Advantages and Benefits Of SEO
- SEO can help you improve your rankings in search engine results
You don’t need to pay for ads in SEO
Google’s organic rankings are based entirely on what its algorithm determines to be the best results for any given query.
This
means that once you’ve created a page that the search engine deems
worthy of directing their users to, it can continue to attract traffic
to your site for months (or even years) after you publish it.
Of
course, researching and writing high-quality content requires an
investment. That investment will either be in the form of time, if you
choose to create it yourself, or money, if you choose to hire a digital
marketing agency to create it for you.
But once you’ve made that initial investment, there’s no ongoing cost to keep attracting traffic to your content.
You
might need to update the page every few months, depending on the nature
of the topic. You also might need to add to and improve it if your
competitors decide to target the same keyword.
But when it comes down to it, your valuable spot in search results is free of charge.
This is a major difference from PPC ads, which involve a cost every time a user clicks and visits a page.
To give you an idea of what just how big of an advantage this is, just consider that the average cost per click (CPC) across all industries is $2.32.
With SEO, you have the potential to avoid paying this amount and earn traffic to your site with no ongoing costs at all.
3. SEO gets more clicks than PPC
Although PPC ads appear above organic rankings, 71.33% of searches result in a click on an organic result on the first page.
It’s
difficult to say why this is, though the most logical conclusion is
that users trust Google’s algorithm. They know which spots advertisers
are paying for, and they choose to instead visit the pages the search
engine has determined to be the best.
Of course, this is just conjecture.
But
regardless of the reasoning behind it, the fact is that the majority of
the clicks for any given search go to an organic result.
4. SEO helps PR
Although SEO and PR may seem like entirely separate marketing strategies, you can use them together to maximize the results you see from each.
The biggest connection between the two lies in link building.
Earning
links from reputable websites is a main component of any SEO strategy.
This means that one of the biggest parts of an SEO professional’s job is
to identify opportunities for placement or coverage on industry blogs,
news publications, and other relevant sites.
And considering that a
PR strategy revolves around getting prominent publications and
influencers to talk about your company, this presents a huge
opportunity.
When you use link building research to find new ways
to get your brand in front of consumers, you’ll be much more effective
in distributing content to potential customers and clients.
5. You can move ahead of the competition
Today, SEO is widely considered a staple of any marketing strategy.
In fact, 61% of marketers say that improving their SEO and improving their online presence is a top priority.
This means that your competitors are likely already taking steps to establish high rankings in search results.
And
with an SEO strategy of your own, you can keep up with — and ideally,
move ahead of — them to stay competitive within your industry.
SEO vs. SEM
As
you learn more about increasing your company’s visibility in search,
you may come across another term for the process: SEM. And while some
marketers use this interchangeably with SEO, it’s important to
understand the distinction between the two.
SEM stands for “search
engine marketing,” and it refers to anything you do to earn placement
in search engine results pages. This means that it’s an umbrella term
that includes both SEO and PPC.
So although SEO is a form of SEM, it’s not the only tactic involved in SEM.
Keeping
this difference in mind while you learn more about search visibility
will make it much easier to spot resources that focus on paid tactics —
and determine whether those are resources that you want to spend your
time reading.
What Is the Job of an SEO Specialist?
While
some basic SEO tasks can be undertaken in-house with the help of some
online resources, the best way to maximize your results is to hire an
SEO specialist.
But what do these professionals offer that you can’t do yourself?
And what do they actually do that makes hiring them a worthwhile investment?
Their
primary goal is, of course, to increase their clients’ visibility in
search results for queries related to their industry, products, and
services.
But to accomplish this goal, there are a few key steps an SEO specialist will take.
1. Site assessment
The first step in the SEO process is a complete assessment.
Whether
a site has ever been optimized before or not, they’ll evaluate all of
the factors impacting its rankings, as well as where it stands in the
results pages for the company’s most important target keywords.
They’ll also look for any major issues impacting user experience, like page load times, navigation setup, and site structure.
Finally,
most SEO professionals will also take a client’s competitors into
consideration during their site assessment. They’ll identify other sites
targeting similar keywords and the same audience, then evaluate what
they’re doing well.
All of this information will help them
determine what changes need to be made. Then, they can prioritize these
changes based on which will have the biggest impact.
2. Ongoing optimization and testing
After
their assessment, an SEO will get to work on the priorities they’ve
identified. They’ll do keyword research, optimize pages for the keywords
they select, and fix any usability issues.
This initial optimization process alone often takes a few months — but it’s important to recognize that it doesn’t stop there.
That’s because SEO is a long-term strategy.
For example, just take a look at the following graph of Kinsta’s year-over-year traffic.
While
they saw some marginal gains in 2015 and 2016, their traffic started to
really take off in 2017. And those results were entirely due to their
ongoing SEO strategy.
That’s why when you hire an SEO specialist, they’ll identify new opportunities to improve your site on a regular basis.
They’ll
optimize your on-page factors, look for ways to earn new links for your
site, and continuously test the changes they’re making.
An
experienced SEO professional will also make it a priority to keep up
with industry changes so that they can make sure your site stays ahead
of algorithm updates and up-to-date with the tactics other marketers are
finding effective.
3. Reporting and analysis
Finally, an SEO specialist will regularly monitor and analyze their results.
From
a client standpoint, this helps you make sure that you know exactly
what kinds of results you’re getting for your investment.
But
beyond that, regularly checking in on key metrics like traffic and
conversions helps them get a clearer understanding of what’s working —
and what isn’t — so that they can continuously improve their strategy.
3 Myths About SEO
There’s a wealth of information available online about SEO.
Unfortunately, not all of that information is entirely accurate.
So
as you learn more about this important marketing tactic, there are a
few common myths you should be aware of — so that you can stay away from
any SEO “professionals” perpetuating them.
Myth 1: Keyword optimization is the most important part of SEO
The idea that keywords are the most important part of SEO isn’t an outright lie — but it’s certainly outdated.
Ever since the rollout of Hummingbird in 2013, Google has increasingly prioritized user intent over the exact keywords they use.
That means that today, you don’t need to focus as much on specific words and phrases.
To be clear, keywords are still an important part of SEO, and keyword research can help guide your strategy.
But
as you incorporate them, make sure to do so naturally, and write your
content in a way that prioritizes addressing the intent behind them over
using the same exact phrase repeatedly on your page.
2 BingMicrosoft’s Bing is the second-most renowned search engine in the world. And although it trails Google by a broad margin in terms of market share, it boasts some unique features that may excite users. For starters, the search engine filters result in different tabs such as ads, images, maps, videos, and news. It also gives users the chance to accumulate points, which they can later redeem on Microsoft and Windows stores. It also performs flawlessly on all browsers.
3 YahooAlthough it was once popular than and even went neck-to-neck with Google during its early days, Yahoo has dropped to the third spot in terms of market share. Its web portal is still popular, and it is said to be the eleventh most visited site according to Alexa. Yahoo features an impressive interface, clean results and an impressive catalog of websites
