Bobby Kircher is the founder of Papaya Internet, a digital marketing consultancy based in Atlanta, Georgia. Papaya Internet has helped small businesses and individuals sell their products and services online via SEO, PPC, social media marketing, and merchant selling sites such as Amazon and Ebay. Bobby has nearly 20 years of web experience and is part of our CSR marketing referral network, as well as our office neighbor.
Have you used Google to search for your name or your business? If you’re not finding your name or your business, you will realize you need SEO for your business.
1. Organic SEO Drives Traffic
According to Alexa, Google is the top visited website on the web followed by YouTube, also owned by Google. While many businesses are using social media and advertising to drive traffic, most website traffic comes from organic search and mostly from Google. Having good SEO means having access to the most visited website in the world and potential customers.
2. Relatively Inexpensive = Good ROI
Good SEO isn’t free, but it’s not gruesomely expensive either, especially when compared to search engine advertising. It’s a smart investment that grows over time as long as you continue to work and improve it. And unlike paid search advertising, organic search engine traffic is free.
3. Your Potential Customers Are Looking for You Online
While word of mouth may drive awareness and referrals, there are many who will perform some due diligence on your business online. They look to see if your business has a website, reviews, and information to contact you. Search engines look at reputation as a ranking signal so making sure you have good and quality reviews is important for your reputation and for SEO.
4. Opportunities Abound on Page 1
Not only is it important to rank for your keywords, but Google’s tools and other websites are competing for those search queries as well. Google My Business and local listing websites like Yelp provide additional opportunities on page 1 to get traffic to your website, so having a presence on both provides additional opportunities for that first page click. 75% of all clicks for a search query happen on page 1.
5. Over 50% of Google Searches Are Performed on a Mobile Device
As smartphones get larger and faster, more people are using them for more than texting and apps. Half of all internet traffic comes from a mobile device and Google knows this. That’s why it started implementing its Mobile-First Indexing strategy in 2018. User experience is important for Google so having mobile-friendly content will help you perform better on half of all searches performed on Google.
Bottom line is that SEO is important to not only capture those who are looking for your products and services, but also to help solidify your reputation as the best solution for your potential clients and customers no matter which device they use.