It’s amazing to see more and more businesses putting up websites. These entrepreneurs have seen the light, so to speak, and now recognize a website as a remarkable tool for marketing their business.

The thing is, many people believe that having an online presence is enough to get the ball rolling for their business on the Internet. What they don’t realize is that this marketing tool called a website needs to be marketed itself.

Whatever industry their business is in, these entrepreneurs need to understand there are hundreds, nay thousands of other business websites vying for the attention of billions of users. Getting the attention of even a tiny fraction of that figure is becoming tougher by the day. Your business needs to stand out from that crowd, and the best way to do just that is to adopt SEO marketing campaigns.

Allergic to SEO?

Search engine optimization may have been around for years, but many first-time webmasters are still not too keen on setting aside a budget for an SEO campaign. Some have even gone so far as to call SEO nothing more than a waste of their time, effort, and resources.

The thing is, countless struggling businesses have gone on to see increased traffic and dominate search results in their respective niches because of SEO. With high traffic comes better rankings on Google, which eventually leads to better results for your business.

If you’re one of those entrepreneurs with a website who hasn’t given SEO a try, then you might want to take a much closer look at optimization to see how you can benefit from it. Here are some of the reasons your business—struggling or otherwise—needs to adopt SEO marketing campaigns.

The whole world is online

Okay, so that heading may be a bit of an exaggeration considering some parts of the world don’t even have access to the Internet, but you get the idea. As of July 2018, there are 4.1 billion active internet users in the world. The number of searches Google is processing per day is also quite impressive at 3.5 billion.

These figures may not represent the entire planet, but they come pretty close. Potentially, your business can reach the widest audience possible, and SEO can help you achieve that.

Online consumerism is skyrocketing

Customers are now making purchases online more than ever, especially with the rise of mobile. Eight out of ten Americans are now doing their shopping online. If they’re looking for a product, service, or even a place to eat, all they have to do is pull up a search engine and type in relevant keywords to get all the information they need to help them decide whether or not to make a purchase.

With SEO, you can optimize for those relevant keywords, and your business can eventually be at the top of the options Google will present to its users.

The competition may be SEO-savvy

If ever you’re wondering why no matter what you do, your competition seems to always get the better of you when it comes to Google rankings, you have to entertain the likelihood that they are optimizing their websites.

It’s possible that all of them are running SEO campaigns, as it’s the only explanation why their pages land at the top of search results.

You can, however, give them a run for their money if you decide to optimize your website. The competition is fierce, but simply being in the running for those rankings because of SEO gives your business a fighting chance.

SEO makes your brand more visible

SEO does more than just drive traffic to your website and help make it rank better. Once you get better rankings, the visibility of your brand will improve, and more people will become aware of your brand’s existence.

With increased visibility, people will eventually link your brand to the industry you’re in, and that’s all because of a well-run SEO marketing campaign.

A better user experience

SEO, as we know it today, is more than just about getting great organic rankings or achieving maximum visibility. It’s also about providing users the best experience possible when they’re exploring your site.

User experience or UX is now part of what is known as SEO best practices, thanks to Google learning to tell a favorable user experience from an unfavorable one. When you get quality SEO work done on your website, you can expect positive user experience to be incorporated into it. Naturally, Google will reward sites that provide a positive UX, making it crucial to success.

SEO is more affordable

Understandably, many businesses still rely completely on traditional advertising to promote their products and services. After all, ads on mainstream media still work. However, entrepreneurs have an alternative that is ultimately more affordable: SEO.

Aside from its more reasonable rates compared to traditional ads, an SEO marketing campaign is also more cost-effective since you can customize your campaign based on the needs of your business. And unlike mainstream ads, SEO campaigns are in effect 24/7.
You can build trust and credibility with SEO
Every business understands the importance of building trust and credibility, but it cannot be done overnight. It takes a lot of effort, commitment, and patience to establish your brand as an authority, and SEO is a perfect vehicle to do just that.

SEO helps a website establish authority by making sure a website has quality backlinks, optimized on-page elements and content, and a positive user experience, among other things. Couple that with a valuable and quality product or service, and your business will achieve that level of authority that will make customers trust your brand.

SEO actually works

You may have heard negative things about SEO. It’s quite possible you know another company with an SEO experience that was far from ideal. You may have experienced it yourself in the past when you worked with an SEO company that promised huge results but ultimately let you down.

Whatever you’ve heard or experienced, it cannot be denied that SEO works, and it works exceptionally well. There are far too many businesses that have enjoyed great results because they worked with the right SEO professionals who made sure their websites are fully optimized in line with Google’s rules and guidelines.

One important thing you need to keep in mind when doing SEO work is that you need to be a bit more patient when it comes to seeing results. There is no such thing as instant SEO success, as even excellently-run SEO marketing campaigns have to wait months before they yield any result.

Some results may not even be that earthshaking at the onset. However, if you keep at it, you will see more traffic come in, and it will only be a matter of time before your website makes it to the top of search results.

SEO may not be a magic pill for struggling businesses, but it can give them a much-needed shot in the arm, at least as far as their rankings with Google are concerned. Then again, getting to the top of the search results is no easy feat, and doing so with the help of SEO can only mean better things for a business that’s having a hard time finding an audience.