Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making improvements to the website so it ranks higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Search engines assess pages based on their relevance to the topic and to do so, they look at the keywords included in the content. When search engines rate your page as relevant to the keyword your page will display for that query in SERPs.
Another important aspect is content quality and trustworthiness. Google, like other search engines, rewards pages that provide high-quality, credible information. By doing so, Google ensures that users get the best content possible and have a seamless search experience.
Benefits of SEO include more website traffic, and an increase in the number of leads and conversions, which helps perpetuate business growth.
Every second people conduct 63,000 Google searches, and with the right SEO strategy, your business can compete for some of those search results.
However, increased website traffic and improved credibility are not the only benefits of SEO. In this article, we present 9 essential SEO benefits that improve your digital marketing strategy.
What you will learn
- Why SEO is a sustainable growth channel with a significant return on investment
- How SEO can generate leads and revenue
- How can you improve your credibility and brand reputation through SEO
- How SEO gives you a competitive advantage and scalable growth
1. SEO drives interested visitors to your website
SEO acts like a bridge between a user’s problem they search for in Google and a result that is a solution to their problem.
When your website is optimized for relevant keywords people can easily find your website by entering these keywords into the search engine. For example, when people search for information on how to edit a pdf a handful of tools will come up as results.
To make sure your website is recognized by Google as a relevant answer to a user's search query you need to optimize it.
It’s even more important when you think that 75% of smartphone owners turn to search first to address their immediate needs. Using SEO will give you an advantage in getting to these users at the start of their buyer journey.
A great example of an optimized page that addresses users’ concerns is this blog “How to Budget for Taxes as a Freelancer.” This page comes up for a query “how to file taxes as a freelancer,” which is a common concern.
This article not only successfully addresses the query and explains freelance taxes but also informs about their tax services. This way, they provide a solution for the readers turning them into paying customers.
2. Generates leads and revenue
People enter a search query intentionally to find relevant information, so you can be sure they are already interested in what you offer. Unlike paid ads that interrupt the online experience, SEO doesn't push for sales and gathers higher-quality leads.
Drawing more qualified leads can lead to higher chances of converting quickly. In fact, 60% of searchers have contacted a business directly for example, through the “click to call” option. SEO provides an opportunity to reach your potential customers directly and allow them to review your offer to make a purchasing decision.
Generating high-quality leads through SEO is a great sustainable acquisition strategy.
Pages can continue to bring in leads and sales long after they have been published. However, paid ads stop generating traffic and leads as soon as they are turned off.
A great example of attracting leads with SEO is Dapper Marketing, a marketing agency. After updating old content and creating new pages focused on specific topics they reached 100% traffic growth in 2 months. This translated to business value in the form of 150 warm leads, of which 3 converted into high-ticket customers.
3. More cost-effective than paid advertising
One of the key benefits of SEO is driving organic traffic to your website. Organic traffic consists of the visitors who find your website through unpaid, natural search engine results.
These visitors find your website by clicking on links in search engine results pages (SERPs) after searching for specific keywords relevant to your website's content.
SEO aims to optimize your website’s content so your results reach the highest possible position in SERPs. The higher the position the more traffic a result gets.
While getting to a high position takes time, search engine rankings in many niches don't change that often and you can reap benefits for a long time after publication.
This makes SEO a highly sustainable marketing strategy with a high return on investment.
Studies have shown that businesses investing in SEO can see a return on investment from 275% to over 1000% depending on your industry and sale price.
This means that for every dollar invested in SEO, you could see between 2.75 to 10 dollars in return which can highly affect your income.
In comparison, paid advertising quickly shows results, but they aren’t as long-lasting and cost-effective. Google estimates that companies make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend.
SEO investment becomes more cost-effective over time, as the initial groundwork lays the foundation for sustained organic growth without the need for proportional increases in spending.
While SEO is a great cost-effective strategy, using PPC in combination with SEO can bring you both short-term and long-term benefits.
Together, they can enhance visibility and brand awareness to help you increase your website traffic and conversions.
4. SEO builds trust and credibility
In highly competitive industries it’s difficult to stand out from the competition and build trust among potential clients.
