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At this moment, SEO continues to remain highly effective and a crucial component to website traffic and business. Since it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, let’s talk for a moment or so about why it’s so gosh darn good before moving on to the Other Stuff.
Titan SEO points to five specific benefits of SEO optimization.
1. SEO Brings Increased Traffic
Top positions on the search engine result pages receive a majority of the impressions and clicks, so ranking in these top positions can result in significant traffic increases for your website.
2. SEO Has Inherent ROI
SEO provides trackable and quantifiable results, regardless of whether you are an ecommerce or non-ecommerce site so there are no qualms when it comes to ROI.
3. It’s a Cost Effective Strategy
SEO targets users who are actively looking for your products and services online. While cold-calling can still be an effective strategy, the leads generated cost 61% more than leads generated by an inbound strategy like SEO. And since SEO also targets users who are actively searching for products and services like yours, the traffic resulting from SEO is more qualified than many other marketing strategies, resulting in cost-savings for companies.
4. Better SEO Can Mean Better Site Usability
SEO consists of rearranging the site’s architecture and links to make pages within the website easier to find and navigate. This not only makes it easier for search engines to crawl your site and find pages, but also makes it easier for users to find information on your website as well.
5. Brand Awareness Through SEO
Since top position rankings result in significant impressions, having your website in these top positions on the result pages translates to more exposure for your website. The more your pages and content rank in high positions in the search engines, the more chances you have for users to see your content and associate with your brand.
What to Know About SEO
We need to put this SEO party on hold for a second. Yes, it’s wonderful! But there’s some developing information you need to be aware of in order to squeeze every last drop out of it for your own use and success. As you’ll see, SEO alone may not be enough.
Google is Changing SEO
Each year, Google changes its search algorithm around 500–600 times. Every year! Its search algorithm changes almost constantly, ranging from minor data refreshes and manual fine-tunings, to entire new algorithm branches that function independently from Google’s core algorithm.
This means that you can’t set it and forget it when it comes to SEO and content on your website. It means you need to be holding a steady pace when it comes to updating and tweaking everything. Content is king.
Don’t be Content With Your Content
When it comes to content, remember that readers aren’t interested in low-quality content stuffed with keywords and tossed up on a blog. If the copy isn’t relevant to a potential customer, they won’t read it and it’s less likely to rank well on search engine results. May this inspire the fear of the Internet Gods within you.
You want to write for a real person, not just the mysterious, faceless crowd you might imagine perusing your website. Think of your ultimate, ideal client, and address your website content directly to them, as SEO isn’t just the only consideration anymore.
As Neil Patel says, “Blogging generates the most traffic for companies. When you’re consistent at it, blogging leads to more search traffic. In fact, blogging is the #1 traffic-increasing factor, while SEO is #2.”
Update Your Long-Tail Keywords
These are the specific phrases–three, maybe four words–that are used in searches. Think “make own pizza crust” versus just “pizza crust”. Or even “make gluten-free pizza crust” versus just “make pizza crust”.
You’ll see how the specificity will lead you immediately to pages that would have normally been buried under the Goliath companies who claim monopoly on search results. (Often CNN or Yahoo or in this case, The Food Network and MarthaStewart.com.) So you can see right away how this benefits you and your website: the people you want to visit and purchase your product or service have a more direct and immediate path to you.
Again, don’t just ‘set it and forget it’. Update these on the regular, especially since Google changes its algorithm so incessantly.
