Most entrepreneurs are familiar with the necessity of long-term investment. Traditionally, the focus is on capital spending such as property, machinery and R&D. Marketing, however, is often associated with short-terms goals. The objective of most ad campaigns is to boost sales rapidly. It may have the broader effect of improving brand recognition, but this is rarely its primary purpose.
Our own direct business experience has taught us to question this perception. Digital marketing is a very different beast from its conventional predecessors. While there are many opportunities to use paid-for advertising online, not least with Google and Facebook, the search engines we all use every day have created an entirely new marketing resource. If conducted well, it yields exceptional results with virtually no above-the-line costs. It is, of course, search engine optimisation.
SEO is a much-used but often misunderstood term. In the early days of the internet, even before the appearance of the Google search engine, there were services such as WebCrawler, Altavista and Lycos. In those days, SEO was so primitive that it encouraged the practice of ‘keyword stuffing’ or pouring potential search terms and phrases into a site without regard for context or readability in the hope of grabbing the attention of browsers.
Today SEO is both an art and a science, thanks to a combination of massively increased online competition and extensive algorithm development. It’s not simple but it is effective and affordable. The reason why it is considered a long-term investment is because its most valuable effect is the gradual, organic growth of traffic and customer loyalty. Every business owner knows that a repeat customer is worth significantly more than a new customer, but that every repeat was new once. Smart SEO campaigns are designed both to attract and to retain.
64% of business-to-business marketers invest consistently in SEO [1], while 49% of marketers say that organic search provides the best ROI of all marketing channels [2]. Perhaps the most persuasive statistic of all comes from AdWeek, which found that 81% of consumers who shop online will carry out online research before they settle on a purchase [3]. The first step in any research is a search engine and since, as of April 2022, Google handles 92.49% of all search enquiries [4], we’re talking almost exclusively about the Google search engine.
How SEO Works
Briefly, for those who are unsure, what happens is this. You publish a blog or article on your website, the search engine crawlers find your site, understand the meaning of the piece and index it under the relevant categories. When a consumer searches, if the terms they use match the keywords on your page the index will feature you in its results.
Your content needs to be original, authoritative and engaging. Your keywords need to be well-researched and included seamlessly into the content. There are many other aspects to optimising your pages for Google search such as page titles, sub-headings, meta-titles, meta-tags, backlinks and images, but our current focus is not on the mechanics of SEO. For that part of the operation, the best solution is to use an SEO consultancy. With that in mind, here are some of the reasons why SEO is indispensable to your business.
Credibility
Google’s dominance and reliability mean that people trust its results. Ranking high on the first page of results is one of the most powerful endorsements your business can receive. This is the top priority of all SEO agencies.
Increased Traffic
SEO attracts people to your site not through aggressive, speculative advertising but by answering their needs. Once you’ve brought them to your site, provided that your user experience is as good as it can be, they are likely to buy, return and recommend you to others. This kind of organic growth is priceless.
Lower Costs
Reducing costs to increase ROI is essential to successful trading because it allows you to increase profit margins and, if necessary, fight off price competition. As powerful as it can be, conventional advertising is often expensive and not always sufficiently precise. The cost of conversion can be prohibitive. When you use SEO services, your marketing spend is considerably lower and the results are generally better. It also has a cumulative effect, in which the organic growth continues as long as you maintain SEO best practice.
Popularity
With the visibility and endorsement of Google on your side, you’ll also enjoy enhanced popularity and a much higher brand profile. This is one of the biggest challenges in both B2C and B2B markets. SEO helps you beat it.
Local Exposure
A huge proportion of consumers conduct ‘near me’ searches. The Google My Business facility makes it relatively easy to use your SEO in combination with a detailed business listing to get the edge over your local competitors.
SEO Consulting
We won’t pretend that devising and implementing an SEO strategy is easy. We learned about it the hard way. But through navigating our way to successful outcomes, we amassed invaluable experience, which, as a leading SEO agency, we now share with our clients.
Call us today and let us help you supercharge your business growth with the power of SEO.
- [1] www.hubspot.com
- [2] www.searchenginejournal.com
- [3] www.adweek.com
- [4] gs.statcounter.com