Why SEO is key to long-term success

SEO or search engine optimisation is a digital marketing activity with them aim of getting your website to rank highly on search engines for relevant search queries (keywords). This is primarily Google, but also relates to Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo etc. and even platform search engines such as Amazon and YouTube.

Each of the aforementioned search engines have an algorithm which determines what web pages show up for each search query and is personalised to the user’s location and search behaviour etc. Some of the details of what’s included in the algorithm are public knowledge and others are inferred. To be honest, it’s not worth stressing too much about although it’s useful to be aware of any significant changes.

At the end of the day if we zoom out it’s clear search engines like Google want to provide their users with informative and helpful content which directly matches their search query. So if we can focus on ensuring we do that we should see good success with SEO.

The problem (or perceived problem) with SEO is it takes time. Unlike Google Ads or paid social media campaigns we may not see rewards for our efforts on SEO for months and even then just steady growth. An alternative view is this is a good thing, as if it’s hard most will give up so those who persist are left to reap the benefits.

This is why patience is key with SEO and it’s important to be aware up front and plan accordingly so that you keep with the process even when you’re seeing little to no results in those early months.

One of the reasons SEO is so effective and worth that wait is the intent behind users from search engines. As we’re optimising for specific keywords we can have a very good indication of exactly what it is they want. I.e. if a user searches for ‘accountant for small business’ it’s clear what they’re looking for. Whereas if you target a specific demographic of small business owners we think are ideal clients for an accountancy firm we have no idea if they’re in fact looking for an accountant or already have a long-term accountancy partner.

This is why conversion rates are often so good from organic search (SEO) traffic. In my experience almost all of my clients across a mix of industries after time always tend have SEO as their leading converting channel.

Hopefully I’ve convinced you of the benefits of starting and sticking with an SEO plan. If so and you continue to work at it you’ll get these amazing compounding effect start to kick in. Because you’ve optimised your site and created valuable content, search engines like Google start to reward you with ‘domain authority’ i.e. they trust your site more and are are more likely to rank you highly for more relevant keywords for your industry topics. Therefore you get more traffic which converts better so you can create more content and the flywheel goes on.

And of course as you’re creating and publishing more content to assist with organic search growth all of this content can be shared and repurposed on other channels too. For example snippets can be put onto social media, links shared in email newsletters and popular blog posts can be converted into more details ebooks for download and direct lead generation.

SEO is and has always been one of my favourite digital marketing channels. Bascially for all the reasons mentioned above, it converts really well, it compounds over time and assists with all your other marketing activities too. The trade off for that is that it takes time and resources to get to that point but if you can stick it out the rewards are more than worth it.

As always if you’d like help creating your marketing strategy you can request a consultation call with me today.