We mentioned how SEO’s popularity is steadily growing – and data confirms that. The Google Trends screenshot below shows how often the term “SEO” was googled between the start of 2004 and June 2020:
Source: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=SEO
As you can see on the chart, SEO was never as hot topic as it is today. The search peaked in January 2020, meaning the pandemic was not the only trigger for it. Future of SEO industry seems to be kind of optimistic, so it calls for a question: does your company need Search Engine Optimization services?
Why SEO is important? Source of web traffic
The reason why you need SEO is organic traffic. These are users who reach your website directly from the search results, mostly from Google, the most dominant search engine on the market. The most important task for your SEO agency is to take proper care of this traffic segment. Business owners should be aware of some facts about organic traffic.
How big part of the total website traffic is organic traffic?
Research shows that organic traffic makes for 53% of the total websites’ traffic and that that trend is on the rise, growing 5% since 2014. Farther in the results we can find other sources, such as paid traffic (15%), organic social (4,7%) and other channels (27%). The results don’t include direct traffic, though.
Why organic traffic becomes more important? One can argue that it comes from constant improvements in Google’s search engine. The results are matching our expectations more often. Website owners’ also have their share in it, as quality content is becoming more desired. Gone are the times of 400 words articles written by anonymous users; comprehensive content by experts took their place on the first pages of Google search results. It would be a shame not to take advantage of such a helpful tool.
As we ask Google a whole lot more questions, search engine usage is also in big part affected by civilizational changes. The questions are more often than not unrelated to the “encyclopaedic” aspects of our lives. For example, Google users in the US ask “How to make the bed” 4.600 times monthly. Who would have thought 10 years ago we would be googling such questions?
Source: Ahrefs Keyword Planner
SEO for business
A new advertising channel like Google search engine has become a game changer on plenty of markets. First, it made acquiring new customers easier for small companies. Limited advertising budgets have finally stopped to be an obstacle. Buying expensive media, like TV and radio ads or billboards, became unnecessary. This way, even a small family company could appear among the huge corporations on Google’s search results.
However, in the long term, the situation will be turning up for the benefit of bigger businesses. Of course, only as long their management will become aware of the advantages of SEO. The reason is, huge corporations can allocate funds to corporate SEO services, thanks to which they will acquire optimization strategy from specialists, who know how to increase website visibility. Big companies can also utilize their developers and copywriters to implement changes recommended by their SEO consultant.
In other words, big companies play by the same rules in the Google search engine as small businesses and startups, by default. Bigger players are, however, the ones with the biggest potential to increase website visibility. It’s something to have in mind the next time your brand’s advertising budget is planned.
Read also: How to Develop an App: Understanding the Development Process
Importance of SEO in your industry
SEO is a significant part of the digital marketing strategy. But the importance of SEO depends on the industry. It could impact some types of services more than the other. The organic traffic results mentioned at the beginning of the article only include average results for many industries. What is the relation between an industry and its SEO potential? It depends on two factors:
1. Are the offered expensive or cheap products?
It comes from the context of Google search engine usage. No one will make a hasty decision about “app development services” or “mortgage” during a bus ride. People tend to compare many available offers and will visit your website more than once. Sometimes, recommendations from their friends or brand awareness are more influencing than Google position. In such cases, it’s wise to use SEO as an element of multichannel marketing strategy only. How does it work? Thanks to search engines visibility, a user learns about our website, and then comes back to it directly or through social media. Only thanks to that they can convert.
2. Is our target group wide or narrow?
When targeted to a pretty narrow group, our industry may be very popular among Google users, like in case of services such as “e-cigarette wholesale”. For such a radical example, organic traffic might not be a good strategy to reach out to potential clients. Scenarios like that should be considered in the context of B2B digital marketing strategy. Advertising method with bigger targeting possibilities, like paid LinkedIn ads, might be possibly a more proper approach. On the other hand, SEO can also be used as means to build a brand’s expert status and improve its PR by positioning it under phrases related to a particular industry’s insights and knowledge.
Read also: 13 useful insights on how to better perform as a Car Dealer using Google Analytics
Other benefits of SEO for your business
If you invest in a good SEO agency, you can expect benefits such as:
1. Brand recognition
If you’re wondering, how to increase brand recognition, SEO is one of the ways to go. Blog articles about matters related to your industry will help you build your brand’s expert image. Are you offering warehouse space for other companies? Go for the keywords regarding the most important phrases in that field. A SEO specialist can guide you through the most popular topics and drop some tips on how to write to make content appear on the first page of Google search results. Properly optimized articles will show up under dozens of key phrases searched by your target. It’s an indirect way to increase your sales, the so-called “early stage of sales funnel management”.
2. Reach a high converting traffic
There is nothing random in the work of a professional SEO consultant. Just increasing traffic on a website is not the end goal. The thing is, we have to welcome users who have the opportunity to use our services. One of the e-commerce websites I had a chance to audit will serve as a perfect negative case study. The client, home sauna producer, acquired quite big, but low-converting, traffic. Why? The flocks of users coming to the website were not there to buy saunas – they searched for “Sauna Atlanta” just because they wanted to use it. Once they reached my client’s website, they left immediately. Business-oriented SEO services are the way without such traps. The foundation of each SEO strategy is acquiring the most suitable (often not obvious) phrases.
3. Website traffic stabilization
There are many ways to acquire big traffic to your website, like sponsored social media content, a successful viral campaign, or just buying the traffic using PPC campaign. However, the size of the traffic is not the only thing that matters. For how long we will enjoy the effects of our activities is as important, and the advantage of SEO for business is extending them to several months. After all optimization works are done, content strategy is drawn out and content creators are trained, organic traffic will be on the rise for months to come. This way we also avoid the trap of single boosts of website traffic. Instead, we secure ourselves a stable and successive build-up of a group of new clients.
Professional SEO services
Now you know why SEO is important for your company. If you have become interested in SEO, don’t hesitate to visit our offer page, when you will learn in detail about the services we provide. Let us also know if you would like to have your project estimated. Our specialists will prepare an offer suited for your industry and will recommend optimal SEO products to make your brand more visible in Google. We get it done.