To showcase your expertise and gain the trust of prospects you can create content that meets a user's SEO intent on the topic of their interest.
By reaching potential customers and earning their trust you can convince them to convert and become loyal paying customers.
Also, 88% of customers who rate a business as trustworthy say they’re more likely to buy from that brand again, and 62% will buy almost exclusively from the brand.
They are also three times more likely to stick with a company through a mistake.
It’s also vital to upkeep your online business reputation. 51% of shoppers surveyed say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make online. It’s crucial to control the information about your products instead of relying on reviews and online forums coming from users.
Swyft Filings is a great example of a website that has built trust and credibility among users searching for business registration information.
They wanted to rank for competitive phrases in the business filings niche. The strategy was to create content with fresh angles and information that no one else was talking about.
By using their own data and unique approach to content creation they spiked in traffic by 30% and increased their domain authority by 26%.
5. SEO improves brand visibility
One of the greatest benefits of SEO is that it boosts your brand visibility and allows you to present your brand as an expert in the field.
By providing relevant information and optimizing your content you can quickly become an industry leader. Google assesses your website content in terms of relevance and authority, if your website is rated positively, Google ranks it high in search results.
This allows you to improve your brand visibility and get discovered by more people.
Online visibility is crucial because 43% of consumers around the world said they like to keep an eye out for new brands even if they are not planning to buy right then.
While your brand gets notoriety, Google starts to deem you as an authority in your niche, ranking you higher driving even more traffic to your website, and boosting your visibility.
The key to building authority and visibility online is creating a strong content strategy and providing valuable insights to your target audience.
When people know they can trust your information they are more likely to buy from you and recommend your brand to others.
For example, Safe In The Seat, an educational website on car seats for children established a strong online presence with valuable information.
Their brand is now synonymous with child car seat recommendations because their pages show up in search results for car seat reviews
6. Insights on customer behavior
SEO can be a valuable source of information about your customers. By visiting your website they leave a trail of data about what they did, where they clicked, and how much time they spent on your website.
To uncover this information you can go to Google Search Console, a free tool for website owners that provides direct insights into customer interests and search behavior.
You can for example see what queries lead users to your site and uncover best-performing pages.
You can also go to another free platform, Google Analytics that provides much more detailed information about your visitors. They will prove helpful not only in SEO but also in other digital marketing strategies.
Moreover, you can use these insights to develop products and services that fit market needs better.
For example, at Surfer, we found a significant portion of users searching for ways to avoid AI content, so we developed a new tool to pass AI content detectors.
7. Drives foot traffic
SEO has the power to attract local customers to your physical location. It’s crucial to put information about your business online as 76% of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a physical place within 24 hours.
Moreover, 28% of those searches result in a purchase.
One of the key local SEO tactics is optimizing your Google Business Profile.
It's an online business card that directs users to Google Maps and provides all the important information about your business, such as address, opening hours, and contact details.
It’s important to optimize your GBP profile and your website for local searches.
Claim your Google Business Profile listing if you haven't already. Then, ensure that all information on your profile, such as business information is accurate and up-to-date.
To optimize your website for local SEO, include locally relevant keywords in your website's meta tags, headings, content, and URLs.
For example, incorporate city or neighborhood names, along with target keywords related to your business.
8. Provides a competitive edge
Gaining online authority and trust can bring you a huge advantage over competitors. With a strong SEO strategy, you can help potential customers find your business before they reach your competition.
By showcasing your expertise and experience you can be perceived as more trustworthy and authoritative than your competitors. Then, customers will have your brand on top of their minds and likely consider you in their purchasing decisions.
Moreover, after making extensive SEO efforts you can benefit from organic search traffic growth without unnecessary spending.
Being efficient with your marketing budget can provide a significant competitive advantage, especially for small to medium-sized businesses operating with limited resources.
A great example of gaining a competitive advantage with SEO is an article published by IncParadise. This guide on New York business tax ranks first for the keyword “new your business tax” and successfully informs potential customers of its related services. On the other hand, another accounting firm Simpson & Kirkman Tax has to attract customers via ads or other channels.
