Why SEO matters in 2024

1/ Your organic search audience is by their very nature motivated to want your services

As with all inbound marketing, the prospect is actively looking for or at least considering your services, unlike any form of outbound marketing. Any traffic generated (other than, of course, by competitors and would-be suppliers) is already interested, to some degree, in your offering. So, it probably comes as no surprise that the conversion rate for organic searches is over 10 times higher than for outbound leads. The key is choosing relevant keywords that narrow down their intent, which comes down to meticulous keyword research. For instance, ‘SEO Consultant’ might mean ‘I’m interested in becoming one’ as much as ‘I’m interested in hiring one’. Whilst ‘SEO Consultant Costs’ suggests someone interested in hiring an SEO consultant, while ‘SEO Consultant Salary’ suggests someone is interested in how much they might make if they become one. Of course, there may be many other interpretations, but generally, the longer the search term, eg long tail keywords, the more prospect intent can be narrowed down.

2/ It gives you a better insight into what your customers are actually searching for

SEO is an excellent way of addressing assumptions held within your company regarding how people find you and what search terms they use. It comes as a surprise to many clients that, in my experience, for most companies, 80% of all organic website traffic to your site was already looking for you, e.g. by either your brand or company name-based search. Additionally, by understanding what search terms are generating sales and those that aren’t converting, you get valuable insight into the terms on which to concentrate your SEO efforts. This also helps determine which phrases are where in the sales cycle and where you want to gain traffic (see point 1).

3/ Without investing in SEO, the cost of your website will be just that

Website costs for most companies are relatively significant investments, and not getting them to rank means that they remain only a cost rather than lead to generating a revenue stream. Many companies still spend a lot on new websites with little or no budget for their ongoing maintenance or getting them to rank on the results pages of major search engines. Moreover, it pays to invest in your website since it’s money devoted to a sales channel that can simultaneously serve multiple clients and prospects and is open 24/7, 365 days a year.

4/ SEO lets you use the language your customers are using

It might seem obvious, but you’re probably aware of a gap in the terminology much of your staff uses compared to what prospects might use. Understanding the search phrases that people find you for helps you adopt the correct vocabulary and tone that prospects can relate to on your website, in your marketing collateral and even face-to-face.

5/ SEO helps audiences not just find your website but the right part of your website for them

It’s important that your site is structured to attract prospects at the right point. Many sites are still totally geared to all traffic coming through their Home page, spending a disproportionate amount of time and money at the expense of other pages that might better serve particular search prospects.

6/ SEO has a durability that pay-per-click and other paid advertising don’t

This isn’t to say that it doesn’t need maintenance; it does. However, when you switch off your Adwords, that’s precisely what you’ve done; all visibility is lost. The decline in an organic listing rank can vary massively, but it’s frequently a slow erosion process, if at all.

7/ SEO can be cost-effective

With the money you spend on SEO, you pay the same for one visitor as you do for a hundred or a thousand. The attraction of motivated prospects to your website for a set amount, as opposed to paying per visit as with Adwords, can mean an effective SEO strategy can work out as highly cost-conscious. Combining this with its lasting effect (see point 6) means you can benefit from the SEO carried out today for months, even years. Of course, given that most SEO isn’t immediate in its impact, it often puts off many companies drawn to the immediacy of pay-per-click (Adwords) methods. Ironically, effective SEO and Adwords have much common ground, including highly optimised landing web pages and effective user engagement. This means they can combine effective methods to get immediate results and enable great feedback on the keywords with the highest conversions.

8/ SEO gives a long-term view of your marketing

Yes, there can be some quick win gains in some areas of SEO. Still, the overall methodology is to work over a period of months, if not years, towards securing high organic rankings of the most highly converting key phrases. This creates a culture of using the same phrasing and developing content that addresses your prospect’s interests or concerns around a topic that they are searching for. Phrases indeed come and go, and being on top of emerging and declining search terms is also part of SEO.

9/ SEO gives a holistic view of your online marketing

With SEO, it’s not simply about driving people to your website. It also analyses those keywords that actually convert into traffic. This means viewing prospect journeys through the site, where they bounce off or don’t convert. It can be easy to judge a phrase as not a conversion keyword without viewing the page in question and how that page addresses that search. Moreover, user experience on a site is now a well-recognised signal to Google, so how well customers interact with your site can impact how well your site ranks in general.

10/ Without SEO, you may be missing opportunities that your competitors are capitalising on

It’s evident that if you aren’t ranking for specific search phrases with high search volume and reasonable conversion rates, then somebody is.

11/ SEO is often about maximising the effect of what you’re already doing

Unless you’re a brand-new company, you’ll have a ‘digital footprint’ to some extent. In this day and age, it’s simply inevitable. SEO ensures consistency in this footprint, gains an optimised output for your comms, and makes your website look good. Understanding where you can improve on existing strong ranking positions for short-term gains and determining where you want to rank on a longer time scale is part of this process.

12/ SEO, when local, gets you leads on your doorstep

Organic listings, the standard 1-10 listings under Adwords as they appear on a search engine results page, are not the only listings you can rank organically for. You may have noticed that a ‘local pack’ is visible above the organic listings for specific phrases, showing a map with nearby suppliers that provide services. This local SEO is a very underrated part of search engine optimization, and you should expect even higher conversion rates for prospects within typically 0-5 miles of your location.”

OK, I’m convinced, so what’s the next step?

So, hopefully, you’re convinced that SEO is of benefit. So, do you undertake the work yourself or hire someone else? Should I use an SEO professional or keep my SEO in-house? Or, if you’re already convinced that you want to use an SEO consultant, then let’s talk.