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Importance of SEO: 8 Reasons Why

You know what SEO is, and you know the importance of SEO in digital marketing.

You also know that maximizing your SEO potential can be hard work, requiring lots of time and energy.

Ultimately, you want to know, “Will all the SEO hard work pay off in the end?” 

Understanding why SEO is important can help to answer that question. 

Having your website appear near the top of a Google search is essential for many reasons.

In this article, you will learn why SEO is crucial for:

  • Websites
  • Local businesses
  • Content writing
  • Small businesses

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Contents

What Are The Most Important Aspects of SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of using certain methods and techniques in regards to your website that will result in a higher ranking in search engine results.

To make SEO work for you and your business, it’s essential to understand the many aspects of SEO and how they all work together to impact your rankings, traffic, and sales.

Some of the most important aspects of SEO include:

  • Content 
  • Title Tags
  • Meta Descriptions
  • Keywords 
  • Headers 
  • Value adds
  • Social Media interaction
  • Links 
    • Internal Links
    • External Links
    • Backlinks

It’s helpful to know that these aspects can be used in a variety of ways and degrees, depending on the purpose of your SEO endeavors. 

Consider how you can use the aspects above to your benefit for:

  • Local SEO
  • E-commerce
  • Content writing
  • Digital marketing
  • Small businesses

Importance of SEO For Website

Whether your business depends on local foot traffic or online activity, your website is an invaluable and crucial part of your company’s success.

Because your business depends on the activity generated from your website, the importance of SEO for business is evident, especially in how SEO impacts the buying cycle of your customers.

What is the buying cycle, anyway?

The buying cycle is simply the process that a customer goes through when making a purchase. There are many variations on the buying cycle, but most of them include four basic stages.

The four steps in the buying cycle are:

  1. Awareness – This is when buyers recognize their need for a product or when they see a product or service advertised which is aimed at getting their attention.
  2. Consideration – This part of the cycle is when customers do some thinking and evaluating to determine the factors that are important to them regarding your product. Customers may consider things like the value, utility, or long-term use of your product.
  3. Purchase – This is when buyers decide what they need and commit to buying the product or service.
  4. Post-Sale – This final stage in the buying cycle is when customers use the product or service, evaluate their experience with the product, and discuss their experience informally or through a review.

Your ultimate goal is to get customers on your website or into your store to make a purchase. 

Since customers can only be in one stage of the buying cycle at a time, you need to have a strategy for moving your customers through the cycle.

For example, a customer in the awareness phase is searching for something particular and enters keywords and phrases in Google to find what they are looking for. Therefore, relevant keywords and phrases must be a part of your strategy.

Someone in the consideration stage is looking for specific information and specs on a particular product. To keep that customer on your website long enough to buy, your content needs to be concise and useful to them. Making sure your content adds value to the customer can keep them from quickly leaving your site to move on to the next one.

If that happens, you’ve lost a sale.

If you’re not sure how to develop an SEO strategy that considers the buying cycle, let Portland SEO Growth assist you. 

Our trusted professionals have the experience and knowledge that can help set you on the path to success.

Get your free SEO audit to get started.

#1: Increases Usability

SEO increases usability, mostly through the use of relevant keywords. 

Although keywords are an important aspect of SEO, there are many other aspects to consider like:

    • URL Structure – The URL may be the first thing customers see, so you’ll want to make sure it includes pertinent information to let your readers know what the web page is about.
    • Content – The content included on your website may be the most essential aspect of your SEO strategy. Your website should include excellent and relevant content that gives the reader/customer the essential information they are searching for. 
    • Title Tag– This aspect of SEO is one of the first things readers see when they use a search engine like Google. Therefore, the title tag should:
      • Grab the reader’s attention
      • Contain keywords
      • Introduce the reader to the content on the page
    • Meta Description – The title tag is followed by the meta description. Making the meta description clear and relevant can mean more clicks and higher rankings.
    • Keywords – Using keywords well is critical as an SEO tool. Find out which keywords are the most popular and think of creative and natural ways to include them in your content.
    • Headers – This SEO detail is necessary for several reasons: 
      • To break up the content
      • To provide structure 
      • To use keywords 
      • For better readability
    • Links – What is the importance of backlinks in SEO? Using internal links, external links, and backlinks in your SEO content can benefit you by: 
      • Increasing your credibility
      • Establishing a link hierarchy that Google will use for rankings
      • Magnifying your authority
    • Value – Adding value to your reader is paramount and can be overlooked in the demand for varied and constant content. Give them what they are looking for and always seek to add value. 

#2: Enhances Visibility

Using SEO techniques well means more visibility for your website. 

Since 75% of people never scroll past the second page of search results, your website will be overlooked by a majority of customers if it appears further down the list.

Effective SEO puts your website near the top of the list resulting in more visibility and more clicks.

#3: User Experience

SEO is about so much more than fitting the right keywords in your content over and over.

