Why Is SEO Important? 8 Reasons to Consider

More customers are searching online to find the products and services they need. Users conduct three to four searches daily for everything from answering a quick question to finding a local business to perform a service for them.

As customers search for services or products online, it’s important for businesses to have an online presence. Search engine optimization (SEO) allows businesses to appear high in search results so users can find them. It also creates benefits like building better customer relationships and establishing yourself as an industry authority.

Learn more about SEO and why it’s essential to your business strategy.

What is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a strategic process that aims to increase website visibility and ranking in search engines. The end goal is increased organic traffic and a more prominent online presence.

As part of their SEO strategy, businesses might research common search queries in their industry, create helpful content, and optimize the user experience on their website.

Search engines aim to organize online information in a helpful way for searchers. SEO involves using various techniques to get your website to the top of the list.

8 Reasons why SEO is important

With SEO, you earn high rankings online without paying for ads. These high rankings lead to increased website traffic, which generates revenue for your business. Beyond high rankings and elevated traffic, you’ll experience many other benefits with SEO. Here are the main reasons why it’s important.

1. Increases visibility and rankings

One of the most important reasons companies invest in SEO is to improve their online rankings. The higher you rank on search engine results pages (SERPs), the more likely customers will click through to your website.

Most website visits come from organic search rather than paid aids, social media clicks, or other sources. Optimizing websites to rank highly on search engines allows you to attract more organic traffic over time as rankings increase.

2. Builds trust, authority, and credibility

If users search multiple times on similar topics and always see your website on the first page of search results, they’ll start to see you as a trusted and credible source of information.

Google also places a high value on Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Though it’s not a specific ranking factor, it affects how people see your content and business.

By consistently following Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines and producing high-quality content and website pages, you will build your authority and credibility in your industry, leading customers to trust your brand.

3. Helps you understand consumer behavior

Since customers do everything from research to shopping online, analyzing their behavior and practicing SEO helps you learn what your customers want and need.

Learning search intent makes SEO more successful. Search intent tells you why users enter a query into a search engine. The primary forms of search intent are:

• Navigational
• Informational
• Commercial
• Transactional

When you understand customer intent, you will discover where they stand in the buyer’s journey and create content that’s more relevant to them.

4. Creates a better user experience

People searching online want a fast and easy way to find information or buy products or services. If they don’t see what they’re looking for, they may leave the site quickly.

Pages with high bounce rates indicate to search engines that your page doesn’t have what they need, and your website will rank lower.

User experience involves creating positive interactions with your website. Beyond getting your site to rank highly, SEO helps you identify areas to improve your user experience, creating more positive user interactions.

5. Saves you money on marketing

Improving your SEO strategy will cost you money, but SEO often has a relatively low cost compared to the benefits you will experience.

By using SEO, you will grow traffic to your website organically without paying for ads on social media or ad placements on SERPs. SEO sees long-term benefits because your site will gain more attention over time without an additional investment like continued ad payments.

6. Brings quantifiable results

The money you invest in SEO will bring an excellent return on investment (ROI). Track this ROI by comparing your investment in SEO to the gain in conversions you received through this investment.

Other data like page rankings, bounce rate, and organic search traffic further indicate your success. Remember that SEO will take several months to generate results. Set these expectations early so you can wait to look for results.

7. Enhances brand reputation

When your business appears frequently in search results, people will begin to associate your company with particular topics and expertise.

As your name pops up repeatedly, searchers see you as an authority in an area. They begin to trust you, leading them to choose your company over a competitor when it comes to buying a product or service.

Your brand sets you apart from others in the market that provide the same products and services — SEO helps you build that brand.

8. Complements other marketing efforts

Your business may already use digital marketing techniques like social media or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. SEO fills in the gaps that other marketing strategies miss.

When you combine SEO with PPC or other marketing efforts, you will benefit your overall marketing performance. For example, you may use SEO initially to attract site visitors, then use PPC remarketing to bring those customers back to purchase.

If you rank organically and in paid search, you will even appear twice in search results, increasing the possibility of getting clicks.

Experience the benefits of SEO with SEO.com

From increasing your visibility and traffic from search engines to enhancing your online brand reputation, SEO brings many benefits to your business. It’s an important strategy to consider in your marketing efforts.

Get the most value from your SEO efforts with professional management services from SEO.com. Over 1500 companies worldwide trust our team to handle their SEO and improve rankings.

Reach out to our team online today to start a conversation about SEO and how we support your business.