SEO is all the hype in today’s digital world. If you’re a business owner and you’re not implementing SEO, then you definitely feel the peer pressure to integrate SEO into your marketing strategies every time you surf the web or scroll down Facebook.
On the other hand, numerous business owners find themselves spending hundreds of dollars on SEO, only to fall disappointingly short on their expectations. So the real question is: even in the case of implementing various marketing strategies, is SEO really necessary? If it is, then do all types of business need it?
To answer that, we’ll need to give you a quick overview of what SEO is and what you should expect of it.
What is SEO?
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. To put it simply, SEO is a set of regulations that, when practiced correctly, will improve the ranking of your website on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). These regulations, or commonly known as factors, can be made to your existing website directly or indirectly to improve its ranking. These factors depend on the search engine algorithm, which is continuously updated to provide a better user experience. After all, the main goal of SEO is to improve the search experience for the users, making sure that the results are as satisfactory as possible to all users.
While the basics are kind of easy to comprehend, implementing SEO in real life can be pretty overwhelming. There are more than 200 SEO factors upon which websites are being ranked. To make it harder, the algorithm is constantly changing, and so are these factors. This can make implementing SEO on your own pretty difficult, which calls for an expert’s help.
This is exactly the reason why Boise Idaho is a hotbed for SEO companies; with the growing number of businesses in its entrepreneurship scene and the scaling up of the current businesses, more business owners are looking for SEO experts to take their businesses to the next level. These experts provide them with timely insights into the current state of their websites, along with a proven and studied plan on how to achieve the most benefits out of their SEO plans.
The downside of SEO is the possibility of being involved with inexperienced service providers. Owing to its wide popularity, many companies have started offering their services while lacking the expertise and credibility needed. They’d sell you their services at premium packages, but, instead of implementing trustworthy and efficient strategies, they practice Black Hat SEO that usually gets their clients’ websites penalized by Google. This is why you’ll find many complaints about SEO service providers, doubting the efficacy of SEO altogether.
Why is SEO Necessary for all types of businesses?
Despite some of the bad reputation it got due to scamming companies, SEO can be the most powerful tool you can use to boost the performance of your business in all its aspects.
If done correctly, you can expect to reap the following benefits:
SEO gets you organic traffic
Organic traffic is perhaps the most important kind of traffic you can get out of your marketing efforts. Not only does it eliminate the need for investing extensively in paid ads to reap results, but organic traffic is much more valuable. It’s a known fact that most of the users wouldn’t bother clicking on an ad, but they’re more likely to visit your website if they know you didn’t pay for them to visit it.
The traffic you get is the right kind
The value of the organic traffic that SEO gets you lies in the fact that it’s highly targeted. You’ll be sure to reach the exact customer segment and visitors you’re looking for. This will make them stay on your website longer, as the content you’re providing is highly relevant to them. Your SEO will be further boosted as a result; as more visitors leave your website briefly after visiting, your bounce rates go up, which harms your ranking.
SEO improves conversion rates
What happens when you get exactly the prospective customers to visit your website? Your efforts to convert them into loyal customers will be much easier. You’ll be able to focus on optimizing your website to aid your visitors down the sales funnels, instead of wasting a lot of time, effort, and money on expanding your visitors despite the low quality of irrelevant traffic you get.
Local SEO gives your brand optimum exposure
The latest algorithm changes have given priority to local search results. This means that if your website is optimized for local SEO, you’ll get instant exposure in your local market to anyone looking for your services. As this practice is relatively new with few practitioners, you’ll get a strong competitive edge over your local competitors.
SEO for the ultimate user experience
We’ve mentioned that the ultimate goal of SEO is to provide the best user experience for everyone using the search engines. So, by adopting the latest guidelines and practices, you’re making sure that your website provides the ultimate user experience. This will help you in maintaining your current customers while scaling up to reach new prospects, without compromising on quality.
SEO forces you to upgrade your business
In order to provide the user experience you’re dreaming of, you’re forced to follow the latest algorithm updates. If you’re new to SEO, then this means you’ll be forced to completely rejuvenate your website for the best performance. Chances are, you’ll find that there are more innovative and efficient ways to operate your business altogether, in which case, the impact of SEO will be far more than the performance of your website.
SEO improves your brand credibility
So what would it mean if you ranked first? This means that the search engine is recommending you to all its users. That means you’re providing one of the best user experiences in your niche. This will act as an instant guarantee of your credibility, which will further improve your brand positioning and trustworthiness.
SEO gives you a better understanding of your market
One of the greatest things about SEO is that its impact extends further than the walls of organic traffic and boosted sales. One example of that was how you can get ideas to innovate your business operations, but the most valuable impact is the insights you get into your market. In order to offer the most value and be recommended, you’ll need to do extensive market research, customer behavioral analysis, and competitor analysis. You’ll get even more insights once you implement your strategies and analyze the data you’ve acquired.
SEO isn’t that expensive
You might be tempted by all these benefits, but we need to address the elephant in the room. Everyone knows how expensive credible and professional SEO providers are. It can be even more expensive to hire an in-team of SEO experts, but compromising on the level of expertise will affect your results. While it’s certainly an upfront investment, the ROI of SEO is one of the best in all marketing strategies. You’ll even find that you won’t need paid advertising as much, which will cut down on your overall marketing expenses. Once you do the math, you’ll find that it’s a cost-effective solution in comparison to what you’ll get in return.
SEO gives you long-term results
If investing heavily in SEO as an upfront cost is still making you hesitant, then you’ll definitely change your mind once you realize it’s a long-term solution. Getting an SEO audit and optimizing your website’s infrastructure will be there to last. Even if you have to invest further in SEO to match the latest algorithm criteria, a well-established website won’t be time, effort, or money consuming at all.
How Do Different Businesses Need SEO?
With all of the above mentioned benefits, it’s a fact that SEO is necessary for businesses. But do all businesses need SEO in order to achieve these benefits? As a matter of fact, yes: they all do. No matter the size, niche, scale, or kind of your business, SEO has been proven to enhance the performance of your business altogether. You’ll be hard-pressed to find other marketing strategies that give you the same number and scale of benefits as you would with SEO.
To give you an idea about the importance of SEO for all businesses, let’s take a few closeups. Given the affordability and efficiency of SEO, what other option would suit a startup or a small business in order to enter the market and get exposure? Even medium to large enterprises call upon SEO to expand their reach and get access to modern users. Whether your business operates on a local, national, or global level, SEO is exactly the tool for you. Even niche-specific businesses have realized how their users turn to the search engine before contacting them.
To put it briefly, SEO has become a necessity for all kinds of business in today’s modern world. The whole world has shifted its focus to be customer-oriented thanks to the power of the search engines that have empowered the users. No matter your business size, niche, or model; SEO is bound to maximize your ROI.
