SEO has been around for decades, but in this past decade it’s really taken off. If you’re wondering what SEO is, how it can help build your brand, or need a refresher on SEO, here are 20 benefits of SEO and how it can help you for years to come.

#1: Be Seen on Google

Starting with an easy one here; SEO ranks you on Google. SEO should really get you at the top of the search rankings. There are roughly 63,000 Google searches around the world each second. Which is 3.8 million Google searches each minute. That’s a whole lot of Googling.

It’s estimated that the volume of Google searches grow roughly 10% a year. Also, it’s roughly estimated that 15-20% of searches are brand new, never searched before.

SEO should ultimately get you at the top, if not close to the top of search rankings. Being the #1 spot versus the #2 spot could be a difference of hundreds of clicks. It’s worth mentioning that to rank #1 and to stay #1, you’ll need to invest in SEO for the long-term. And if you’ve already invested in search engine optimization, you may need to increase your efforts to get real results.

#2: You Can Rank for Highly Relevant, Competitive Keywords

We all know that SEO helps with your search rankings and your traffic. But you also have control over what keywords you rank for.

Ranking for high volume keywords is great, but ranking for high volume keywords about your business is even better. It’s very important to rank for relevant keywords as you show up at the top of the search results. Ranking creates ease and visibility to your customers and ultimately leads to more visitors to your website.

Keep in mind that longer-tail keywords, though lower in search volume but easier to rank for, drive higher conversions and combined drive higher amounts of traffic.

#3: SEO Helps Inform Your Customers

Google’s sole purpose is to put the best, most useful content in front of its users. When you know your users are more informed, it opens the door to more opportunities to have a real connection with them and answer their questions.

You can identify your target audience, create more related content that helps answer their questions, learn more about your user’s journey through your sales funnel, and any pain points.

#4: SEO Rankings Are Fairly Consistent

Typically, when you rank for a keyword, that ranking will be fairly consistent. There will usually be fluctuations if you’re rank #6, and the next day you’re rank #8. But if you’re on the first page, you should rank on the first page for a while.

With that being said, it’s important to monitor those keywords and where you stand on a regular basis. When you invest in SEO, your rankings are solidified for the near future. But just because you may have achieved some success, SEO should be an “always-on” mentality and need to have someone reviewing your SEO on a routine basis.

#5: SEO Creates Authenticity

Ranking at the top of Google is not easy. That’s why when you are ranked #1, people will already have a greater sense of appreciation for your brand.

You may not always think it, but when you click through from the search results, you expect to be the best that to be the best fit for your search. That’s how you can grow your trust and authoritativeness not only in Google’s eyes but your visitor’s.

#6: SEO Is Free

Relatively speaking, SEO is free. It doesn’t cost you any money to optimize your website for SEO. Most on-page SEO work can be done free and knocked out in a couple of hours.

However, SEO does take time and some expertise. If you’re not familiar with SEO best practices and having some technical experience, you could end up doing more harm than good.

#7: SEO Doesn’t Require Advertising Spend

Unlike Google AdWords, Facebook ads, or traditional media like TV ads, SEO doesn’t require you to spend any money to be in front of potential customers. Your listings do all the work for you.

In fact, 85% of clicks go to organic listings, whereas 15% go to the paid listings. Also, 33% of clicks go to the #1 spot. And overall, 92% of all clicks happen on the first page.

#8: SEO Can Decrease Your Cost per Acquisition

Whether you’re looking for more phone calls, leads, sales, anything – SEO makes it easier. When a user clicks to your site, you know they’ve expressed some form of interest to you. When you know who’s come to your site and engaged versus the people that have bounced, you get a much better understanding of who you should target. Users that have engaged with your site may have already reached out to you by just being number one in the search results!

You can also use these users for retargeting down the road since you know they’ve already engaged with you. This tactic ultimately decreases the cost it takes to receive an acquisition whether it be a phone call, a lead, or a new customer. It’s always better going after those that have shown interest in your brand than those that haven’t.

#9: SEO Has Great Return on Investment

SEO is not only cost-effective, but the benefits outweigh the costs. Once you build your online presence, it’s there for the long-term. As long as you have a website optimized for SEO, you’ll be reaping the rewards for a long time.

SEO may take a few months to ramp up to results, but it’s steady. When you rank #1 or even on the same page for the right keywords, the results can be priceless.

With the little cost it takes to get started with SEO, you can see jumps in traffic within the first couple of weeks. The result is that you’ll be found in the search results, increase your traffic and sales, and look to expand with your new stream of revenue.

#10: SEO Is Scalable

Not only is SEO inexpensive, but the results are measurable and scalable. By measuring your site’s traffic, domain authority (DA), page authority (PA), and other metrics, you can see just how much your business has scaled with SEO. It may even be worth doubling down into more SEO efforts.

