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Whether you have a startup, a small business or a large enterprise, your online presence is one thing that you cannot ignore at any cost. This is the single most vital factor to keep you alive and kicking in the competitive landscape. Your potential customers will land on your website only if they see you and know that you exist. So what is it that builds up your online presence? Your website, of course! But there is much more that you need to do. You need to make your website figure out on top of search rankings so that people can see it and access it.
Search Engine Optimization is the technique that covers you on this front. However, there are some common objections that SEO faces because results come slowly as compared to PPC. At the same time, social media marketing seems like a more viable alternative because it is glamorous in terms of reach. But believe it or not, SEO is the lifeline of a successful digital marketing strategy. If you fail to invest it, you may as well be ruining your online presence. Here are some good reasons why you cannot ignore SEO in 2020 and beyond.
Organic traffic has better chances of converting
Perhaps the best thing about SEO is that it fetches organic traffic for your website. These are the people who are genuinely interested in your product or service and come with the intent to buy. They have invested efforts in searching your business through keywords, which shows their intentions. Hence, they are more likely to convert as compared to the ones who land via other tactics. This is the audience segment that really matters for your business. Missing on SEO translates into missing on these customers.
SEO is cost-effective
In comparison to the costs of other online marketing initiatives such as PPC and social media marketing, SEO is considered cost-effective. Even though PPC drives faster results, the overall expenditure you need to incur is significantly higher. Social media ads too bring a wider reach but are more expensive as compared to organic tactics such as SEO. If you want a marketing strategy that gives sustainable results with minimal investment, SEO is something that you cannot miss.
It brings credibility for your brand
Beyond just getting you greater traffic, a position on the first page of search rankings builds credibility for your brand. This is because the audience automatically trusts the top ranking websites. If you want to know how things work for websites that invest in SEO, this explains it pretty well. When the users see you somewhere on the top, they are bound to recognize and recall your brand. The longer you stay there, the more credible your brand becomes. So SEO is as good as and even better than TV commercials and print ads.
SEO gives you the branding advantage
While visibility and trust are the two building blocks for your reputation, you cannot ignore branding as well. Branding is critical for new businesses as well as the established ones. It makes you stand apart amongst your competitors and ensures that the customers know you by name. Once again, SEO goes a long way in giving you the branding advantage. When the audience consistently sees you on top of searches, they visualize you as a brand. What’s more, they subsequently start searching you via brand name rather than search keywords!
You might also like to Read: Exploring Search Intent for SEO
It fortifies your online reputation
Since the market is highly competitive today, your rivals will probably leave no stones unturned to push you behind. One of the strategies that businesses apply these days is the negative publicity of the competitors. Primarily, they do so by posting negative reviews, which can be fatal for any business. Such reviews can tarnish the reputation of your business and drive away customers for good. SEO assists you to fortify your online reputation by focusing on the right tactics. This is done by posting favorable content about your business and pushing it up on searches so that the negative reviews become less prominent.
Considering these facts about SEO, you will realize that it is mandatory for the survival and growth of your business in the online domain. The best approach would be to draw a sustainable and result-oriented strategy that brings long-term results for your business. However, your approach should be a holistic one, combining SEO with other marketing tactics as well. Professional digital marketing that understands SEO and all other digital marketing tactics can help you build a plan that works.
