SEO is a win-win strategy for any business. Tapping into Google’s 89.3 Billion monthly visits in 2022 can help you grow fast and generate long-term results by giving customers more information about the products or services they offer, while also helping them find what they need quickly.
Estimates show that every year businesses with good search engine optimization skills gain an average of 6 new clients, while those without it lose 3 potential customers to competitor websites offering better deals on products or services similar what they offer themselves.
The cost of media is climbing higher than ever, third-party cookies are going away in 2023, and people’s attention span is shorter than ever before. What are we going to do to stand out from the crowd as lean, effective marketers?
The answer to this question, like any good lawyer would tell you, is: “it depends.” Having said that, we believe shifting your priority towards generating organic traffic with high purchase intent likely applies to all businesses.
Ask yourself this: When searching for answers on Google, are you more likely to click on an ad or the top organic result? A 2021 report from Zero Limit Web revealed that 71.33% of [search engine] searches resulted in a page 1 Google organic click.
These results, although interesting, are not surprising considering we as marketers know that with enough money you can pay for that top spot on Google, but the most trusted, viewed, and unique content will always get that elusive #1 spot on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
In addition, the cost of paid media is continuously increasing and it’s becoming critical for brands and businesses to establish their capability to generate traffic and buyers through organic sources.
The journey to that number one spot is how great online marketing strategies separate themselves from the rest.
Benefits of an SEO Based Digital Marketing Strategy
SEO is a highly accessible and affordable medium to get relevant and desired user traffic to your website. As a result of an effective SEO strategy, your website and business gain higher visibility and generate more leads, business conversations, and sales.
Read on to learn about why any business needs to be incorporating SEO as part of its larger online marketing strategy… and do it sooner rather than later.
1. SEO Drives Up Website Traffic through Organic Searches
Organic searches dominate more than half of web traffic worldwide. 60% of the high-quality leads are generated through SEO directly. Creating an optimized and SEO-based digital marketing strategy ranks your website higher on SERPs and makes them highly visible to your potential customers.
The result is more website traffic, nearly double the click-through rate, and much higher conversions.
2. Business Credibility & Enhanced User Experience
Websites are ranked higher in search results when they are considered to have higher credibility. SEO-based online marketing strategies create optimized content, elements, and quality backlinks for your business website which establish your website’s authority and contribute to a higher rank in SERPs. As a result, your website will see higher visitor engagement, lower bounce rate, and visitors spending more time on your website.
All these factors raise your business visibility and in turn the trustworthiness of your website and credibility of your business.
3. Cost-effective Growth
SEO-based online marketing strategy is not only one of the most powerful digital marketing strategy, but also the most cost-effective, especially for small businesses.
Traditional marketing channels like print and television have high price tags and low impact in a tech-focused world. These offline marketing strategies also lack attribution and analytics that can help you make data-driven decisions with ultimate precision. Generating results from paid marketing strategies such as SEM ( Search Engine Marketing) and PPC (Pay Per Click advertising) are highly dependent on your advertising budget. More budget = more results.
SEO is relatively inexpensive and has the potential to be more powerful than traditional marketing and paid marketing combined! Taking steps towards SEO now can yield big results at a fraction of the cost.
4. Local SEO Optimization Increases Website Traffic and Conversions
Local SEO is a big opportunity for brick and mortar businesses to increase their visibility in the geographical areas that they service.
If you’re looking to get started with Local SEO, follow this simple checklist:
- Create and optimize your Google My Business profile
- Publish listings in local online business directories
- Request Google reviews with previous customers, partners, and employees
Planning these activities and monitoring your analytics will yield results within a few months. Feel free to reach out for a more comprehensive local search audit and recommendations from Hook + Ladder!
5. Higher Ranking in Voice Search
“Hey Google. Find the perfect gift for my 3-year-old daughter.”
Voice search queries are gaining popularity. According to Google, voice searches amount to 20% of all mobile searches. And they are projected to cross almost 50% in the near future. 20% right now amounts to nearly 427 million voice searches every day. This comes to an enormous 153 billion voice searches per year.
An effective SEO-based digital marketing strategy focused on voice search can tap into this huge opportunity and put your small business at the forefront and let you scale up pretty quickly.
Now’s the time to understand voice search.
6. Gain Insights on Your Consumer Base
SEO-based digital marketing strategy uses data, tools, and formats to interpret your customer’ wants and needs. These include SERP analysis, search query data, analytics data & AI insight tools (to name a few).
The data generated gets you deep insights on macro market shifts, market trends, and current consumer choices. There is no second-guessing anymore. Now, you can correctly anticipate your target consumers’ needs and shape your products and services as per your consumer choices.
Also Read: A Comprehensive Guide To Google Analytics 4
7. Improved Website Usability and Competitive Edge
SEO-based digital marketing strategy optimizes your website and improves the user experience. Search engine optimization does not end with optimized content and the insertion of relevant keywords. It also includes ongoing improvement of your website, adding quality backlinks, and making your site more responsive and faster.
This results in improved website usability and higher ranks on SERPs. This in turn leads to increased CTR (Click-through-ratio) and higher conversions. Your business improves, as a result, beating your competition easily.
8. Quantifiable Results
With SEO based online marketing strategy you can track and measure your search results. Through the use of analytical tools, you can measure impressions & traffic generated, your website ranking, and conversions based on different criteria. Attribution and data will help you improve your SEO program quickly once you start seeing results.
9. Good PR
With an SEO-based digital marketing strategy, you can get increased business visibility without spending any extra funds on hiring a PR. Integration of your website with your social media handles and review forums coupled with positive reviews gets your business extra publicity and good PR.
Final Takeaway
Ready to get started building or improving on your SEO strategy? Great! Although SEO is normally considered a long term strategy, there are many quick wins to drive more impressions, traffic, and sales to your businesses.
We’re here to help. Feel free to reach out for a SEO audit and recommendations on how you can climb to the top of Google search results.
Author
Olivia Steckly
Client Success Manager at Hook + Ladder Digital
