The fact of the matter is, customers, don’t act the same way they do a couple of decades ago. Things are changing dramatically. More and more businesses are moving their operations online. With so much competition vying for the attention of people, it can be tough for entrepreneurs to succeed.
They can turn to SEO for help. Not only is it effective at ensuring business sites rank high in search engines, but they also help in certain key aspects of the business. Here are a few examples.
Boost traffic and conversions
SEO is also responsible for driving traffic into a business’s website thereby facilitating conversion and revenue. Instead of investing in ads on social media and other marketing tactics, strengthening SEO matters to make the site rank higher on Google is a good way to get more visitors into the site and potentially become paying customers.
This follows the notion that organic traffic – essentially traffic coming from search engines like Google – has a better chance of converting than traffic that comes from other marketing strategies.
SEO is free
The simple truth is SEO is free. Yes, there are a lot of available tools you can buy or pay to make your strategies efficient and easy but tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console work just as well, if not better than other tools. And they’re free.
Google Analytics makes it possible to see what users are doing when they visit a website. Google Search Console, on the other hand, shows business owners what terms were searched and how users landed there. Links that are broken, or 404s, can be identified quickly and fixed.
Businesses looking to cut costs can leverage SEO on their own or turn to a digital agency.
Helps establish credibility
Among business owners, one key metric that they strive hard to achieve is establishing the reputation and credibility of their business. It is generally accepted that SEO matters and a well-liked and respected business receives more attention from people, more engagement, and ultimately higher revenue.
SEO can help ensure that businesses create a positive image amongst their audiences. And because reputation management requires a multi-channel approach, SEO can leverage a few strategies to help establish the brand’s reputation.
Social channels are one sure way to get the attention of users and create a positive association with the brand. Quality content is also another driving force in ensuring the people are only seeing the strong side of the business. And sharing opinions and advice about a topic within the industry establishes the brand as an expert.
Content optimisation
Within the world of online retail, content is king and SEO matters. Users no longer go to a website and immediately make their purchases. It’s usual for them to peruse the site, look through its different pages, and go through some of its content. Being able to get to know the business better makes them more inclined to convert.
This is why quality content is a priority for any business owner. However, purely creating content for the sake of having something to post is not going to fly among informed users. Content needs to be optimised so you’re not wasting time producing content with little impact.
Through the use of strategies like keyword research, building backlinks, and optimising metadata all help ensure that the content of a site catches the attention and interest of audiences. SEO can inform digital agency staff and web developers which headings should be used, the optimal length of each post, and even specific phrases that posts should contain.
Builds brand loyalty
Customers today can look for any product that they need and are always guaranteed that they will find what they’re looking for and have a great experience while doing it. This plus the ability to easily compare prices online may mean that brand loyalty is a thing of the past.
Although customers now have more power, resources, and options available within reach, when you understand the changing customer behaviour, all these can be used to work in your favour.
Besides delivering a great customer experience to your customers, reminding or showing them of how amazing your business is in comparison to your competitors is going to affirm their decision to stick by our business.
This can be done through the following.
- Local listings – You need to make sure that all information about your business is listed online and kept up to date.
- Manage reviews – People first read reviews when they’re looking to purchase a product. Encourage customers to write reviews especially if they’ve had a good customer experience.
- Good content – Photo and video show customers what it’s like engaging with the brand.