The majority of internet users now search for almost everything online, whether it’s a restaurant, a law firm or a software company. Although no official statistics are available, it is estimated that Google processes 63 000 queries every second(!), which translates into 5.6 billion searches per day, or around 2 billion per year worldwide.
People search for 3-4 things a day on average, but this number is growing
So the competition is huge and the question is: how will you be able to get ahead of the competition? The “keyword” is search engine optimisation, or SEO.
That’s why in this article we’ll explain exactly why SEO is so important, and show you some SEO techniques and tools you can use to increase your website traffic.
But first, we’ll share some interesting search engine optimization statistics with you.
Interesting statistics about Google searches:
- More than 50% of searches end without a click.
- 92% of all search queries are long tail keywords.
- In 2021, 56% of internet traffic came from mobile.
- 14% of Google searches are questions.
- The first place average click-through rate on PCs is higher than on mobile: 31.5% and 24% respectively
- More than 90% of the website’s visitors come from zero organic traffic, from Google.
- The average keyword consists of roughly two words.
Perhaps the above numbers show how important it is to work on your new website even after it is ready (and the most work starts just afterwards).
(In short:) What is SEO all about?
Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is a strategy to get your website ranked as high as possible in search engines.
The strategy includes technical SEO, such as checking URLs, detecting bad pages, checking sitemaps and robots.txt.
It also includes On-Site SEO. Keyword research helps you to identify what keywords and phrases your target audience is using when searching for products or services similar to yours. And based on the keywords, you can create a content plan to start blogging and writing website content.
In addition, Off-Site SEO helps to build your brand by involving factors outside the website (social media, link building, PR articles).
Of course, this is just a simplified form of search engine optimisation.
Now that you’re familiar with the basics, let’s take a look at why your new website needs search engine optimisation!
Why should your new website be search engine optimised?
#1 Helps you build your brand
Although branding is seen as a more “traditional” marketing strategy, it should be an important part of SEO.
To build your brand, you need to take into account what your product or service is and what others say about it. Reviews are very important as many people choose (or not) a product/service based on what other customers have experienced. In addition, over time it will also become an indicator of quality, the more positive reviews, the more prestige your brand will have in the market.
Reviews should also be taken into account when creating content, as they are the basis for producing content that customers want. If a question arises, it is worth devoting a separate article to answering it.
This should be combined with a proper keyword research. With this complete SEO strategy, you can create content that is in line with the image you want to present to the public about your brand.
#2 A well-optimised website generates much more traffic
When you look through the bullshit that circulates around SEO, the goal of search engine optimization is ultimately very clear and straightforward: the goal is to make more profit. And this is just a “collateral consequence” of ranking well in search for your main keywords.
A well search engine optimised site will perform better in search engines, and therefore generate more visitors, which means more people will buy. The Math is simple: let’s say that you have been scrolling on the third page for the main keyword “motorcycle helmet”, somewhere around the 25th position, and 100 people clicked on you per month, which resulted in a purchase (statistics show that roughly 1-2% of visitors make a purchase).
Then, with a well-constructed SEO strategy, your website is suddenly ranked number 4: and miraculously, your 10 monthly searches suddenly jump to 2500. If only 1% of your visitors buy in the same way, that’s already 25 purchases a month as compared to one.
#3 SEO is “free”
One of the biggest advantages of SEO is that you don’t have to pay for advertising space, as you do with Ads. Just think how traditional Ads campaigns work. You actually bid on a keyword, and if you win the bid, you’re in first place. And you only pay when the ad is clicked. This is costly, especially if the ad is clicked by robots rather than human beings, driving up the cost of advertising.
However, the websites that appear in the organic results do not pay a single cent for their appearance, so they are “free”. But this is worth putting in quotes because the articles, the text, and the search engine optimization itself costs money (or time, if you do it yourself). Indirectly, there are costs, but they are easily recouped if you put your site in the hands of a good professional.
#4 Increases credibility
The appearance of the internet has drastically changed consumer habits and, fundamentally, the sales process. Whereas in the past there were TV commercials that could claim almost anything about a product, today, thanks to the internet, consumers are making much more informed choices.
That’s why one of the most important parts of search engine optimisation is education: educating your customers. Education is one of the most, if not the most, important elements of content marketing. Educating your consumers will help build your credibility, plus this type of content is much more likely to be shared.
Of course, this is a very (but really very) long process, because by the time your consumer gets to the actual purchase, they already know virtually everything about you: they read your emails, are regular readers of your blog, watch your YouTube videos, etc.
It is precisely this waiting game that makes many people simply unable to wait until the money is ready to be harvested, and prefer to invest their money in Ads, because it pays off immediately.
But there is one big downside to Ads: as soon as you turn off the ads, your customers disappear, which creates a kind of dependency.
#5 Get ahead of the competition
When you search engine optimise your website, you are not only working to improve your search engine ranking, but also to get ahead of the competition.
Think about it: on average, the first hit in the SERP (search engine results page) gets 20.5% of clicks. From there, the second hit gets 13.32% and the third gets 13.14%.
This means that as you move higher up in the search results, you’ll get a higher percentage of clicks for your targeted keywords than your competitor.
+1 Provides long-term growth potential for your website
The content is evergreen and will always be available on the website. They are a bit like perennial flowers: you sow the seed and wait patiently for it to bloom. If you nurture it (read: expand the content), with a little bit of exaggeration, it will deliver you visitors and revenue forever.
So don’t think of SEO and content marketing as a cost or a redundancy. Think of it as a long-term investment that can build your company’s future – and your own.