5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs SEO to Survive

When you Google a product or service your company sells, does your company's name appear near the top of the organic search results? Are you on the first page? Are you anywhere to be found?

If not, you are losing out on potential customers. Fact: 70% of clicks in Google search results go to the top 5 listings. If you are not in the top 5, you are fighting among the hungry also-rans for the remaining thirty percent of the pie. That’s not a recipe for success.

Have you ever wondered why some companies seemingly always appear near the top of Google search results? How come they are the lucky 70%ers? It’s not luck. It’s by design.

They appear at the top because they have implemented good SEO -- search engine optimization -- on their website. Investing in SEO not only gets them to the top of the search rankings, SEO brings a host of other competitive advantages.

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5 Ways SEO Helps Your Business Survive

Here are 5 ways SEO helps a company succeed and why SEO services must be part of any company’s digital marketing strategy in order for the business to survive.

1. SEO Builds Trust & Credibility

Consumers trust Google. People use Google every day to locate products and services. This applies to B2B as much as it does to B2C. By ranking high in search results, your business builds trust and credibility with potential customers. High search rankings will enhance your brand awareness. As consumers become used to seeing your company name in search results, their trust in your brand grows. For small businesses especially, SEO is a great way to stand out from the crowd.

SEO also builds trust by creating a better user experience. SEO is about more than content. Good SEO also involves optimizing your site for speed, usability and performance. These attributes improve the user experience for visitors to your website, thereby leaving a good impression of your brand in their minds and ensure repeat traffic and loyalty.

2. SEO Brings High-Quality Traffic

When it comes to drawing high quality traffic, SEO outperforms paid advertising. Many savvy web users purposely avoid clicking on Google ads, fearful that they are about to be sold something. Users like these would rather click on organic links. Statistics bear this out. Studies show that organic search listings receive 90% of the clicks in Google. The best part is, these are high-intent visitors. By virtue of having searched on a keyword, they are showing high interest in a product or service. These people aren’t just window shopping.

3. SEO Leads to More Engagement, Conversions & Sales

SEO significantly influences engagement and purchasing decisions. First off, SEO helps visitors find you. Secondly, visitors from organic search have higher conversion rates than paid visitors. The average conversion rate on organic traffic to leads across all industries is 16%. In contrast, the average conversion rate for paid ads is 2.35%. Investing in SEO provides more bang for your buck.

SEO is also a key contributor to conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies. SEO-optimized landing pages have a better chance of converting visitors into leads. SEO also helps you address prospects at all stages of the funnel and makes sure you are providing the best user experiences and content for these visitors.

SEO is also a vital element of inbound marketing. Successful inbound marketing campaigns all have SEO at their core as a to attract prospects.

4. SEO Lowers Your Cost Per Acquisition

In contrast to paid ads, SEO is free. This makes it less expensive than advertising to acquire customers. The latest data shows that the average CPC (Cost Per Click) across all the industries is $2.69. Removing this spend from your marketing budget and replacing it with SEO can reduce your overall cost per acquisition. The nice part, too, is that once you attain good organic listings, you almost never lose them. The work you put in climbing the charts of organic rankings pays dividends down the line.

5. SEO Attracts New Customers

SEO can help you attract new customers and break into new markets. 93% of online activities start with a search. There are 3.5 billion searches conducted every day. As consumer behavior has shifted to the web, companies need to have solid SEO strategies in place to meet these expectations. Otherwise, they are missing out on ripe opportunities. Once you’ve optimized your website for your critical products and service keywords, you can expand to other keywords and grow your footprint. As your online authority improves, it will be easier to rank for these new keyword phrases.

Get a Free SEO Consultation

To learn how SEO can help your business survive and grow, schedule a free SEO consultation with an Inbound 281 digital marketing strategist today.