(click the Image for today’s results)
How does one define the real value of SEO?
There are many opinions about the value of SEO. If you think that someone might Google your brand, your services, your products, or general information about your industry, then your brand is a candidate to be optimized for the search engines.
When I go through my week, talking to multitudes of people about Internet Marketing and all the different tactics a business can use, the real value of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is always an interesting discussion.
Need gluten-free pizza company that delivers?
Looking for a plumber who specializes in passive solar systems?
Trying to learn about construction project management software for your company?
Want to learn about how different fats affect our metabolisms?
If any of these search examples are similar to yours, you are a candidate for SEO.
Search is the new Yellow Pages. When was the last time you even saw that monstrous book that is only used for strong-man competitions any more? Even they have changed their offerings as their model is dying, to have internet marketing too (buyer beware 🙂
SEO is one of the most effective ways to date of filling your sales pipeline with new leads. Once you get that new lead, Marketing Automation can very effectively nurture that lead to conversion with increased ROI. But that is another blog post…
One of the Internet Marketing gurus, Neil Patel, writes about the value of SEO here:
Page 1 search results in search engines are precious real estate for brands. The top 5 results are especially visible and generate approximately 70% of the traffic for a keyword.
The #1 result SERP is even more valuable…
In 2012, a Compete study found that it gets 53% of organic search clicks.
In 2013, a study by Chitika found that it gets 32.9% of the traffic share.
Even with major changes in search results layouts in 2016, it continues to get about 30% of clicks (according to an analysis of 1,049,084 keywords for 24,847 websites by Advanced Web Ranking).
The Value of SEO is more website visitors compared to your competitors
By the sheer presence on the first page of search results, your website will inevitably get more hits. Can you imagine getting the lionshare of all contacts and calls to your company for your given offer? Wouldn’t that help your bottom line?
SEO is a long term investment that can be augmented by Pay Per Click (PPC or SEM), Re-Targeting, Social and Display advertising. Short term, patience is in order, as the minimum you should see results in is 90 days after your site is properly optimized. Off-page SEO is an ongoing investment to not only build your rankings, but to keep up with your competitors and their efforts.
These efforts, if properly done with “white-hat” techniques, will build your positions and your brand’s longevity on the web.
Usually for the price of a few print ads that are usually too general for the audience you are trying to reach, SEO can yield targeted results that you can build upon now, and in the future.