4 Benefits SEO Can Have for Your Business

Search engine optimization is a topic you’ve probably already heard about. You know it’s vital to making your website and online content stand out. Maybe your business handles SEO in-house or partners with an outside expert to execute your strategy. Whichever is the case, you don’t optimize your digital content for the sake of it. You do it for the benefits it brings.

SEO can boost companies’ growth. It can increase your website’s authority and organic traffic. Overall, search engine optimization can help your business build trust with an audience while elevating your brand’s visibility. We’ll explore benefits like these in more detail below.  

1. It Brings in Additional Leads

Your sales team works hard. They spend their days drumming up business and closing deals. But your sales reps need help from marketing to attract enough qualified leads. In modern-day society, those prospects no longer just walk through the door or pick up the phone. They start searching for solutions online.

Ideally, your SEO strategy is focused on the same keywords that your target market is using. With these phrases in your online content, you stand a better chance of getting in front of your audience. Your business’s site shows up in their search engine results, and they click the link to learn about your expertise. If they’re serious about following through, visitors will fill out a form, send an email, or start an online chat.

In seconds, your company has captured and qualified leads. SEO can work around the clock, meaning your team doesn’t have to be working when it happens. With the help of optimized digital content and integrated website tools, you can add more contacts to your prospect database. Your sales staff will have time to focus on closing leads instead of worrying about where to find them.

2. It Increases Brand Visibility

Research shows the top sources of website traffic are direct hits and organic searches. About 22% of a site’s traffic comes from direct hits, while 17% is from organic searches. A direct hit means visitors already know your website’s URL. They’re aware you exist because they’ve been to your site before as a customer, avid reader, or interested party. However, they may have first found your business through an organic search.

Organic searches rely on SEO, plain and simple. Say someone wants to find a board-certified dermatologist to treat a stubborn skin problem. They’ve been to their primary care doctor, tried some treatments, and used over-the-counter products. Nothing’s worked, so they want to seek a trained specialist’s help.

People representing this audience will likely use keywords and phrases like “how to treat stubborn acne.” They may also type in questions like “Can a dermatologist cure hormonal acne?” If they’re looking for a provider in the same city, they’ll probably use the phrase “dermatologists near me.”

Dermatology practices using these targeted keywords can raise awareness and visibility. They’ll gain more organic traffic while educating potential clients about the solutions they can offer. Compared to paid searches, organic traffic is highly cost-effective marketing. It doesn’t add to your online ad expense and tends to attract more visitors.                    

3. It Establishes Credibility

SEO isn’t so much about using keywords as it is about using keywords effectively. You don’t want to create content for content’s sake. Your strategy should include targeting phrases and topics your competition doesn’t cover. Doing this can highlight your company’s unique selling points and authority.

For instance, specialty coffee shops are a dime a dozen. Well-known brands are finding it increasingly difficult to compete. But digital and interactive content that dives into the brand’s story reminds audiences why they trust those companies. The pieces also show how these brands are product experts and can offer an experience people can’t get anywhere else.

By educating audiences with engaging, authoritative content, you can demonstrate your brand’s expertise. It might be a blog post on a niche area. Perhaps it’s an infographic sharing first-party data no one else has.

You could even lure visitors with a more thorough and distinct take on an already discussed topic. Approaches like these increase the chances your content will gain backlinks. You’ll be adding insights to the conversation while establishing your brand as a front-runner on the subject.   

4. It Provides Consumer Insights

You can learn a lot about your audiences through SEO. Analyzing organic traffic trends tells you what resonates with audiences. Keyword research indicates what people are searching for. And search engine results page (SERP) analytics shows what content ranks for specific keyword phrases.

SEO data reveals a piece of the consumer’s mind. Analytics also show whether strategies are working. From keyword research alone, you can determine if you should target words based on volume or difficulty. You can also discover how the competition ranks for those phrases. The data helps you tweak your strategies if you aren’t meeting your goals.

While SEO may not be the only data source for consumer insights, it does show behavioral patterns. The information can point you toward topics and strategic opportunities. More than anything, SEO data reveals the audience’s intent. If you know what information they need, you can supply it to capture their business.

Seizing SEO’s Advantages

Your company isn’t the only one creating online content. About 1.13 billion websites exist. Only 18% of those sites are active, which brings the number down to 200 million. That’s still a ton of content to compete with.

Simply contributing to the content pile won’t necessarily help you reach your intended audience. Standing out from the crowd means using search engine optimization strategies and techniques to their full advantage. When you do this, your company can start experiencing the rewards of SEO.