Why You Need SEO: Why It’s Important for Your Business
If you ever wonder why you need SEO, look no further than the top of the search engine. Page one, specifically.
Good search engine optimization is what will put you there. And when you’re in that position, you’ll have the potential of getting a substantial amount of search traffic for that particular keyword inquiry.
In the following article, we’ll be discussing all the ways that SEO matters. We’ll also be shedding light on how you can use it to grow your business, brand, and reputation. Let’s begin!
1. Search Engine Optimization Is a Free Traffic Source
One of the best answers to the question of “Why does SEO matter?” is this: it costs you virtually nothing. And from that effort, you can find a potentially huge audience.
But let’s be clear before moving on. To do SEO right, you will need to know the tips, techniques, and best practices for employing it. Nevertheless, that’s an investment of time and learning effort, not money.
The Internet is a massive resource for how to do SEO right. Be mindful of the fact it’s always changing, though. What worked 20 years ago won’t work in 2019.
2. It Improves Traffic Quality
Traffic is usually the big driver when people get excited about the possibilities of SEO. But we submit that the numbers of visitors you get pale in comparison to the quality.
Search engine optimization plays a massively important role in this regard. That’s because it helps to isolate the intent of your potential visitors. You have several automatic qualifiers in a basic search inquiry that tell you highly specific information about what the searcher is looking for.
That information enables you to connect with them on a deeper level. And if you can’t, it at least points out the gaps that need to be filled in your marketing game in order to touch those customer pain points in a way you may not be doing.
3. SEO Easily Identifies Content for the Audience
In 2016, there were around 4.62 billion webpages indexed online. Let’s say it took 20 years to get that far. That means around 231 million new pages are indexed every year.
No one has time to read each and every page. Thanks to SEO, they don’t have to! A good headline and responsible use of keywords and content structure can help users quickly scan and decide if the content fits their needs.
If it does, that allows them to dig into the content’s depths or save it for later consumption. If it doesn’t, then it provides a quick way of being able to tell. Either way, it’s a huge help for searchers who are trying to navigate the massive content database that is the Internet.
That’s especially important for your business because it keeps you from being seen as a waste of time. It also gives off the impression that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t have the content your audience is looking for on a particular search inquiry.
4. It Also Lets Search Engines Crawl Content Faster
SEO 101 dictates that search engine optimization is for search engines. As the artificial intelligence behind these tools grows more humanlike, SEO will continue to adopt a more conversational approach.
Search engines of today can extrapolate relevant searches from certain keyword phrases, even if the phrases don’t share explicit terms. An example?
Say you’re searching for “weight loss solutions.” From that phrase, a search engine knows to look for “foods that can help you lose pounds” or “exercises for people who hate to exercise,” provided your content is produced in a way that signals these connections.
If you structure your content accordingly, search engines will pick up on it. As a result, you’ll rank higher than your competition. 
5. SEO Enhances Paid Search
Another example of the importance of SEO comes on the paid side. While you can draw some pretty impressive results with organic search, you’ll eventually want to invest in a marketing campaign to grow your reach beyond what is possible organically.
Good SEO will enhance these paid search efforts by “proving” your content from the outset. It also gives you a clearer picture of who you need to be targeting and how to go about it.
In fact, the only way to scale your business through paid search is to have a good foundation of content and targeting under your belt. SEO gives you that.
6. If Done Right It Will Greatly Increase Brand Importance
Another side of effective search engine optimization is the branding aspect. Don’t just fixate on the words “search engine” in that phrase.
What you’re doing with SEO is so much more important than where your link falls on a list of search results. It’s more about establishing your brand and where it “belongs” in the marketplace.
The better your SEO, the more visible your brand will be to everyday search traffic. Visibility is crucial to establishing the sort of long-term presence that you need to be seen as a relevant brand.
7. SEO Can Help with Offline Efforts
This especially is true for local and geographical search. How many times have you used your phone to search for a product or service near your location?
These searches are made on-the-go when you’re actively looking to spend money. Small businesses that rank highly for a specific local search will likely see their website visitors become storefront visitors in a matter of minutes.
Essentially, SEO goes from online to offline. It does this by guiding people to your physical location when they’re ready to buy. That makes it increasingly important to ensure your listings are consistent across the web, that they link to your social media profiles and website.
8. It Often Results in Higher Conversions
Search engine optimization can improve the operational efficiency of your budget. It does this by boosting the profit margins between ultimate conversion and the investment you have to make to get a customer to that point.
Well-structured SEO qualifies your lead before they even get to your website. From there, your content takes over pushing them further down the marketing funnel.
It becomes almost impossible for a well-qualified lead to avoid you if you’ve done your job positioning your website and unique offer. The result of all this is you spending less on leads to get more out of them.
9. SEO Boosts the Understanding of What Your Customers Want
Dig deep into the search terms and inquiries of a specific topic, and you’ll find a plethora of information pointing directly to your audience’s pain points. It’s possible you already know many of their pain points. But you’ll discover some gems you hadn’t thought of as well.
Only by going down the proverbial rabbit hole can you see what your customers are up to, where their roadblocks are, and what can be done about them. Doing this digging also gives you an endless supply of ideas for content. And that steady flow of content is what keeps people coming back and referring you to their friends.
10. It Is a Tool of the Trade
We hate to use the phrase “everyone’s doing it” as a way of convincing you to do it as well. But in the case of SEO, it’s as fitting a way to say it as any.
See, anyone out there with a small business and a web presence knows that getting found on the Internet makes or breaks the success, or at least the long-term scalability, of their business. Naturally, this knowledge leads them to SEO.
If they’re doing it and you’re not, who do you think is going to have the advantage? So start paying attention to your SEO now because everyone else is going to be doing it as well. Your challenge is to do it better.
11. It Works for You Around the Clock
A door-to-door salesman has to be out there pounding the pavement every waking minute of his workday. Obviously, that limits him in his ability to grow a customer base.
SEO doesn’t have those limitations. It can be out there working for you in multiple countries, in every time zone, all hours of the day and night. Even when you’re asleep, your website can be generating traffic, leads, and buyers, all because of how you’re targeting those organic searches with your content.
12. You Can Measure It
We like to think of advertising and marketing as two different things. With advertising, you’re shouting your product or service from the rafters to anyone who will listen. With marketing, you’re honing in on the people most likely to be interested in your product or service and tailoring the message more specifically so it will resonate with their urge to buy.
Advertising can give you results through a sheer numbers game. But marketing allows you to better allocate your resources in order to maximize your results. We do marketing.
13. SEO Levels the Playing Field
Good SEO can get you as good as or better visibility than your competition. And that’s true even if you’re a small firm of 20 employees going up against a large company of 200. If you know your stuff and can show it, SEO will take care of you.
This Is Really Why You Need SEO
The real reason why you need SEO is that we haven’t found a better way of reaching the largest audience in the world where they are in a more relevant manner. If you’re ready to take your SEO to the next level, contact TCH Digital Media Marketing today.
