Why is SEO Important and Do You Need It for Your Business?

Nowadays, it is increasingly important for businesses to achieve a strong online presence. Clients, customers, and users are on the Internet, and it is very important to find and reach them. But how? Among the most effective methods for a successful presentation, reaching users, increasing visibility, and improving business results online is search engine optimization. In this article, we will explain why SEO is important, what its benefits are, and why it should be part of your marketing strategy.

What is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing your website. It is a set of activities and strategies that help your website increase online visibility and have the best possible performance and positions in organic search engine results (SERPs). The focus can be on your service, product, industry, or company.

The most known results of SEO are higher positions in the search results. However, the definitive goal of SEO is to achieve better business goals (conversions), which, among others, can be:

• increase in sales, profits, or subscriptions,
• greater number of queries,
• amount of downloaded eBooks,
• number of relevant users,
• etc.

Strategies and activities are numerous and depend on the state of the website and business, business plans, and financial possibilities. However, be careful not to be misled by some of the SEO myths.

Why is SEO Important for Business?

Here is why SEO is important for business. It:

• increases visibility,
• leads to more traffic on the website,
• instills trust and credibility,
• achieves a better user experience,
• realizes competitive advantage,
• gives measurable results,
• offers a long-term strategy,
• maximizes the results of advertising campaigns and
• ultimately, promotes the growth of your business.

Let’s break it down a little deeper.

Increased Visibility

SEO plays a key role in increasing the visibility of your business on the Internet. By optimizing your website, you can improve its ranking in search engine results. At the same time, by optimizing the pages and increasing their authority and value, search engines begin to display each of them as a result for numerous searches that are not targeted and that did not even occur to you. All this ensures that your company is presented to an even wider audience i.e., a significant increase in its online visibility. As a result, you have greater exposure, brand recognition, and the potential to reach more users.

More Website Traffic

With better visibility comes increased website traffic. You show up to more people and attract more visitors who are researching or actively looking for the products or services you offer. By optimizing your content and selecting relevant keywords, combined with other SEO techniques, you can drive quality organic traffic to your website. This will increase your chances of achieving your business goals i.e., conversions.

Additionally, when your website is appearing in search results it promotes your brand too and intensifies your brand awareness. So, in addition to increasing organic traffic, it increases direct traffic as well.

Enhanced Trust and Credibility

Trust and credibility are essential for any business. When we talk about SEO and your successful presence on the Internet, their role is even greater. On the one hand, they are important for attracting visitors and the likelihood of their engagement and conversions. On the other hand, they are also very important to internet search engines. They are part of Google’s E-E-A-T rule found in the search rater guidelines, which refers to experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

SEO is important because it contributes to increasing credibility and trust in various ways. Some of them are:

• website optimization for a better user experience,
• achieving a higher rank in the search results,
• publication of valuable content,
• encouraging and displaying positive reviews,
• implementation of security measures,
• building authoritative backlinks.

Building trust and authority is an ongoing process. SEO strategies focused on building and maintaining credibility and trust and maintaining a strong online presence will help strengthen your reputation and you will stand out from the competition.

Better User Experience

If users have a flawless interaction with your website, easily find the desired information and perform the desired actions, this makes them satisfied. Their visits are longer, the rate of leaving the page is lower, the conversion rate is higher, and the probability of their return and recommendation to others is higher. Various SEO optimization methods are aimed at improving the user experience. Fast response times, short loading times and mobile-friendliness of your website increase the likelihood that the user will be satisfied. However, when the user comes to the site, the ease of his navigation is extremely important for his satisfaction and the achievement of your goals. SEO achieves this by optimizing the structure and building intuitive navigation.

Competitive Advantage

The online landscape is extremely competitive. SEO can help you stand out and outperform your competitors. One of the tactics is conducting a competition analysis. That way you will get insights into their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Using the information obtained, you can develop a better SEO strategy to outrank them and get a higher share of organic traffic.

Source: Advanced Web Ranking

Through comprehensive keyword research, SEO finds specific keywords (niche keywords and long-tail keywords) that your competitors may have overlooked and that can bring you high-quality traffic.

If your company has physical locations or you target specific geographic markets, optimizing for local search queries and using location-specific keywords is essential. Thus, you increase visibility in the target area and surpass competitors who do not have effective local targeting.

Measurable Results

The ability to measure results is one of the great SEO advantages. Using a variety of analytical and monitoring tools, you can measure numerous performance indicators. Some of them are website visitors, users who returned to the website, sales, user engagement i.e., interaction with your content, number of downloads of the offered content, abandonment rate, positions in the search results, etc. These insights allow you to monitor progress, identify areas for improvement and adapt your SEO strategy.

Long-Term Strategy

Applying SEO best practices is a solid foundation for long-term success. Although it takes some time to see the first results, SEO activities have a long-lasting impact on your business. It is a long-term investment that gives sustainable results.

Maximization of Paid Campaigns Results

It is often the case that people think that SEO and advertising do not correlate. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Combining SEO with your PPC campaigns can greatly improve their effectiveness. By optimizing landing pages and better-targeting keywords, SEO helps reduce the cost of clicks and maximize the return on investment (ROI) of paid campaigns.

Is SEO Important for Every Kind of Business?

Yes, SEO is crucial for businesses of all sizes and industries. However, business goals, industry competitiveness, marketing strategies, and other factors make SEO necessary for some businesses, desirable for others, and just good to have for the rest. Let’s consider some of the indicators that determine how necessary and important SEO is to you.

