The first thing that someone needs to be familiar with when planning to expand their business digitally is SEO. If you know how online businesses function, then you might have also heard about the advantages of SEO. The benefits of Search Engine Optimization are immense and can help your business reach new heights in no time.
Where should I start? Ads or SEO?
Now, one mistake that most people do when starting their business online is that they reserve a major share for branding through ads. The thought process is quite natural as we are all used to discovering new products through billboards or ads in newspapers.
But the digital world works differently. Search Engine Optimization is essential for your business’s website if you want it to rank better on Google. Not only this, but it also helps you in creating a separate image among the hundreds and thousands of businesses that are already there.
The 10 advantages of SEO for online businesses
Here are some clear advantages of SEO that make it a worthy investment to start your online business in contrast to ads:
1. It is cost-effective
The most popular one among the advantages of SEO is how much the service costs. Unlike ads, where you have to pay for every click, you need to pay a one-time cost for SEO that covers multiple aspects. These can include optimizing, promoting, and maintaining the content of your website.
Once you pay the complete cost, all the conversion for your business is then free, no matter how many customers are visiting your website.
The initial cost of investing in SEO might appear way more than what ads are asking for. But in the long run, your overall spending on getting the advantages of SEO will be lesser than paid advertisements because you will be able to see consistent results over time.
2. The “ad blindness” factor is eliminated
What’s the first thing we do when after searching our query on Google? Most of us just scroll through the ads showing in search results and then look for the relevant answers. This is known as ad blindness; not everyone is interested in the Ads regardless of their top ranking on Google.
People are used to seeing ads online here and there as they are visiting different sites, and Google isn’t any different for them. So, paying for Google ads doesn’t guarantee that people are going to visit your site, as they are more likely to go down to the results that are not marked as ads.
This is where the advantages of SEO take over. SEO allows you to get top ranking on Google search results without the label of ads. It helps you optimize the content of your website according to what your potential customer is likely to search for.
3. There is consistency in leads
According to Hubspot’s State of Marketing Trends Report, 61% of B2B companies generate more conversions with organic traffic in comparison with other marketing strategies. For your business to grow, you don’t just need customers to buy one time from your website and never return.
Having returning customers is essential, and SEO ensures this for you. Organic (unpaid) traffic is known among the best advantages of SEO as it provides consistent traffic. By consistency here, we mean that the number of visitors can vary but not completely shut off, which is likely the case if you stop paying for ads.
By now, we have a clear idea of how SEO is surely a better option than ads for people who have just stepped into the digital world. Not only is it cost-friendly, but it also ensures that your website gets organic traffic.
Let us now explore the other advantages of SEO for your business or e-commerce store:
4. You don’t have to pay for organic traffic
Not having to pay for ranking better is probably what business owners like the most about SEO. The algorithms of search engines control the organic ranking alone without it being affected by any other factors.
So, all you have to do is create web pages that the search engines will find worthy of displaying in Google’s top search results. Once your webpage is SEO-optimized, you don’t have to pay separately for it to appear at the top of search results.
This is again a clear contrast to ads, where in PPC ads, you are charged a fee every time someone clicks on the ad and visits your website. In Google, you won’t have to pay anything for the clicks that you are getting from organic traffic.
5. It greatly boosts your ROI
When investing in any digital marketing strategy, businesses want to make the most out of it. This is, of course, only possible if the business is earning the highest ROI. Converting leads into sales might seem daunting, but it’s easier if you stick to smart SEO strategies.
About 68% of online experiences start with getting your query answered through search engines. Search engines offer a closing rate of nearly 15 percent for newly generated leads.
This might sound less but in contrast to the 2 percent that traditional marketing methods offer, the percentage generated through the advantages of SEO is much better.
6. There is an addition of credibility for your business
SEO suggests that the services you offer are better than what others are offering. On the other hand, if your website is lying somewhere at the bottom of the search engine, customers might never reach you!
Or, even if they do, they might assume that your business lacks credibility and switch to someone with a better reputation. We want none of this, right?
We are more likely to explore websites that appear in the first, second, or third position on the search results page. Having a top ranking gives your customer the impression that you are among the fine players in the industry.
7. The strategies attract your customers through organic search
About 53.3% of the traffic on the website is organic, and as we mentioned above, a great share of marketers believes that SEO generates the highest-quality leads. Why is this the case? It is because the visitor is looking for a solution, and you, being on the top result, are providing it to them.
Being on top search results can almost double the chances of people clicking on your website’s link and visiting it. The featured (top-of-page element) works like ads, but the difference is that people don’t ignore it. Featured pages are considered an answer to what customers are looking for.
By ranking well through specific keywords, along with the other advantages of SEO, you can not only attract the right customers but also get high traffic volume on your website.
8. You can have the edge over competitors
Imagine two businesses offering the same services and products at relatively equal prices. One of them has been designed according to SEO, while the other one is somewhere on the third or fourth page. Which one is likely to get more visitors?
The one that appears on the top search results, of course! With the right keywords optimized on your website, you are ready to strengthen your digital presence.
The point of using keywords is not to stuff them everywhere on the website. But instead, it is to pick the ones that perfectly describe your services in a nutshell.
9. The techniques make the user experience your focal point
A core element of Search Engine Optimization is that it reshapes your website in a way that it becomes easy to navigate and use. Since 2021, Google has started emphasizing user experience as an important ranking factor.
The user experience can include multiple things like how long your website takes to load and how easy it is to locate what the customer wants. People are more likely to switch to another website instead of the one that has a good reputation but takes forever to load.
The SEO shifts your primary focus on the needs of customers, like what the customer needs, what info or resources they would require and what they would want to do next. With all these needs being fulfilled well, you have brighter chances of better ranking and conversions.
10. It ensures that your website is mobile-friendly
A fair share of web traffic these days comes from mobile devices, and we can tell why. People are more likely to search for what they want on their phones instead of opening their desktops every time.
SEO pushes you to work on the mobile-friendliness of your website, so it functions well on all screens, regardless of their shape and size. Websites that look good on desktop but are a cluttered mess on phones have a higher probability of losing their visibility over time in search results.
SEO really helps businesses here who are struggling to make their website mobile-friendly. Different SEO-optimization software offers both desktop and mobile views so you can make changes to your website accordingly.
Advantages of SEO: Get started today
All in all, by implementing the right SEO tricks and strategies throughout your business’s website, you won’t have to struggle as much to make your online presence visible.
The advantages of SEO ensure that your website appears on the top, so you don’t have to repeatedly invest in social media or PPC ads to receive recognition. Are you ready to get started? Schedule your free consultation with us and get a free SEO audit!
