You may be asking yourself why your business needs SEO. Is it even going to work for your business? What are the benefits of SEO for your online business?
First, let’s talk about SEO before we tell you why you need it. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the art and science of organically making your business, initiatives, or services visible on page one of the search engines like Google, Bing, Duckduckgo, and more. With this organic initiative, a lot of businesses today invest to leverage their online presence and reach their target customers around the globe. This digital marketing initiative is very crucial for your website since it involves users’ website experience. This may affect their buying journey while navigating through your online store.
We have listed down high-level information about SEO that might give you insights if your business needs it or not.
SEO is not SEM/PPC
There is a lot of misconception about SEO that sometimes it is mistaken as SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and/or PPC (Pay-per-click). Search Engine Optimization is the organic part of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) while SEM is both the organic and paid ones. For PPC, you will often see search results with the word “Ad” beside the link to the relevant results. Organic results to your query will come next after the ads.
SEO is a long-term investment
SEO is like planting a seed. You need to nourish your website by optimizing all of its areas to become fruitful. If you are interested to invest in long-term strategy, SEO is the answer for you since it can promise long-time results that may be seen after weeks, months, or even years. And if you are not into a long-term investment, it may not be the best option for you. But do not worry, there are other options aside from SEO like investing in PPC, where you can see the results the moment you pay for your initiatives.
Reach customers organically
According to Overlo Philippines, Google handles 8.5 Billion searches per day around the globe. This number tells us how search engines are being used by people in their everyday lives. Scenarios like students searching for valuable information for their research and people asking about the best burger store near their location, etc. Inquiries that may lead customers to your website with the help of keywords, questions, and local listings (if you have a physical store).
People consult Google first
Let’s face it. People nowadays consult Google first. Even the nearest pizza store, home workouts, solving math problems, or even treatment for tonsilitis. Because of this, we can consider Google as the greatest competitor of professional workers like doctors, teachers, gym instructors, etc. With that in mind, it now gives businesses the advantage to sell their products and services to reach their target audiences using search engines.
Understand your customer
The data provided by SEO analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics), enables you to know what your customers think. Web analytics tools give website owners amazing insights into their customers’ buying behavior. Though, you may ask a web analyst or an SEO analyst to introduce you to the metrics and other technical matters if you are having a hard time understanding the numbers on your dashboards.
Get featured in the SERP
Search engines like Google display search results that are in a very special appearance. We call these search results “Featured Snippets”. Featured Snippets are the highlights of the SERP. This can be in a form of FAQs and many more. Below is the list of featured snippets available on Google:
- Adwords (Top and Bottom)
- Image Pack
- Local Pack
- Knowledge Panel
- In-Depth Article
- Knowledge Card
- Knowledge Graph
- Videos
- Related Questions
- Shopping Results
- Tweet
You may inquire to us how to get these amazing featured snippets.
These are just high-level concepts of what SEO is and what it can do to leverage your business. If you are into investing great effort that gives long-term results, then SEO is for you. Just remember this quote to remind you of how important SEO is for your online business.
“The best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google search results”
Welcome to the world of SEO!
