Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of practices designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results. In other words, SEO is all about optimizing your website’s presence on search engines through various tactics, and because organic search is one of the greatest ways for people to discover your website, a good SEO strategy is necessary to increase traffic to your website.
SEO is as much about people as it is about search engines. It’s important to understand what people are searching for online, and knowing how to answer their questions will connect you right to them. Knowing your audience’s intent and being able to deliver it in a way that search engine crawlers can find and understand is the sweet spot of SEO.
What are the objectives of SEO?
If your business does not have a website, there is a high chance that you could be missing out on all the benefits that ranking on search engines can offer your business. If you do own a website, having a distinct online presence offers more opportunities to increase the visibility of your business online, among many other benefits.
The role that SEO has in your business’s digital marketing may include:
Boost your authority and credibility online
SEO can help boost your authority and credibility online, because the higher that your website ranks on search engines, the more trusted your business will seem to both your target audience and search engine crawlers. This can boost brand reputation and encourage visitors to trust and engage with the brand.
Improve organic search rankings
By optimizing your website’s content, structure, and technical aspects, SEO helps improve its ranking on search engines. A higher ranking leads to more visibility and traffic, which can translate into more leads and sales. This can be achieved through several tactics, such as keyword research, on-page optimization, technical optimization, and link building.
Gain organic website traffic
SEO can be used as a customer acquisition tool. By conducting effective SEO, you will help to drive traffic to your website, which is done by improving your visibility on search engines, or in other words, your rank position. This traffic can then be leveraged to convert these new visitors into customers, subscribers, or followers.
Enhance user experience
SEO involves optimizing a website’s structure, content, and navigation, which can enhance your user experience. Ensuring your website is accessible is something that is important to search engines, such as Google. There is strong evidence that Google rewards accessibility when ranking websites, and even has its very own Webmaster Guidelines that websites can follow as best practices. By making your website accessible, you are also making sure that everyone on the internet who lands on your website has a decent user experience, including people who may have particular disabilities. This, in turn, can reduce bounce rates, increase user engagement, and boost conversions.
Surpass your competition
SEO can help your business gain a competitive advantage over your competitors. This can include having more topical content via keyword research, greater website experience through accessibility best practices, ranking in a higher position on the SERP, greater brand awareness, and ultimately more targeted and converting traffic.
Maximize ROI
SEO is a cost-effective digital marketing strategy that can generate a high return on investment (ROI) when done right. SEO provides long-term benefits, as once you achieve a high-ranking position, you can continue to receive leads from it (as long as you’re able to compete for that top position). By driving more organic traffic and leads, SEO can contribute to a brand’s revenue growth and bottom line.
Support other aspects of your digital marketing strategy
SEO can support other aspects of your digital marketing strategy, and vice versa. SEO can support social media, paid advertising, email marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing, and more.
While SEO is just one single digital marketing tactic in the grand scheme of things, it’s still so important to include it in your overall digital marketing strategy.
