With more and more people using the Internet to search for products and service providers, there is no denying that your business needs to implement search engine optimization (SEO) nowadays. Otherwise, you will be missing out on a lot of opportunities.
That said, here are eight ways SEO can help boost your business’ online presence:
1. Know Your Target Market Better
An important component of an effective SEO strategy is to conduct keyword research. Without it, you will never know the following:
- Your target market’s intent on looking for a business like yours
- The kind of information that matters to them
- The types of positive association that your business can leverage
- What your competitors are doing
Without keyword research, you will have a vague idea of which keywords you should rank for.
For example, you are a new digital marketing company in Delhi. If you want your business to be visible to people who are looking for the services that you provide, then you will need to conduct keyword research. That way, you will know whether you should exert more effort in ranking for “digital marketing company in Delhi” vs. “digital marketing agencies in Delhi.”
2. Produce Valuable Content
Digital marketing, or SEO in particular, is not just about ranking for your target keywords on Google or Bing. It is also about providing excellent content that is relevant to your target keywords.
Using our previous example, this means that people who typed in “digital marketing company in Delhi” may not be looking for content that is similar to those who typed in “digital marketing services.”
The former may be looking for a list of known digital marketing companies in an area near him. The latter, on the other hand, is possibly looking for samples of digital marketing services that he can implement for his small business.
3. Build Brand Awareness
According to Moz, SEO “is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.”
This explains why SEO, and digital marketing as a whole, is more than just making your website rank on search engine results. Your website might rank for “digital marketing certification” but does it bring you the right type of site visitors? And by “right type of site visitors,” we mean people who are likely to hire your services.
If not, then you might be targeting the wrong people.
An effective SEO strategy is one where you can make your target market know that your business exists.
You can do this by conducting keyword research and utilizing the ones that are relevant to your business. And then producing excellent content around your target keywords so that you can rank well and drive quality traffic to your website.
4. Manage Your Online Reputation
In relation to point #3, SEO allows you to associate your brand with the right keywords. Thus, helping you manage your business’ online reputation.
So, instead of ranking for “digital marketing certification” you might want to rank for “digital marketing packages” instead. That’s because you offer various digital marketing services that are packaged depending on a client’s budget, and not any certification course. And then create valuable and informative content about it.
You can also do the same when your brand is being associated with something negative. This is where you can use SEO as part of your online reputation management efforts.
5. Expand Market Reach
Let’s face it, the reason you want to have a website for your business is that you want to expand your market reach. In fact, enterprise and mid-sized companies rely on technical SEO and content production to keep and boost their search presence.
With digital marketing, you are no longer limited to the physical location of your business. Instead, you can promote your products and services across the globe. Not to mention that this is one of the most cost-effective ways to bring in more customers and make your business grow fast.
No need to worry about setting up shop in, say, Australia if you are based in India. That’s because people in Australia would be able to see your website on Google, provided that you are diligent with your digital marketing efforts.
6. Drive Inbound Traffic
Aside from being a cost-effective way to make your business grow, SEO is also a great way to drive inbound traffic. This is where inbound marketing also comes into play.
Unlike traditional advertising and marketing tactics, inbound marketing is where you attract customers to your website. With the help of SEO, you can make your website rank for the right keywords, which can compel Internet users to click through and check out your web content. That’s inbound traffic!
What’s cool about this strategy is that you are not interrupting any customer activities, unlike TV commercials for example.
7. Improve Conversion
Conversion is when you turn a website visitor into a customer. To some, like e-commerce businesses, this can be an easy feat. While for others, this could take months and a couple of touchpoints.
Nonetheless, there is a slim chance that you can improve your conversion rate without on-page SEO.
This is one part of your SEO strategy wherein you make sure that your target keywords are incorporated on your headers and page titles. On-page SEO also includes optimizing your web pages’ meta description in order to compel click-throughs.
The key here is to make Internet users visit your site, stay longer, and come back over and over. That way, you can get closer to bringing them to the end of the customer journey, which is purchase.
8. Get Ahead of the Competition
As mentioned earlier, digital marketing can help you figure out what your competitors are doing. It is like taking a step back so that you can move two steps forward.
According to Rebecca Lee White, a former digital marketing manager for TrackMaven, competitive analysis allows you to do the following:
- Figure out marketing tactics that bring revenue to your competitors
- Find opportunities that can help get past them
- Measure how you are performing compared to your competitors
That way, you will know which digital marketing tactic to implement for your businesses.
SEO can help your business in many ways. In fact, it can be part of your entire digital marketing strategy. So, how are you taking advantage of SEO? Let us know in the comments!