As Google algorithms continue to advance and get smarter, they can consider visitor behavior in addition to other basic SEO aspects like keywords, bounces, and backlinks.

Maximizing user experience must be a priority in your SEO strategy. 

Effective website content should have the reader in mind. Make sure your content is relevant and aids your readers in completing their tasks. 

Focusing on the reader and their needs results in:

  • More traffic
  • Longer visits on your page 
  • Less bouncing
  • Higher rankings

Investing the time and energy to make user experience a priority will pay off in the end.

The Importance of Local SEO

Taking advantage of local SEO can result in huge wins for your business. 

Local SEO is simply a way to promote your business online for customers who are searching for your services or products in their specific location.

How can local SEO be so valuable to your local business?

Consider these statistics to help answer that question:

  • 46% of Google searches are local.
  • 78% of local searches from mobile devices result in a sale.
  • “Near me” searches have grown by 200%.

Local SEO increases your company’s:

  • Brand awareness
  • Engagement
  • Sales

Understanding and taking advantage of Google local pack listings is key to bringing your business into the limelight.

You’ve seen the Google local pack, but maybe you didn’t realize it had a name. 

The local pack is the part of Google search results that lists the local businesses related to a particular search request. Google shows the top 3 local businesses related to your search along with a map and other pertinent information like an address and store hours.

Why should you care about the Google local pack?

According to ThinkWithGoogle, more than 50% of customers who make a local search on their mobile device visit the store within a day. If your business is one of the top 3 results in the local pack, the chances of searchers coming to your store are much higher.

Rankings matter.

#4: Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is “the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognize a brand under different conditions.”

How does SEO build brand awareness?

Simple — if your business is consistently showing up in the top spots in a search query, your brand will become familiar, resulting in more authority and higher traffic.

Techniques like link building and optimizing keyword longtail phrases can go a long way in increasing your brand awareness.

#5: Increased Engagement

Higher rankings in Google searches also means more potential visits to your webpage.

URL structure, title tags, and meta descriptions are vital in drawing potential customers to your website.

Relevant and engaging content that adds value to your visitors will keep them on your page longer, resulting in higher rankings on local SERPs.

#6: More Traffic Means More Conversions

We would all agree that increased traffic to your website is a good thing. 

But merely getting people to look at your site isn’t the end goal. You want them to do something.

That’s what conversion is all about. But conversions aren’t only about sales.

In addition to sales, conversions can include:

  • Clicking to another page on your site
  • Requesting a newsletter subscription
  • Completing a form to request a free consultation

Success in conversions can result in return visits to your site, higher rankings, and increased sales.

Importance of Content Writing In SEO

In our technological and information-saturated culture, blogs are becoming more popular than ever for those seeking to boost their SEO potential — and for good reason.

Blogging gives you one more avenue to add purposeful and pertinent content for your readers. It also gives you more opportunities to use other on-page SEO tactics like:

  • Keywords
  • Longtail keyword phrases
  • Linking strategies

In the end, blogging is just one more tool to implement to increase your chances to rank higher in search engine results.

#7: The Importance of Keywords In SEO

Why are keywords important for SEO? 

Simply stated, keywords are one of the main, though certainly not the only, factors that search engine algorithms use in determining rankings. 

Additionally, using relevant keywords assists the reader in finding the information they are searching for quickly and easily. Keywords used in the URL structure and meta descriptions particularly guide the reader in their searches.

Undoubtedly, keywords can be numerous, so how can you know which keywords to use?

We can help with that.

Keyword research is one of our specialties. Let PSG do the work for you.

Many marketing companies simply consider the number of searches a particular keyword has to determine which ones to use. 

We go beyond that by also considering:

  • Competition level
  • The intent behind each keyword
  • Potential ROI

#8: Writing For Your Audience

Don’t let your audience get lost in the keywords.

Keywords are important, but your readers are the focus.

To keep your audience as the priority, remember to answer your customers’ questions. 

They are searching for particular information. 

Don’t lure them to your site with a promising meta description only to find a page of stuffed keywords that doesn’t meet their needs. 

It’s all about adding value to the readers. Give them what they are looking for.

When writing for your audience:

  • Keep your content current and relevant.
  • Include content that keeps them engaged.
  • Consider internal, external, and backlinks that add value.

The Importance of SEO For Small Businesses

Small businesses benefit from SEO in many of the same ways that other businesses do. 

Small business SEO benefits include:

  • More traffic
  • Higher rankings
  • Increased conversions
  • Boost in sales

But. . .

Small business owners can unarguably be some of the busiest people on the planet. They work hard to get their small business off the ground, and most work even harder to gain the success they are looking for.

Adding SEO techniques to their already full plates can seem daunting and overwhelming.

Portland SEO Growth has got you covered.

You should know that we don’t work with just any business. We only work with businesses who:

  • Are ambitious about growing their business
  • Have bandwidth for potential growth
  • Treat the employees and customers well

If that describes you, let us help you get started by requesting your free SEO audit. 

Rona Kirby

Rona Kirby

Writer

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