Ranking in search results can be make or break for a website, but why are some at the top and some buried beneath them? It’s not a coincidence or luck, but down to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
An online presence in the right places is vital for success and understanding SEO can make a big difference in how your business performs online.
SEO is needed to enhance visibility, encourage targeted traffic, increase credibility, stay ahead of competitors and to help you get the most from your website investment. These are explained further below:
Enhancing visibility
After spending time and effort designing, developing and publishing your website, if no-one can find it, what was the point? Rather than relying on traditional marketing methods, it’s best to utilise the algorithms that search engines use to rank websites to gain visibility. SEO helps organise your site structure, content and keywords, giving you a better chance of being seen for more terms.
Driving targeted traffic
Rather than focusing on raw numbers, SEO can help you gain traffic which is actually valuable and relevant. Through the targeting of specific keywords and search terms which people type in and speak, SEO can then make sure the right page appears for those terms, leading users easily to conversions and engagement.
Building credibility & trust signals
With every site vying for the top spot, SEO can help solidify your authority and credibility against other sites. It helps establish you as a reliable source of information, and appearing in top spots and getting good interactions will help bolster this trust. It also has benefits for returning users, as they will know to trust your brand and domain in the future.
Staying ahead of the competition
Using SEO services and optimising your pages is also vital to help you keep up and surpass your competitors. Your competition will undoubtedly be using SEO tactics to appear above you, so you’ll need to match this. Neglecting SEO can cause you to fall behind in rankings and eventually lose conversions. Staying on top of SEO best practices can be hard in-house, so for many businesses it’s more cost effective to outsource this.
Maximising return on investment
SEO is a long-term strategy in terms of cost effectiveness. Unlike Paid advertising which can be turned on and off, SEO advantages will remain after the work has finished. There is drop-off after a while, so it isn’t advised to stop for prolonged periods of time, as competitors will creep up and overtake. But as far as long-term benefits are concerned, SEO often has a better return on investment than other methods.
Conclusion
SEO gives incremental improvements across the board, building up to improve the number and quality of users on your site. All of these factors build upon each other and help you stay ahead of the competition.
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