Whatever way you look at it, SEO is an affordable, and scalable option to market your business.

#11: SEO Increases Sales

Higher rankings = higher traffic. With the increase in traffic to your site, you’ll also probably see increases in your sales. When you’re at the top of the rankings or on the first page of Google, you’ll probably see a jump in sales without even doing much.

It’s important to look at users that purchased versus users that haven’t to see how they got to your site, how long they were on your site, and what content they engaged with. When your site receives more traffic, it receives more patterns like these you can identify.

Once you learn more about your users that purchase from your store, you can create more content for those users and get them to purchase again, or seek an audience that is on the fence and acquire their sales.

#12: SEO Provides the First Step Into Your Funnel

When a user clicks to your site, that’s their first engagement with you. Make sure to make the most of it.

Include an offer, a piece of content for their email, or why you’re the right team for the job. Ultimately, give them another reason to continue to the next step.

The first click to your site, is the first step to your funnel. And usually the first step is the hardest; make the most of it!

#13: SEO Can Help Upsell

Much like how SEO can help you sell, and get users in your funnel, it can also help you upsell. It’s no surprise that a user is more likely to purchase from you again if they’ve already done so.

It’s also true that if a user has gone through your sales funnel, then they’re more likely to buy even more from you. It may sound simple, but SEO can play a big role not only to first time buyers, but also to users that have already purchased.

#14: SEO Builds Trustworthiness

In today’s age, Google ranks the best of the best. If you want to rank at the top of Google, you need to provide expertise, authority, and trust (also known as EAT.)

Trustworthiness is vital when it comes to users initiating the next step with you. And by highly ranking, you’ve already established some form of trustworthiness with your content.

Establishing trust makes it much easier to close versus going after a cold lead. With SEO, visitors have already expressed some level of trust with you, just by clicking through to your site.

#15: SEO Is Measurable

Not only is SEO affordable, but it’s measurable. With the increase in traffic, you can determine which pages and keywords are performing the best. You can also keep a close eye on your keywords, where you’re ranking, and historical ranking data.

#16: SEO Ranks the Best Content

It’s been said multiple times in this article, and it’s one of the most important things to note: Google ranks great content.

When you’re searching for anything on Google, you expect the best result to be the first result. We’ve adapted to think this way, and the search engines are the ones to thank. Their algorithms find, crawl, and rank the content they think is best so we can spend less time searching and more time doing.

#17: SEO Makes the Web More Mobile Friendly

The next three involve ranking factors Google takes as ranking factors. With that being said, Google rewards websites for these three items, which are quickly becoming essential if you want to rank.

As mobile device usage has increased over the last decade, so has the need to make websites responsive to our phones. It’s essential to have a website that loads on both desktop and mobile. Google has already adopted a ‘mobile-first’ crawl and indexing of websites, and will penalize sites that have a lackluster mobile experience.

#18: SEO Makes the Web Faster

Along the lines of having a responsive website, is having one that loads fast. The last thing you need is for a site to load slow. Google knows this and encourages web owners to speed up their websites not just for their rankings, but for their users.

If you need more reason for a fast website, it’s estimated that for every second it takes for your site to load, your conversion rate decreases by 10%. By increasing your site speed, not only will you help your user’s experience, but you can also gain more conversions.

#19: SEO Encourages Reviews

Reviews are crucial. It’s estimated that 80% of people search for reviews at some point in the buying process. Reviews also play an important role when it comes to ranking locally in the Google maps pack.

By encouraging honest, organic reviews for your business, you can see higher rankings in your local area, as well as build more credibility and assurance with your potential buyers.

#20: SEO Is Becoming 0 Click

You might be wondering what 0 click is. 0 click is when an answer is in Google’s featured snippets and doesn’t require a click to access the page’s content. Take the phrase “what is a featured snippet” for example. Google’s completely spelled this out. No other clicks needed.

That’s the way of the future with 0 clicks and Google. More and more search queries have a featured snippet that provides the answer to the question without needing to click through to a website.

If you’re a little worried, you’re not the only one. It’s much more difficult to track the effectiveness of featured snippets since if a user reads the snippet and leaves, they didn’t click through to your website to capture that data.

Featured snippets are a case by case basis and you would need to determine if you would benefit from a featured snippet or not. Generally, if you’re in the hunt for a featured snippet, the higher you are in the search results, the better.

Conclusion

There it is, 20 reasons to invest in SEO in 2020. If you have any questions or any inquiries about SEO, feel free to contact the leading Cincinnati SEO provider for additional information. These guys can help your business grow online.