If you’re a business owner who’s considering digital marketing for the first time, you may be wondering: “What should I do first?” That’s a great question, and luckily for you, it’s one that I can answer! In today’s blog post, we’ll go over why search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of any successful digital marketing strategy.
SEO is effective
SEO can generate more leads and sales than any other type of digital marketing, at a fraction of the cost. In fact, according to BrightEdge research, SEO is 5x more likely to generate a lead than PPC or display advertising. Plus, it costs less than both PPC and Facebook Ads. This means that you’ll get more bang for your buck by putting your money on an SEO strategy instead of other forms of digital marketing. There are two important factors to consider here, SEO achieves better quality leads because they are usually further down the purchase funnel, they are after all searching for your product or service. However, SEO takes some time to produce results, this is definitely the long game. But remember what you plant today, will massively pay off later, once is has a chance to take root and grow.
SEO is measurable
One of the many advantages of SEO is that it’s measurable. You can easily see how your site is performing in terms of traffic and conversions, and then use that data to make improvements. You can measure every bit of marketing you do online, you can check your growth. Measure the amount of traffic that is coming organically (from search), how much of that traffic turns to leads, and then finally converts to customers.
After all it is always better to be sought!
SEO helps get your content past your existing audience.
When it comes to content, the more your audience likes it and shares it, the more exposure you’ll get. That means more traffic to your website and potentially more sales as well.
SEO is a long-term strategy that requires patience and consistency over time. It takes months for search engines to rank websites based on their own algorithm; until then, there isn’t much you can do aside from creating high-quality content that people want to read or watch.
You want your audience to trust what they read from you—and if they trust what they read from you then they will likely recommend your site (or product or service) as well!
The best way for this process of building trust with audiences is through creating quality content consistently over time: blog posts, videos… whatever fits within the market space that works best for promoting products or services online today!
SEO increases your brand equity.
SEO can increase your brand equity, which is the value of your brand. Brand equity is a combination of brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand reputation. The strength of your brand compared to competitors’ brands can be measured by the number of people who have heard of your product or service.
This means that if you have good SEO ranking for key terms related to the products or services that you offer, then more people will visit and learn about your business online. This increases the likelihood that they will become customers in future!
The primary benefit of increasing your organic search traffic is that it allows you to build up trust within an industry – this leads directly into higher conversion rates which lead to more sales.
Your competitors are doing it.
If you’re not using SEO, your competitors are. And they’ll be getting more customers than you.
A lot of small businesses don’t think about SEO as a part of their digital marketing strategy because they don’t feel it is relevant for small, local or niche businesses. But if your competitors are using it, why aren’t you? If they’re getting more customers than you, it’s probably because they’ve incorporated SEO into their business plan and have optimized their site for better visibility on search engines like Google and Bing. You should do the same thing!
When someone is searching for a product or service, they will usually never leave the first page of results, and for the most part if they don’t find what they are looking for in the first 5 results, they change their search query. SEO creates the ability for you to be in the results for multiple search queries. The more work you do the more queries you appear for.
In time, if done correctly, your SEO efforts will pay off
SEO is a long-term investment. Don’t expect results immediately, but remember that good SEO can help your business grow.
It’s important to stay on top of the latest trends in SEO and make sure you are following Google’s guidelines for search engine optimization best practices.
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly, as this is becoming increasingly important for many businesses. Using responsive design techniques makes it easy for visitors using any device (desktop, tablet or smartphone) to access your site quickly and easily without having to zoom in or scroll around unnecessarily. If needed, hire a developer who understands how these things work—or learn more about them yourself!
Also make sure that your website meets all security protocols set by industry regulators like PCI DSS so that customers feel safe when sharing personal information with you online
Most businesses are overlooking the importance of voice search. More and More people are using Siri, Alexa, and Google to search for business and every day information so make sure your content is voice search ready. Do this by using questions and writing as if you were telling a story to your friend. Think about how you use voice, apply this to your content.
Good search engine optimization is the foundation for all digital marketing campaigns.
Good search engine optimization is the foundation for all digital marketing campaigns. It’s the most important part of a digital strategy, but it can also be intimidating to get started. Once you’ve figured out how to use SEO tools and understand what makes your content rank well, you’ll be able to generate more leads and sales than any other type of digital marketing.
You need to use an omni channel approach to marketing, a great strategy uses many channels, after all it takes 7 exposures to a business before most consumers even notice it let alone take action. Smart businesses speed up the process, they use SEO, advertising, social media, video, Google my Business, Bing Places, local directories, industry directories, Website, and email.
I know it is a lot and overwhelming, but there are ways to make it a little easier. Start working on your SEO, post on social media regularly, keep up to date with your website, and plan out your emails. You don’t have to be perfect, just try to set aside some time to do a little bit each week.
If you find yourself strapped for time, out of ideas, or just uninterested in doing this yourself. Reach out we create and execute amazing marketing strategies for awesome small businesses in Canada and the US every day, you could be next.
If you are interested in learning more about digital marketing, accessing some free tools, and need tips and tricks – Visit our Digital Marketing Content Hub! We have tons of information there to help you get your strategy running and the sales rolling.
