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Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a strategy for improving your website’s rankings in search engine results.
It includes recognizing which keywords and phrases your target audience uses when looking for products or services like yours, then working towards ranking well for those searches.
Benefits of SEO can assist your company get in front of your target market as they’re actively looking for information.
And considering how common it is for consumers to use search engines to discover information about products and services, this is a huge opportunity.
In fact, 62% of customers turn to search engines first when they desire to find out more about a new business, product, or service — and 41% use them when they’re ready to buy.
This means that if you want your business to be part of a user’s online research process, it requires to appear in search results for keywords related to the products or services you offer.
Plus, according to that same survey, 48% of customers prefer to visit a business’s main site to read more about them.
So having a strong online presence will not only help you reach your marketing objectives but will also allow your target audience to research and buy in a way that works for them.
Here are the top 5 KEY benefits of SEO for your businesses:
- User-Friendly Websites
SEO will assist company owner create a faster, smoother, and user-friendlier website. Although most people still hang on to the old definition of SEO, thinking that it is only about optimizing for the search engines, however, today SEO is also about enhancing the user experience too.
Well-structured, clean, and uncluttered sites compel a casual visitor to remain longer, thus reducing bounce rate and increasing page views. Similarly, highly relevant content (sales pages and blog articles) keeps you readers happy as they are more likely to obtain answers for their questions, solve their pressing issues and helps them find exactly what they’re looking for on your site.
On-page SEO, if done effectively, makes your users happy, that makes search engines happy too as they love to serve high-quality information to their users.
- Generate MORE Customers
Let’s face it, one of the main reasons for having a website is to stand out from your competition and increase your customer base. Otherwise, why spend money on marketing, right? Businesses that have an SEO optimized site bring MORE customers and grow as twice as fast than businesses who do not have SEO implemented.
Benefits of SEO is most likely the most efficient and affordable marketing strategy that exists today. Moreover, it will only bring in customers who are actively looking for to find your product or service!
- Better Conversion Rates
SEO-optimized websites load quicker, are easy to read and surf, and will display properly in almost all types of devices, including mobile and tablets. Websites that are easy to read and navigate are more likely to get and hold the attention of your readers or visitors – i.e. they’re more likely to become your loyal customers, subscribers, and returning visitors.
- Build Brand Awareness
One of the advantages of getting higher rankings on the SERPs is building brand awareness. When your websites appear on the first page of major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, your potential customers are most likely to trust your brand when they look for a specific term instead of other brands that do not have a strong web presence.
That is why businesses that want to develop better brand awareness (either locally or expanding nationally) must invest in SEO and start gaining top rankings for the KEY terms related to their business. We’re not in the 90s anymore; search engines now play a significant role in making or breaking your brand.
5. Bypass Competition
Let’s take an example of two businesses that are in the same industry, selling similar products, at similar prices. One of them has an optimized site while the other has a non-optimized site. Considering everything is else is equal, which business do you think will attract more customers to their site from local searches? Which business will likely grow faster and become more successful?
Search engines and SEO are extremely effective. If your competitors are doing SEO marketing, simply you must ask yourself why you haven’t invested in such a strategy yet too.