9. Scalable growth channel
SEO is a great way to target and reach new audiences and market segments. As you grow your blog and your SEO strategy you can attract highly targeted traffic by optimizing for specific keywords and user intent.
By aligning content with the needs and interests of their target audience, businesses can attract visitors who are more likely to convert into leads or customers, thus maximizing the scalability of their growth efforts.
SEO also encourages the creation of high-quality, evergreen content that can be repurposed and optimized to target different keywords or topics.
By leveraging existing content assets and updating them to remain relevant, businesses can scale their content marketing efforts and attract a larger audience without significantly increasing costs.
You can also target new markets with content localization, effectively scaling your reach globally without significant additional costs. For example, you can simply translate existing content into other languages.
This is exactly what Asian Beauty Essentials did with its website content. Skincare ecommerce store expanded to the Spanish-speaking market by rewriting existing content in Spanish.
How to learn SEO
To learn SEO you need to first understand the fundamentals of how search engines work. However, while theoretical knowledge is important, you need practical experience and you should start applying lessons to your website as soon as possible.
While doing keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and content writing you will experience firsthand how changes can affect your site's ranking.
To start learning about SEO, you can use free resources online such as Search Engine Journal or Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. They offer a huge knowledge base on the basics of SEO as well as cover new updates and recent developments in the industry.
You can also go to learn SEO from Youtube.
Besides Surfer, there are several great channels providing valuable knowledge such as Matt Digitty, Neil Patel, and Brian Dean from Backlinko.
If you want to dive deeper into SEO there are also online courses on platforms such as Coursera, Skillshare, or Udemy. These courses usually have more structured learning programs and sometimes provide a form of certification.
Surfer’s SEO Writing Masterclass is a boot camp providing comprehensive SEO knowledge within 19 lessons. By the end of this masterclass, you’ll not only get a certificate but also leave with practical knowledge to implement what you’ve learned.
You can also get started with free tools like SEO chrome extensions.
Does your business need SEO?
Your business needs SEO if you need to build authority and trust in your niche. By consistently producing high-quality optimized content, businesses can establish themselves as trusted sources of information and solutions.
SEO is also helpful if you want to stay competitive.
Investing in SEO allows businesses to compete effectively by enhancing their visibility, and attracting more customers.
When does your business not need SEO?
First of all, if you have very limited resources and don’t have much time to see the return on your investment. SEO requires hiring specialists, either in-house or an agency, which becomes a fixed expense.
If you researched your audience and you’re sure they are using organic search to find solutions similar to yours you can hire someone to take care of SEO for you.
You can start by hiring an agency, as they usually provide complex services and can help you start out in SEO.
It’s crucial to remember that agencies have contract terms and conditions you need to revise before making a decision. The most important include a scope of services, duration of the contract, notice period, NDA, and content ownership.
It’s best to consult a legal advisor to review and clarify the terms of the agreement with the marketing agency. Only sign the contract when you are ready to commit to a partnership with them.
Key takeaways
- Search engine optimization is a marketing channel that improves websites to increase visibility and thus traffic to the website.
- The key benefits of SEO are driving interested users to your website and acquiring qualified leads that can turn into paying customers
- SEO is a sustainable long-term strategy that has a huge return on investment. Once you put effort into a piece of content it can reap benefits long after it is published
- SEO through content creation establishes authority and credibility and improved visibility results in increased brand recognition
- A solid SEO strategy provides scalable growth and helps gain a competitive edge
- If you want to learn SEO you can use various online resources
- When you’re sure your business needs SEO you can take advantage of SEO agency services
Conclusion
Search engine optimization offers a multitude of benefits for websites and online businesses. From increased visibility and organic traffic to enhanced credibility and trust, the advantages are substantial.
SEO benefits such as cost-effectiveness, adaptability, and ability to target specific audiences make it an invaluable marketing asset.
By investing in a foolproof SEO strategy, businesses can establish themselves as authoritative voices in their industries, and attract high-quality leads. Properly allocated SEO efforts will help you stay competitive in the industry, ultimately leading to long-term success and growth.
