If you have not already search engine optimized your site, you might be wondering. “Why on earth do I need SEO?”, or “What is SEO?”, or maybe you are curious like I was a few years back and are asking “How can I get started with SEO?”
Well, if you fall into any of those three categories, then this post is for you. And before I go on with the I believe to be the top 10 reasons your site needs SEO, I would like to start by answering quickly, those questions.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization in the simplest terms, is you providing information that will help search engines figure out the core information that is on each page of your website.
Why on earth do I need SEO?
You need it because you want to get found on the internet.
How can I get started with SEO?
Well, if you do not already have a website, then you will need to get a hosting account which I will get into later, but if you already have, then you can wait for the next post in our SEO series that will target the specifics.
So now, let’s get started with the top ten reasons your site needs SEO.
10. YOU WANT TO GET FOUND
There is no point in having a website if you are not going to search optimize it (especially for business). It’s like having an office, and not listing it in the yellow pages (in those years when it was a big deal).
Now, you might be saying “Well, I didn’t do SEO but people find me on google. I’m on page one at that!!!” Well, that is good for you, but guess what, it’ll likely only last until your competitors do SEO and kick you down to page 3 or after. I am sure most of you never go past page 3 of your Google Search.
09. YOU CAN ACTUALLY DO IT YOURSELF
If you are running a small business, for example, you can either hire someone to do your SEO within your marketing budget or simply, do it yourself. This is not to say you do not need an SEO company, but it is to say that you can get started on your own.
You might be wondering why a web hosting company will be telling you about doing SEO. “Is their work not just to sell domains, and hosting plans?” The simple answer is that we want to see you grow. We do not want you to waste your investment by just owning a website and not doing what is right so as to drive organic traffic to your site.
For example, most CMS have a good number of SEO plugins to help you simplify the work, and this is why you should consider doing SEO for yourself.
08. GENERATE LEADS AND INVESTORS
Did you know that when done right, SEO will help you to generate leads, and reach the appropriate investors for your business? This is because when the right set of people find you because you have informed search engines the right set of keywords that point to your business, your investors and potential customers are more likely to find you and do business with you.
Google stated that of the people that search local businesses, 50% of them visited the business the same day. So, you see, it doesn’t just get you found. It also gets you noticed and loved.
07. SEO AND SOCIAL MEDIA ARE BUDDIES
If you (or your business) is active on social media, the content that you and your friends or customers share on social networks will be directly related to your SEO-specific parameters, and hence help you appear more in search rankings.
To explain this better, you can remember that there are times you search for something online, and then you see results from a post that your friends searched? Yeah, that’s what I mean.
06. SEO GIVES YOU CREDIBILITY
The easiest way to understand this is simple. If you search your business name right now, are ou number one on google search?, if not then your journey to SEO has not even begun.
The chances that you will want to do business with you is low if you can’t find your business in first place for your business name search on google or other search engines.
05. SEO CAN SELF-IMPROVE
One of the good things about SEO is that it can self-improve. What I mean is this, once you have used the right set of keywords, you can practically sit back and relax and watch your site rise in rankings for that keyword without doing anything extra.
This is because you have told google to show people your page when they are searching some keywords and then once they find your page interesting the first time, there is a higher chance they will click on your page again for other keywords, and this increases your trust with Google, thereby meaning that Google bots will be more ready to put you higher for your keywords.
All this happens by you doing nothing extra.
04. SEO IS FREE ADVERTISING
Not doing SEO means missing out on free ads. Remember that SEO lets you choose how your business should be seen in search results. Hence, you are carefully crafting how you want your business to be portrayed, and this, my friends, is free advertising.
If your search results are showing random text when people search you up, you might be on your way to dropping down the ranks. but once you are holding up well and look much organized in the search results, then you are on your way to getting more leads for free.
03. SEO HAS MULTIPLE IMPACT
SEO is your digital contact card and can greatly multiply your impact by getting your website in front of targeted eyeballs. This is why most companies prefer to contract out their SEO to companies. If you can’t afford to do this, still do it yourself. The idea is to keep moving.
SEO is like having multiple business cards that can filter in new people that are ready to do business with you. Isn’t this awesome?
02. CUSTOMERS ALWAYS RESEARCH
I can assure you that people always research. GE Capital Retail said that according to their research, 81% of shoppers research and compare products online before making a local purchase, while other researchers have also put this number at over 90%.
Now the interesting aspect is that Moz explained that according to their statistics, 71.33% of clicks happen right on page one of the search results.
The sure-fire way to get on page one is to ensure that you do SEO for your site.
01. SEO IS PROBABLY YOUR BEST INVESTMENT
When you tie in your SEO to your Web analytics data, which I recommend, you will notice that some of your keywords have a higher conversion rate than others, and this can help you predict what your readers will respond better to, and also target them more appropriately.
The returns of SEO can be so great that it has been likened to real estate. You can’t miss it once you get it right.
Now, you didn’t think I will forget about the website part, well this is not because I want to market to you, but because I want to brag to you that Charity Host has the fastest web hosting around.
I mean, what is the point of having good SEO when your page won’t load up insanely fast. Page load speed is an integral part of the user experience and can help you to rank higher in search rankings because people are more likely to click your site the next time they find it in a search result because they know your site will load right away.
