4 reasons SEO can take your business to the next level
Search engine optimization (SEO) aims to rank your webpages higher in the search results for the purpose of getting more traffic. Contrary to what you may think, SEO is important for every business – even ones that don’t sell anything online. However, it’s critical to hire an SEO expert rather than attempt it on your own.
Improving search engine rankings is an involved process with multiple components to consider. With so much DIY SEO advice out there, many of these components might seem easy to implement, but they actually require expertise.
“There’s a ton of outdated information about SEO on the web,” says SEO consultant Michael Cottam, “and opinions are often expressed as fact. Just because you find an article on page one in the search results that says Google behaves a certain way doesn’t mean it’s true.”
The biggest danger of DIY SEO is that believing and implementing incorrect information can hurt your rankings and traffic from Google searches. Hiring an expert who studies Google and SEO all day, every day can help avoid these damaging mistakes.
Although there are definite strategies, the rules are constantly changing, and hiring an expert helps to avoid the mistakes that can lead to penalties.
If you’re looking for ways to bring your business to the next level, here’s why you need to incorporate professional SEO into your marketing strategy.
1. SEO will bring you targeted traffic
According to statistics published by Search Engine Watch, when a web page ranks #1 in Google, it receives 33% of search traffic. This makes sense given that people sometimes perceive the top result as the best result. However, web pages need to earn that top spot. When search results are relevant to the search, those clicks are considered targeted traffic.
Targeted traffic will help to increase your conversions, including and especially your sales. When your website ranks for relevant keywords and phrases, it’s more likely to appear in search results for those keywords and phrases. This is much more effective than trying to get a bunch of traffic from unknown or random sources.
When your content is relevant to someone’s search, they’re more likely to stay on your website and make a purchase. However, even when you don’t sell anything, this traffic is still valuable.
2. SEO isn’t just for getting sales
Traffic doesn’t always need to turn into a sale to be useful. There are plenty of valuable conversions that don’t involve a sales transaction, yet they do require SEO to get the traffic. For instance, if you want any of the following, SEO will help:
- Email signups
- Video plays
- Downloads
- Form submissions
- Webinar signups
- Interaction with quizzes
- Anything else that requires interaction
You can also generate direct phone calls and visits to your business. For example, attorneys spend a lot of money on SEO because when people need help, they’re going to call the first lawyer they find in their area. So, they make sure their phone number is visible on every page and use SEO to generate traffic, which turns into phone calls.
3. SEO helps build brand identity and trust
Brand identity and trust are tightly interwoven, and you can’t really afford to skip developing either of these elements. SEO can help you build both.
When you’re building your brand identity, you want people to have a smooth experience with your brand in every form, including on your website. A smooth user experience automatically generates trust and credibility, which works to strengthen your brand image.
If your site is constantly coming up in the search engines, users will start to develop a stronger sense of familiarity with your brand. Coupled with a smooth user experience on your site, you’ll start earning a stronger reputation in your industry. In the future, people will be more likely to do business with you over your competition.
4. Local SEO will help increase engagement
If you’re a small-to-medium-sized business (SMB), local SEO will bring your business to new heights. With local SEO, you’ll reach leads in a specific area rather than the entire world. This helps to generate even more targeted traffic by allowing you to compete for important keywords and phrases at the local level.
Local SEO is more than just regular SEO on a smaller scale, however. There’s much more involved. In fact, when you’re a local business and you have a Google Business listing, your business listing has the potential to appear at the top of the search results, even if your website never ranks. Business listing results are displayed according to each logged-in user’s zip code. This means local SEO can get you massive traffic just by optimizing your Google Business listing.
Looking for more sales and leads? You need SEO
Does your business need more sales and leads to rise up to the next level? Consider hiring a professional SEO company to help you meet your goals. You can only achieve so much success on your own before you need to start generating targeted, organic traffic from search engines.