing new eyes to your site – you’re bringing users who essentially have money in hand and are ready to spend it.

2. Save money on marketing costs

If you’ve ever spent money trying to drum up new customers using paid social media, text ads, print or radio advertising, you know that those costs can add up quite quickly. SEO is something that can be done almost entirely for free (to some extent). By writing industry-relevant and helpful content you can get your site and content to be well-ranking and consistently landing the first page of search results; you can get as much traffic as you would with PPC  – without the recurring costs. And even if you are currently going the PPC route, search engines favor ads that enlist good SEO which can mean you pay less for ads, yet another way that SEO can save you money on your marketing strategy. 

3. Improve your performance numbers for increased leverage

Conversions and revenue aren’t the only numbers that matter when it comes to determining success. If you ever want to partner with other entities, they’ll want to see everything that you bring to the table to ensure that it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. Things like bounce rate, the length of user sessions, or the number of pages per session are important indicators of your overall site performance which will likely face scrutiny. 

4. Even the playing field with bigger competitors

For new businesses trying to gain market share, going against the bigger, more established, competitors (and their larger marketing budgets) are the biggest challenge. Fortunately, SEO is all about organic performance, and you have just as much opportunity to appear for a query as your well-funded rival. There are some things that money can’t buy, and appearing on the first page of search results is one of them.

5. Establish your brand as trustworthy and legitimate

Customers don’t buy from brands they don’t trust – that’s a given. SEO gives you the opportunity to rank which inherently establishes credibility. Think of search engines as an ongoing popularity contest and if you’re on the first page of search results – you’ve won! The first page of Google captures between 70%-90% of all traffic clicks while the second-page results receive less than 1%. Having a high-ranking page can also establish your business as an authority on a particular topic, which is beneficial to attract users in the early stages of the buying process.

All Aboard the SEO Ship!

So we’ve established that SEO is important, but now what? The thought of implementing an SEO strategy on your own can seem daunting, but not to worry! Your friendly crew here at Buzzbait Consulting can help you navigate the digital marketing waters. If you’re not sure where to start, give us a call and our passionate SEO team would be delighted to see how search engine optimization could benefit your business.