7 Reasons Why Your Business Should Invest in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing & SEO is far from dead.
In fact, it is more important than ever.
Billions of searches are performed online every single day. Ranking for keywords relevant in your industry can practically guarantee a steady stream of traffic to your landing pages. But if your site cannot be found online, you are losing visitors and sales to your competitors.
SEO changes that by giving your site a major advantage online.
By following a set of methodological steps your rankings steadily climb in the search results. And with those higher rankings your site gradually attracts more targeted traffic, translating to more sales. If you think that your business can get by without any kind of online marketing, here are seven reasons to change your mind and why SEO needs to be a priority in your business.
1. SEO Still Works
SEO is still a proven strategy even as Google releases major updates to its algorithm.
One of the core aspects of SEO is focusing on user experience. This means making your site easy to navigate and optimising the content. Both of which lead to better rankings as Google strives to the most relevant results for each search query.
As long as people continue using search engines to find information online, SEO will continue working. And that will continue to be the case for a long time.
2. An Ever Changing Search Landscape
Panda. Penguin. Hummingbird.
Those are the names of major updates that Google has released to improve the search results. And you can be sure that more updates will follow in the coming years. If your site does not mean the latest best practices, your rankings will start gradually slipping for your keywords.
SEO means keeping up with the latest changes and adapting as necessary. So your business remains ahead of the curve while everyone else struggles to catch up.
3. SEO is Cost Effective
Advertising is expensive.
Especially for television commercials or banners in a prime location.
Compared to these costs, SEO is far more cost effective as it drives a steady of traffic to your pages once you start ranking. Unlike with other marketing channels, your pages will continue to attract traffic even if you need to pause your campaign for whatever reason.
SEO helps to increase brand awareness and establish credibility with your audience. Both of which have an excellent ROI compared to the costs of other forms of marketing.
4. Search is a Top Source of Traffic
Be where your target market is. Google is easily the best place. According to data from Outbrain, search engines are one of the top sources of online traffic:
Consumers are increasingly turning to search before making a purchase. Ranking for your keywords increases visibility of your products or services and you can then turn that traffic into sales. Without a strong SEO campaign, your site stands little chance of ranking in the search results.
5. Local Search
You need SEO especially if your customers are primarily local. A survey from Google has found that 4 out 5 consumers conduct searches with local intent.
Most importantly, search engine users rarely click past the first page.
If your site is not ranking in the first few results, then those clicks are going to competing pages instead. Local SEO entails optimising various aspects of your site to rank for local search queries.
6. Rise of Mobile
Mobile is a force to be reckoned with.
More people are now searching directly from their mobile devices. To account for this shift in user behaviour, Google released a major update that makes mobile friendliness a ranking factor. So if your site isn't mobile friendly it won’t rank nearly as high in the mobile search results.
SEO is much more than content optimisation and link building. It means following the latest best practices so your site gains a competitive advantage.
7. Your Competitors Are Doing It
Do a search for your main keywords and look at the results on the first page.
Nearly every single of those sites has had SEO work done on it.
Guaranteed.
If your business is not already investing in SEO, then you risk losing a major advantage to competitors who are. This is a simple fact and it would be in your best interest to make the investment as well.
Conclusion
SEO works.
But there are still many businesses who have yet to implement a campaign. Many are losing traffic and sales to their competitors as a result. The reasons as outlined above demonstrate the need for SEO in your own business as it means gaining a competitive advantage online. It is never too late to get started with a campaign and the sooner you do, the better.