Why is SEO important
Let’s answer the fundamental question of why SEO is important for your business. Before that, let’s take a step back to answer what SEO can do for you, before answering the why part. Simply put, Search engine optimization is the process by which website owners optimize their websites in order to increase their visibility in search results. As I write this article in 2023, one thing on which every marketer/business owner would agree is how companies are fighting to get visibility. It might be paid ads, billboards, or any other medium, but every other company is out there fighting to get eyeballs and attention from the end user. SEO is your weapon to win this race in the search business. When you search, it means that when users search for something on any search engine (most notably Google), they are more likely to receive relevant results related to their query. We will do a deep dive on how search engines work in another article, but let’s focus on SEO in this blog. Search results are a part of “pull marketing,” where you are pulling your consumer towards you for a relevant query. Let’s understand why SEO is important for your online success with the help of an example.
Consider a very basic example, when you go to a market to buy any product for your home, you come across various brands that are selling that product. Now be very mindful of the fact that half the battle is already won, since the intent of the user is already to buy a product. This is not like push marketing, where you show an ad to a group of users and only a few of them are interested in buying it because they actually need it. The rest of them would not lead to a sale, since their intent is not to buy, at least right away.
Coming back to the example, for whatever product that you want to buy, you have multiple choices with different brands to choose from. Your buying decision would depend on your brand, messaging, and how prominently visible the product is from where you search for it. Similarly, when any user types in a query, there are multiple sites that show up. Your decision to “Click” and check out that website will depend on the following
- How easily do you find the website?
- Is that website already known to you as a brand?
- The first line of communication that you see on search results, how intriguing that is for you to click. Is that something that you were looking for
When you win this battle of getting a click, then comes the next challenge. How do you ensure that your webpage matches the search intent? Did the user find everything on the page, and if yes, was the website experience good enough for that person to checkout and become a lead/sale for your business?
Placing the right content and communication is only part of the game, what matters is how to present it. Imagine going out to rent/purchase a house. You look at the layout, if there is enough ventilation and a place to keep your stuff in that house. If that house matches your needs, you should go for it. Similarly, a business owner needs to optimize the user experience on their website in such a way as to increase their chances of pushing a user to make a purchase.
SEO is a lever to enhance search rankings and the user experience. It’s a way that search engineers and users perceive you as a business.
I hope this answers why you should be interested in SEO.
I will now explain why SEO is important from the beginning of any business.
Why is SEO important for a small business
Initially, the investment on SEO will be there and the results 0, atleast for 2-3 months. But don’t worry, if you can’t see the oxygen you breathe air, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Keep tracking the right metrics and you will slowly start seeing the results over time. WHen I say results, I mean relevant traffic and leads
Paid ads are different in nature. You get results in a matter of hours and days, so why not invest only in paid ads and forget about SEO?
A huge mistake small businesses make is the same. Even though paid ads give you instant results, it would be sustainable only for a certain time. After a couple of months, you will see your CAC(Customer Acquisition Cost) increasing over time. It’s very difficult to sustain a certain CAC and CPL when it comes to paid ads. But that doesn’t mean organic is useless and that paid ads are necessary. I have seen many marketers mention that, which is not true. Organic and paid work go hand in hand.
Why is SEO important for a matured business
When your business is already mature, it means you are already on a growth curve. Your paid ads, branding efforts have already started to give you results. Your brand’s keywords already have some search volume because of the paid ad campaigns running. If you haven’t focused on SEO, now is the time. Google or any other search engine likes a website with good authority. When you are already getting necessary CAC values through paid ads, DO NOT assume the future will be rosy. I learned the hard way that any business depends on external market conditions as well. Even when your targeting is right and your campaign managers have optimized the campaigns to their maximum potential, there will come a time when your CAC won’t get optimized after a certain time. Organic traffic and leads would come to your rescue.
If you are one of those, who has already invested some amount in content and SEO and you are still not getting relevant traffic and leads, then you need to look at your data and understand the reason for that. There might be cases when you would have spent enormous money on content, getting good traffic but not getting leads. In that case, you need to relook at your content strategy. Ask yourself the following questions
- Which are those blogs that bring max traffic, but minimal/zero leads. Do you even require such content in the first place? Is that content too generic to attract every kind of audience or only your target audience
- Which are the blogs which bring minimal/mediocre traffic but still getting good no of leads and hence sales. Can you scale that up to get more traffic considering your conversion ratio is still the same?