Online Presence

If your company has an online presence, regardless of whether your primary business is online or offline, you need SEO. Potential buyers and users go through different stages in the realization of their wishes (the so-called consumer journey). It does not matter if their intention is the realization of the planned online or only research online, and realization offline. A significant share of consumers search for relevant products and services online and often make final decisions based on them. SEO becomes crucial to reach and engage them. By optimizing your online presence and increasing visibility, you connect with your audience and make it easier for potential customers and users to find you.

Competition

If your industry is very competitive, SEO is necessary because it can give you an advantage. As we have already mentioned, there are numerous activities and tactics whit which SEO can help you stand out from your competitors, win your market share, reach audience segments that are not so saturated, and attract more traffic.

Business Goals

Your business goals are very important in determining the importance of SEO. If your goals include online sales, generating leads, expanding the client base, or improving (any) conversions, SEO is necessary for you because it can greatly contribute to their achievement. Its power and results grow if you include it in a comprehensive digital strategy and harmonize it with other channels: social networks, paid advertising, and content marketing.

Local Business

If you offer a product or service in a certain geographical area, local SEO is very important to you. It will help you appear in search results for location-based queries, such as “antique shop in [city]” or “restaurant near me”. When you operate locally, you must increase local visibility, as targeted as possible, to make it easier for potential clients to find you.

Source: Think with Google

So, for most companies, SEO strategies can significantly contribute to long-term success in the digital environment. The importance of applying SEO can vary depending on business goals and target audience. By neglecting SEO, it will be much more difficult for you to connect with the audience, attract the desired traffic and achieve conversions.

When Do I Need SEO?

You need SEO when you want to establish a strong online presence, achieve long-term results, attract targeted traffic to your website, and be competitive in the digital environment. Here are some possible situations when it is necessary:

• launch of a new website,
• expanding to a new market,
• website redesign,
• business in a competitive industry,
• improving the results of the website,
• maximizing the effectiveness of digital marketing,
• compliance with search engine algorithms.

Launching a New Website

If you have decided to launch a new website, the implementation of SEO strategies and standards is crucial. The most common mistake we come across is that companies and individuals first create a website, and then turn to an SEO expert with the question of what needs to be fixed. You will save a lot of money, time, and nerves if you include SEO in the implementation of the project already when you first come up with the idea of building a website. Namely, compliance with technical SEO requirements, planning structure and navigation, and researching and mapping keywords are the foundations of a website that help it rank well in search results and attract organic traffic. If you prepare all this in advance and build your website accordingly, you will not have to worry later because something was done incorrectly and pay additional developer hours for the necessary repairs.

Expansion to New Market

When you plan to expand into a new market or target a new demographic audience, SEO can be of great help. Conducting localized keyword research and implementing targeted SEO strategies will help you reach your desired goal. If you expand your business to markets where other languages are spoken, it is very important to correctly implement multilingualism (use correct markings in coding, connect content in different languages, inform Internet search engines about the basic language, etc.).

Website Redesign

If you have decided to redesign your existing website, it is very important, just like when starting a new one, to immediately include SEO in your plans. Before proceeding with the redesign, you should prepare all the SEO instructions that should be implemented during the preparation of the new design and development. Consider whether it makes sense to spend time and money on something that may look nice but will not bring the desired results. It could even lead to the loss of current positions. It is necessary to make sure that the new website is better than the old one and that the new design, structure, and content are optimized for search engines. In this way, you will preserve the current organic positions, prevent the loss of visibility, and lay the foundations for further growth and advancement.

Business in a Competitive Industry

If you operate in a highly competitive industry, if you want to achieve your goals and surpass your competition, SEO is extremely important. As we mentioned earlier, by analyzing your competition, selecting, and targeting keywords, and optimizing your website, you can gain a competitive edge and drive organic traffic.

Improving Website Results

If you are not satisfied with your website’s traffic, conversion rate, bounce rate, or some other results, SEO can help you. By researching current results and difficulties, it will identify the underlying problem and strategies that should help. By optimizing your website and its content, fixing technical issues, adjusting the structure, and improving the user experience, you can improve your results and achieve your desired goals.

Maximizing the Effectiveness of Digital Marketing

A comprehensive digital strategy is usually responsible for achieving the best business goals. However, if your website is not optimized, you may miss the desired results in other digital channels. Integrate SEO into your strategy and you will improve the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns, social media advertising, and other digital activities.

Compliance with Search Engine Algorithms

Search engines are constantly updating their algorithms, trying to better respond to users’ queries and provide them with the best possible user experience. At the same time, they try to catch the websites which use dishonest methods to achieve the best possible organic positions and results. To successfully respond to all updates and maintain and improve your positions and results, you need to constantly adjust your SEO strategies and activities.

Why is SEO Important – Conclusion

By investing in SEO, you can achieve long-term success, gain a competitive advantage, and increase the effectiveness of your marketing activities. By strategically implementing SEO techniques, following, and adapting to industry trends, and consistently improving your online presence, you can achieve your business goals. Integrate SEO into your overall marketing strategy, attract targeted traffic, and outperform your competitors by positioning yourself as a reliable and user-friendly solution.

If you are still not sure whether you need SEO, contact us and we will be happy to identify together with you where and how it could help you the most.