SEO in 2022: Why Is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Important for Your Business?

Is your business still affected by the global pandemic, even though all other businesses have picked up?

Maybe you’re not visible to your customers yet.

If you’re yet to include SEO in your marketing strategy, then now’s the perfect time!

Don’t know what SEO is? It’s not too late for you to get started with SEO now.

Let’s take a closer look at SEO before we understand why it is important for your business.


What Is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a type of marketing strategy with the aim to increase the visibility of your business online.


How Fast Can You Get Results With SEO?

It can take about 4 to 6 months for an effective SEO strategy to give you results.

An effective SEO strategy is not an unattainable dream or a shot in the dark. It can be easily developed if you do your research well and execute the strategy in the right way.

But what’s the importance of all this? Read on to find out!


Why SEO Is Important for Your Business?


1. SEO Helps Your Website/Article Rank Higher on Search Engines

If you’re only reading about SEO for the first time, then you must be wondering what the importance of ranking higher is.

There are multiple reasons why SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings are important. Here are some of them:

Businesses that rank in the top three search positions are more likely to get visited. According to this data, searches ranking at the top get 33% of the search traffic.


2. SEO Puts Your Business Where Customers Are Looking

Do you know where your customers are?

Customers are no longer looking for businesses using the old methods. They want instant answers and they know the place to find them is online.

With no concrete online presence, you would be missing out on all those customers and all that sales!

Think that’s not a big deal? Let’s take a look at the numbers.

According to a study conducted by GE Capital Retail Bank, 81% of consumers will search online before visiting a store.


SEO Gives You Organic Traffic

Before you get into organic traffic strategies, you need to understand what organic and inorganic traffic mean.


Organic Traffic

When people visit a site online it is described as website traffic. This traffic can come from many different sources. Organic traffic includes people who visit the website by clicking on an unpaid link.

Visits made to the website from the following sources are considered organic.

  • SEO
  • Email captures
  • Social media
  • Guest posts
  • Faster page loads
  • Responsive websites
  • Comments from forums and blogs
  • Webinars and conferences
  • User experiences
  • Quality content

Inorganic Traffic

Inorganic traffic refers to the visits made to a website by people who have clicked on a paid advertisement.

Visits made to the website from the following sources are called inorganic traffic sources.


How Does SEO Help With Organic Traffic?

Organic traffic is generated when users truly find your content useful, interesting, or entertaining. Since the content isn’t in the form of an advertisement, they consider it to be more authentic. This makes customers more likely to buy your product or subscribe to your service.

So, when users visit your site from organic pathways, they are more likely to convert/make a purchase.


3. SEO Is Inexpensive

No matter what your marketing budget is, and how much you’re deciding to spend on the marketing activities. All of it can be done through SEO and on a cheaper budget as well.

Here are some inexpensive SEO strategies you can try out:


Create SEO Content

One of the ways to attract customers online is to put SEO content on search engines and social media platforms.

This is very cost-effective since you only have to create content of good quality. The search engine’s algorithm does the rest. Users who click on your link also help increase your rank.


Add Your Company to Online Business Listings

If you haven’t done this yet, then we urge you to hurry up and do it right away!

Don’t know how to add your business to an online listing? Check out this guide to add it on Google.


Update Content

How many times did you question the authenticity and relevance of an article because it was written long ago?

It’s not just you, algorithms do this as well.

That is why updating your content is so important.

Updating is easier than creating new content and it helps establish your brand’s experience in the industry as well.


Link (Internally and Externally)

Adding links to your own website is known as internal linking. Whereas, linking to the URL of a different website is known as external linking.

However, linking is a tricky SEO strategy. External links to or from a good website can boost the credibility of your own. But links to or from a bad website can bring down your website’s credibility.

Here’s an article on good and bad linking.

That does not mean there aren’t any benefits.

Linking helps create more link juice for your brand across the world wide web. If you’re running an online business, this can put you on the world map.

A good number and quality of links also tell algorithms that your website is trusted and vouched for from other web sources.


Increase Page Load Speed

There are loads of statistics stating the obvious, but we won’t recite those again.

Think about the time you would wait for a page to load before switching links or pages?

3 to 5 seconds?

Maybe.

8 to 10 seconds? That’s unlikely.

Your customers/readers are the same! Speeding up your page load time is, therefore, an organic way to attract and retain consumers.

What’s more?

SEO has a higher ROI than any other marketing activity you’ll be investing in. So, it’s a no-brainer why marketing experts love SEO so much.


4. SEO Is Accessible to Every Type and Size of Business

Traditional advertising can be expensive.

But that’s not the only barrier that prevents small businesses from entering the competition. Little exposure, means of communication, a small consumer base, and more are only some of these barriers.

However, SEO practices are an effective solution to all such problems small businesses may face when trying to grow their consumer base or increase sales.

Here’s a list of ways in which SEO can help small businesses.

  • SEO allows small businesses to compete with big organizations on fair terms
  • SEO allows businesses to become thought leaders in their industry
  • Businesses can get real data from consumer activity on their websites
  • No matter your scale SEO helps you attract consumers

SEO Can Help You the Optimize Local Search

Not all businesses need to be on the top and compete with organizations for ranking.

We’re talking about local businesses such as local dental care clinics, therapists, plumbers, etc.

If you’re a local business, then you want to appear only to users looking for your service in the area you operate.

SEO allows you to appear in local searches only. With business listings and targeted content, you tell algorithms where to place you online.

Too confused?

Let’s look at the example below,

A person searches for ‘dental care clinics in San Francisco.’

The search results will show a list of dental care clinics that are listed in San Francisco. That could be you if you made sure to put some investment into your SEO strategy.

This way you won’t waste your efforts appearing on someone’s search for ‘dental clinics in Chicago.’


Final Thoughts

We hope our detailed explanation convinced you of the importance of SEO for your business.

Whether you run a small or big business, a local clinic, or an online service, you too can benefit from SEO.

So, how did you use SEO to put your business on the map?