- Are you distributing your content properly
- Are you generating enough levers within your content which can nurture your leads?
- Is your content serving the purpose for which the users came to the blog in the first place? What else can you give to the users which can make them stick to your brand?
Why is Local SEO important
First, let’s understand what local SEO is. Local SEO is simply the optimization of your webpages in order to rank based on a user’s demographic location. For example, if a user is at a friend’s place and types in, best breakfast places,” compared to when a user types in the same query from his or her home, they get different results. Based on your location, Google serves you results. If you think about it, it makes sense, since you won’t be searching for breakfast places around your friends’ houses when you are searching from your house. You could also extend the search query to “best breakfast places near me” or “best breakfast places at location.”
Now, why is local SEO important for your business? Simply put, when your webpage is optimized for location-based search queries, your probability of ranking for those search keywords increases. If you are a burger joint delivering to users near your store, your webpage should be optimized to rank for that location.
Location based factors:
- Google my business
- Citations
- Local Reviews
Why is On-page SEO important
On-page SEO is crucial since it enables search engines to comprehend a webpage’s content and assess its applicability to particular search queries. A website can raise its visibility and ranking in search results, draw more targeted visitors, and boost conversions by optimizing page elements including the title tag, header tags, meta description, and picture alt tags. In order for search engines to grasp the function and context of a website’s pages, which might affect their relevance and authority, on-page SEO is an essential component of overall SEO efforts. An effective on-page SEO strategy can enhance user experience, make it simpler for consumers to locate what they’re looking for, and also aid to build trust.
Why is Off-page seo important
Imagine you want to buy a mobile phone and you search on amazon for it. Before you buy, you also find out customer reviews for that mobile phone. The customer reviews tell you about their usage experience with the mobile phone. Off page is similar to customer reviews. Off page SEO helps search engines find out how other websites are referring back to your content. When authentic websites in your industry refer back to your product/service/webpage, it signals search engines that your product/service is worth taking a note. It increases your chance of ranking.
Off-page SEO is the term used to describe optimization activities conducted off a website in order to affect its visibility and ranking in search results. Off-page SEO is crucial since it increases a website’s authority and credibility, both of which have an effect on how highly it ranks in search results. Among the important elements that go into off-page SEO are:
- Backlinks: Backlinks from high-quality, reliable websites can assist a website become more credible and visible to search engines.
- Social media presence: A well-established social media presence can boost website traffic and brand awareness, both of which can affect a website’s search engine visibility.
- Local citations and listings in directories: By letting search engines know where a business is located, how to reach it, and what services it offers, local citations and listings in directories can help the business rank higher in local search results.
Why is Technical SEO important
In the current digital era, each company’s success depends on having a strong online presence. Technical SEO is just as vital, if not more so, than the creative and content-driven components of SEO, which are frequently the focus of attention. Technical SEO is the term used to describe the optimization work done in the background to help search engines properly comprehend and index a website. All other SEO initiatives are built on top of it, so ignoring it can lead to missed opportunities and decreased search engine visibility.
Better crawlability and indexability: Technical SEO makes sure that search engines can efficiently crawl and index a website. Search engines can better understand the content and context of a website’s pages by improving the site’s structure, meta tags, and URLs, for instance.
Faster website speed: Technical SEO can also help to increase website speed, which is important for deciding search engine visibility and ranking. A website’s user experience might suffer from delayed loading times, and increased bounce rates can lower its search engine rating.
Better user experience: Technical SEO can help to improve the user experience by making sure that a website is simple to use and comprehend. Increased engagement and lower bounce rates, two criteria that search engines consider when determining the relevance and authority of a page, can result from this.
Mobile friendliness: Having a mobile-friendly website is crucial due to the rise in the number of searches being done on mobile devices. A website’s mobile optimization can help it rank higher in mobile search results and give mobile users a better experience. Technical SEO makes sure that a website is optimized for mobile, which can help enhance mobile search results.
Increased security: Technical SEO can also contribute to a website’s increased security. For instance, a website can create a secure connection with users by using SSL certificates.
Hope this article covers every aspect of why you should invest in SEO? It’s a long term game and the ones who have aced it are already far ahead. Do not wait and create an SEO strategy for your business right away.
Hope this answers all your questions on Why SEO is super critical for any business. Do share your thoughts in the comment box below
