Ten benefits of SEO for business

By Maria Potter – Digital Executive

The list of benefits of search engine optimisation, (SEO) are endless, from helping to increase brand awareness to generating leads and increasing sales. Wondering whether you should invest in SEO for your business? SEO has the fourth largest ROI and 88% of marketers using SEO will increase or main their investment in 2023. Without at least some presence on Google, your business will not have a crucial competitive advantage.

Let’s take a look at why it is so important for you to invest in search engine optimisation and the 10 benefits of SEO for business.

1. Increases brand awareness

Improving your search engine rankings and reaching the first page of Google all contributes to an increase in brand awareness. Even if the user doesn’t necessarily click through to your site, they have still seen your brand name and you have developed a touch point for them.

Touch points are interactions between a business and a potential customer that occur during the customer’s journey. Touch points significantly influence the customer experience as well as brand perception. Google is one of the largest channels where you can develop touch points for your brand.

2. Helps you generate quality leads

In 2022, according to Hubspot, SEO was the second most effective method for acquiring new customers and leads. SEO allows you to get in front of customers who are looking for your type of product or service, having searched for a specific key phrase in a search engine. This generates ‘hot leads’ as they are customers who are ready to commit to a purchase

SEO helps to create a consistent flow of quality leads, unlike pay per click (PPC) campaigns that stop bringing in leads when the campaign is over.

3. Boosts credibility

75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results – that is no surprise! By ranking on the first page, SEO boosts your company’s credibility by signaling to search engines such as Google, that they trust your website. However, it isn’t just optimising your service pages that can boost your credibility, but also optimising your Google My Business listing.

Your Google My Business listing appears in all local searches and is an easy way to maintain an online presence. It enables your customers to see the details they need about your business, at a glance (another key touch point).

4. Gives you a competitive advantage

Ranking high in search results is a great way to gain a competitive advantage in your sector. The more keywords you rank for, the more users will be visiting your website and they will tend to keep your brand in their mind.

You don’t want to lose potential customers and leads, because your competitors are maximising their SEO use. By investing in SEO, you will be getting valuable traffic to your product or service, not your competitors.

5. Increases your following on social media

Once your traffic starts increasing, you have a higher chance of your social media following increasing too. Customers who are finding you from relatable searches will most likely be trying to find you on social media so they can keep up to date with your product or services. Linking to your social media pages on site and having a strong interlinking strategy to keep this user journey going is essential.

Even if your leads don’t become customers straight away, they have entered the sales funnel and are seeing more and more touch points through your content.

6. Improves website usability

In 2021, Google started prioritising user experience as a ranking factor. Google now focuses on page speed, Core Web Vitals and product reviews.

The better on-page experience you provide to your users through quality content, a strong structure and an engaging, easy-to-use design, the higher Google will rank your website overall.

7. Encourages users to stay on your website

High quality, relevant content that has been optimised for search engines will help encourage your user to remain on the page and increase dwell time. Not only will this boost your ranking but it will also improve your entire website’s click through rate (CTR).

Directly related to your CTR is the bounce rate of your site. This is measured by dividing the number of one-page visits by the entire number of entries into the website as a whole. If the customer has searched for a specific question or phrase and has landed on your site, they expect to read content which is relevant to their search, if not, they will click straight off the page. This is referred to as a user ‘bouncing’ off your page. A high bounce rate is an indication that the content isn’t of a high enough standard or isn’t related to its title. This in turn creates a poor user experience and users are unlikely to return.

8. Boosts your long-term marketing strategy

The best SEO strategies are on-going, reactive to changes in the search landscape and yield long-lasting results. Investing in search engine optimisation for your business can begin to show results anywhere between six to twelve months from the date you instruct your digital marketing agency or implement in-house.

By building a comprehensive and in-depth marketing and SEO strategy, you’ll gain a competitive advantage online.

9. Maximise the success of your PPC campaigns

Harnessing the power of SEO and PPC together means that you are reinforcing your presence in search engines. SEO helps your website appear at the top of organic search results, whereas if you run a PPC campaign it provides users with two opportunities to visit your website.

Conversions on your targeted landing page are likely to increase if you incorporate SEO into your PPC campaigns.

10. Provides quantifiable analytics

One of the main benefits of SEO for business is the usable, quantifiable data that it produces. Using a tool such as Google Analytics allows you to set measurable goals and develop structured strategies to achieve them. The data gives you concrete answers to what is working, what factors may be affecting your current ranking and what you can improve to help increase your rankings.