It takes more than just a snazzy website and great copy to land customers. Even with the best website design, a low ranking on search engines may mean that you are missing out on profitable customers and engagement. And with more than 100 billion searches conducted globally every month, it’s hard to ignore the importance of good SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Here are five reasons why SEO is important to your business:
Most People Use Search Engines
The fact that most people rely heavily on search engines to find information is the leading reasons to optimize your website for search. Search is the #1 driver of traffic to content sites, meaning that it should be the first order of business for companies trying to expand their business through their website. In fact, the vast majority of Internet users use search engines in order to find information they need, with 92 percent of Internet users using search, and 56 percent reporting that they use search regularly.
With people turning to search engines as their first choice in finding the information that they want, it’s obvious that being ranked well will expose your business to the maximum number of possible customers.
More Traffic
By getting keywords or terms related to your business to the top of the search engine rankings, you will be able to receive a major boost in traffic. Consider this mind boggling statistic: search results that appear on the first page of a search receive 90 percent of all traffic, with the top three search results receiving more than 60 percent of all traffic, and the top result receiving a full third of ALL traffic for that term. Simply moving up a few spots on the search list can therefore make a huge difference on the number of users who will visit your website, which will in turn have a positive impact on sales and interaction.
Targeted Traffic
The fact that a good search engine ranking sends your website traffic specifically on a key word or phrase is probably the biggest reason why SEO is so important. While it’s great if you do manage to get large amounts of traffic, your traffic simply won’t convert into sales if people are uninterested in the product that you’re selling. With good SEO, the customers that want exactly what you’re offering will be the first to visit your website, ensuring that you both are satisfied as efficiently as possible.
Cost Effective Advertising
Many businesses don’t realise that SEO is actually a relatively inexpensive and complementary method of advertising. With the cost of paid search marketing through popular programs such as Adwords increasing, it’s becoming more and more expensive to reach the potential customers you may want. However, it costs very little to implement a successful SEO programme. Not only that, but many internet users report that they prefer organic search results to paid results, meaning that you may actually get a better return on investment by focusing on SEO over paid advertising.
Branding and Credibility
Simply having your website appear at the top of search engine rankings can improve your branding and credibility. By getting your business name close to the top of search queries, you’ll quickly be able to garner a high level of name recognition. As a result, people will begin to gain trust, and will therefore be more likely to purchase from you or take advice you offer.
Even if you haven’t begun to focus your efforts on SEO, it certainly isn’t too late to start. Greenlight ITC will be happy to improve your SEO ranking, thereby providing you with more leads, customers and revenue. Contact Greenlight today for a free site audit on your site, and we’ll help get your site up to the top of the search engine list.
