Is SEO the Best Long Term Digital Investment For My Business?

Why should your company invest in SEO services? Because the long and short of it is, SEO often represents the best digital marketing investment you can make in the long term. 

Too many businesses try SEO without quite understanding what it is, what it can do, and how long it will take to start seeing results, and start feeling it’s a waste of time and money. A reputable agency won’t make outlandish promises, and will provide you with a sensible estimate based on your existing SEO infrastructure, the nature of your industry, and your SEO goals, whether local, regional or national. It’s important to understand that good SEO results can take anything from 6 months to a year to be seen, but in the grand scheme of things, it can provide a much greater return on your investment than digital ads like PPC or social media advertising.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization involves the myriad ways to ensure search engines know what your website and your business is about, so they can help you appear in front of the right audience when they search for keywords related to you. To help enhance your digital visibility, SEO is performed both on-page (on your website) and off-page (on other websites, search directories and digital listings). The specifics of an SEO strategy may differ based on the industry you’re in, or your business’ particular needs, but the overarching goals are the same: to build your digital credibility through establishing Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness, and Relevance. This is more straightforward for some industries than others - doctors for example, need to list their qualifications and ensure search engines can easily crawl for this data. Other businesses can benefit from having references (and reviews) listed on their site. When done right, good SEO can also help you build your brand in the eyes of your website visitors as well, and direct buyers more effectively through the purchasing process. Visit our SEO page to learn more.

Why Does SEO Matter For Your Business?

1. Search engines refer more website traffic to most sites than any other digital marketing platform for a vast majority of businesses. Without SEO, search engines may not even realize your business, or website, even exists. Furthermore, search engines tend to deliver more interested customers to your website, as people tend to search for particular products or services only when they’re further down the purchasing funnel. 
2. As a consumer, how often do you venture beyond the first page of search engine results? Appearing on this first page, and having a high ranking, is highly competitive business. The first 3 results tend to get the most clicks through, so getting highly ranked will deliver a great return on your investment.
3. Depending on your business needs, SEO can deliver more opportunities. For small local businesses for example, a fully optimized Google My Business listing can help you stand out more immediately to people in your area searching for your business type. This ultra local targeting can greatly increase your visibility and drive traffic your way.
4. Most businesses that stick with their SEO plan will see a 5x to 10x return on investment in the long run. Ad campaigns may exhaust their budgets fairly quickly, but good SEO will allow you to continue to be found easily by potential customers long after your immediate SEO campaign is over.
5. Even for businesses already ranked at the top, it’s important to remember not to get lazy. Good SEO has to be consistently maintained in order to stay on top of algorithm updates, and ahead of the competition that’s doing its best to outrank you.
6. Good SEO also supports other marketing initiatives. If you’re running a radio ad or engaging in other forms of traditional marketing for example, the interested members of your brand new audience are very likely going to try looking up your website later to do their research. Will you be easy to find? Or will you be spending money to direct potential customers to your competition instead?
   

Why Your SEO Expert Matters

Search engines like Google and Bing are continually updating their algorithms in order to provide users with a good search experience. That means weeding out what they consider to be poor content or a poor website experience. How they judge these factors is often a black box for the average person, which is why you need someone who understands these changing criteria and will be able to use the latest SEO techniques to ensure your on page and off page strategies are on par with what’s needed.

Some basics for on-page optimization include:

• Site speed and structure: Is the code up to scratch? Are your keywords in the right order?
• How easy is it for search engines to crawl your site and get the information they need?
• Keyword and keyphrase research to ensure your content is fresh, engaging, and able to answer the questions that are trending
  

Off-page optimization includes: 

• Reputable backlinks
• Site favorability
• Locality
  

Think of SEO like digging for a well - it might be an investment that takes a while to hit paydirt, but it will pay off in the long run. If your business needs something faster, try advertising for more immediate results while building up your SEO needs. The Astranomicals are here to take your digital marketing beyond the ordinary. Learn more by scheduling a complimentary consultation with our team today.