(c)iStock.com/BartekSzewczyk
As we are driving further and further into the digital age, your marketing plan and marketing team should be evolving with the times to guarantee you aren’t falling behind your competition or becoming stuck in a promotion rut.
One element that’s often overlooked due to lack of comprehension is SEO, although most marketers have embraced advertising as an avenue.
Wait…isn’t SEO dead?
No.
When Google releases updates about algorithms and changes in the search results, net developers throw up their hands and declare that SEO is dead, but that is not true.
SEO has shifted since the beginning, keyword stuffing is longer and gaining thousands of backlinks is the secret to success. In fact, not having SEO as part of your marketing strategy can be damaging to your online success.
If you’re in an business sector it can be difficult to rank for your terms with little to no optimization of your website for SEO.
Whilst other marketing techniques like paid advertisements can be efficient in some instances, they shouldn’t be relied on solely. SEO and PPC go hand in hand; one shouldn’t be achieved with no other if you want to get the most from your digital advertising.
Here are some reasons why you Should Think about paying attention for your SEO:
1. Cost effectiveness
Unlike other marketing techniques such as PPC and social networking advertising, SEO is generally a fixed price service (based on the agency and work done out).
PPC can either be the worst or best way to spend your advertising budget; your ad spend can increase and your ROI will suffer if you do not have the correct budget, expertise or time allowance to manage your efforts.
2. It works
SEO continues to be given press historically as not every search engine optimization firm out there will follow Google’s guidelines and use black hat techniques to attempt and control the search results.
Statistics have shown a website that ranks at positions 1-3 can get around 33% of all users engagement for This search
However, Google has cracked down on the amount of agencies now offering these hat solutions is dwindling, leaving room for search engine optimization agencies along with these attempts with their algorithms.
If SEO didn’t do the job, people wouldn’t invest in it! There’s a lot of info out there about SEO plus some great case studies showcasing the success.
3. Being found vs not being found
The most important thing is that without a plan in place, your site ranking above your competitors’ likelihood is slim. SEO is the difference between being discovered online and not being found.
Methods such as social websites and email marketing can deliver you amounts of traffic, they do not compare to the consistency and ROI of SEO.
4. Mobile has changed the match
You only have to look around to see how the increased usage of mobile devices has sky rocketed.
Being optimized for mobile devices hasn’t been as essential as today computers, together with the amount of hunts from devices having overtaken the number of searches made of desktop. Mobile SEO and local optimisation is an important marketing strategy for small and large companies.
5. Your opponents rank above you
If your competitors are standing above you it is possible due to their SEO efforts. Ranking at positions 1-3 may be hard but not impossible to achieve, it’s just very unlikely without optimising for SEO you’ll achieve this visibility.
6. Increase ROI, traffic and conversion rate
Statistics have demonstrated that a website which ranks at positions 1-3 may get around 33 percent of all users engagement for this search.
You might not be ranking badly now, let’s say you are standing at rankings 8-12 for the majority of your SEO keywords, a tiny optimising can drive you up into the top rankings — especially if your opponents are not utilising SEO so you can easily overtake.
