Search engine optimization (SEO) focuses on improving your visibility in organic search results on Google, Bing, and other search engines. The benefits of SEO go beyond organic traffic, though, instead extending all the way to your bottom line.
Get an inside look at these SEO advantages now!
15 SEO benefits
Learn more about SEO’s benefits for businesses and website owners now:
1. Build credibility
No matter your industry, from eCommerce to professional services, you need trust to succeed. Trust is critical in search engine optimization — Google uses several systems to understand a site’s credibility and trust, like PageRank.
As a part of your SEO efforts, you’ll focus on building trust and credibility by:
Producing unique, helpful content that demonstrates expertise and authority
Including trust signals, like awards and testimonials, in your site’s design
Installing a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate for greater site security
The above optimizations not only help your SEO efforts but also your conversion rate optimization (CRO) efforts. When people see these signals (ie. a secure, helpful, and reputable website), they’re more likely to choose that business and its products or services.
2. Grow brand awareness
Another advantage of SEO is how it promotes brand awareness for your business.
Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers are familiar with your brand, goods, and services. Having more brand awareness means people will recognize and return to your company.
When someone finds your website on the search engine results pages (SERPs), they might not buy immediately. However, they will see you ranking in the top results as they look for related products and services.
That means that they will be more aware of your brand and company, even if they don’t convert immediately.
Local search result for Italian restaurant
Brand awareness can help people form positive associations with your brand, boosting your ratings and helping you convert leads over time.
3. Attract qualified traffic
Traffic is great, but qualified traffic is better.
With SEO, you can target the most relevant users and reach them via search. For example, instead of targeting ‘white sneakers’, you could target a long-tail keywords like ‘white hands-free slip-on shoes’ to reach your target market.
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The best part is long-tail keywords are typically easier to rank for than short-tail keywords (because they have less competition), which can help you see success sooner with search engine optimization.
4. Get promoted 24/7
Whether you’re on vacation, in a meeting, or sleeping, search engine optimization works for your business. No matter the day or hour, people can use a search engine like Google to discover your company.
This SEO benefit is fantastic for companies offering emergency services. In an instant, people can find your emergency services (say plumbing), connect with your on-call team, and get their plumbing fixed.
5. Improve bottom-line metrics
Most businesses want more than traffic from search engine optimization — they want results. Depending on your business model, these ‘results’ are often qualified leads or online sales.
The advantage of SEO is it’s able to improve both bottom-line metrics.
Speaking from our 25++ years of experience as an SEO service provider to business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, we’ve seen search engine optimization deliver on these metrics.
Just in the past five years, for example, our clients have generated:
7 million qualified leads
12 million online transactions
$10 billion in revenue
Focus your SEO efforts on your target market and proven best practices, and you can use search to deliver real, measurable results.
6. Optimize ad spend
SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising work fantastic together. When starting SEO (and waiting for it to work), businesses will use paid advertising to get instant visibility, along with all its benefits, from traffic to sales.
However, as your SEO performance grows, you can start to optimize your ad spend, like by:
Focusing ad spend on branded terms or remarketing campaigns
Diverting ad spend to organic efforts, like content creation
While PPC is a valuable digital marketing strategy to have, it’s also one you shouldn’t depend on as a business because PPC requires a constant cashflow to operate — in comparison, SEO can deliver long-term performance after your initial investment.
7. Streamline buyer journeys
Your typical buyer journey (aside from emergency plumbing issues) encompasses multiple steps and touchpoints. A benefit of SEO is your business can meet users throughout these touchpoints, building their awareness and trust.
For example, you can create SEO content that targets:
Top of the funnel searches
Middle of the funnel searches
Bottom of the funnel searches
These initial touchpoints can create other interactions, too. For example, if your middle-of-the-funnel content invites users to take a micro-conversion, like downloading a guide, you can then interact with them via email to nurture them towards a bigger action.
8. Build omni-channel campaigns
The benefits of SEO extend beyond itself.
With your organic traffic, you can support or build omni-channel campaigns, like:
Creating remarketing campaigns using organic traffic
Generating email subscribers via calls-to-action (CTA) on organic content
Repurposing SEO content for social media posts or email newsletters
Compared to purchasing the traffic via paid search, you’ve also generated this multi-purpose traffic at a cost-effective rate.
9. Reduce competitor visibility
Practicing search engine optimization helps your business grow its online visibility while decreasing its competitors. You get that touchpoint with your target market — not the competition — which can make a dramatic difference when a user gets ready to buy.
In comparison, if you aren’t practicing search engine optimization, you’re allowing competitors to have that visibility over you. They get to reach and interact with your target market, which gives them an advantage in the buyer journey.
10. Increase online mentions
Online mentions can build trust, as well as backlinks, both of which benefit SEO.
As you invest in SEO, you’ll likely generate online mentions. That’s because SEO programs often focus on generating useful content that gets shared online, whether it’s a study, tool, or something else.
Whether mentioned in a social media post, website, or email newsletter, these mentions can direct traffic (and backlinks) to your site, which can support your overall search engine optimization goals.
11. Create long-term success
SEO is not an overnight change — it’s an ongoing process. With that comes long-lasting success and revenue for your business. You can enjoy consistent results with your SEO campaign, making your website an active hub.
With any SEO plan, you will invest more resources upfront to make changes to your website and get it up to standards. However, from there, you can earn more traffic, conversions, and revenue, which will last as you keep up with SEO.
12. Track performance
Unlike other traditional forms of marketing, SEO doesn’t leave you guessing about what’s working and what isn’t. With SEO, you can use real data from your campaigns to evaluate them.
Let’s say you stick with traditional methods like cold calling or physical advertisements. In these cases, it’s hard to tell who sees your ad or when people stop engaging with your calls. Plus, there is no way to know how many people interact with your company.
With SEO, you can use various platforms and tools to help you measure traffic, conversions, leads, and more, like Google Analytics.
Google Analytics dashboard showing SEO metrics
This means you always have data that helps you analyze your campaign. That means you can save money and improve your ROI by only investing in strategies that bring in results.
13. Grow marketing ROI
As you invest more time and resources into SEO, you will see greater returns for your company. Since over 40% of revenue is captured by organic traffic, SEO is essential for capturing that traffic and improving your ROI.
SEO can also indirectly benefit other aspects of your digital marketing campaign. If you use email marketing, more people can sign up for your newsletter when they find your website. It can also help convert users who land on your pages from PPC ads.
Your SEO campaign can be the key to making your overall digital presence more secure and profitable.
14. Become an industry name
As you create content and start flying up the SERPs, people will notice — competitors and users alike. You can establish yourself as a resource for industry knowledge rather than just a product or service company.
For example, SEO for energy companies can help businesses develop and optimize content for topics like green or renewable energy.
People will find you naturally as they look for information and see your website over and over. They will form a positive association with your brand, which can encourage them to purchase from you over competitors when they need your products or services.
15. Build career momentum
Beyond its business benefits, SEO can also benefit your career.
If you develop an SEO strategy that delivers those bottom-line metrics and helps a business achieve its objectives, your career will often benefit, whether via promotion, endorsements, or compensation.
Bring SEO’s benefits to your business
From improving traffic quality to lead generation, there are plenty of advantages to SEO.
Start bringing SEO benefits to your businesses with our ITechGloble. Track rankings, research keywords, monitor competitors and find quick wins with our free platform — built for SEOs by ITechGloble.
