Everything is constantly in flux in the digital age which creates both challenges and opportunities for businesses reliant on an online presence. Mindsets change, methods change and without fail, user behaviour changes. Successful online businesses must monitor these changes in the online market to remain competitive by adapting to changes in the marketplace.
In the context of web browsing, websites are often the very first point of contact between businesses and potential customers or visitors. Websites live at the top of the marketing funnel and function as a valuable point of contact between businesses and potential customers or visitors.
As a result of their placement at the top of the marketing funnel, websites fulfill several functions simultaneously including to create brand awareness, attract visitors to the website, and provide answers to users’ search queries. Websites are therefore crucial because they represent a point of interaction where businesses have the opportunity to convert potential visitors and customers into sales (or any other goal conversion).
To do this, you need your website to rank as closely to the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) as possible.
Image Source: Moz
How does SEO fit into the marketing mix?
Statistics compiled at Zero Limit Web show that the first five organic results on the SERP attract two-thirds of all the clicks. The remainder of the clicks taper off down the first page very quickly. Results on the second page attract less than 1% of the clicks on the SERP, according to Backlinko.
With such fierce competition to rank on the first page of search results, it is essential that businesses maximise their potential for driving traffic to their site by capturing the right kind of user’s attention when they are browsing the web.
There are several components in a digital marketing strategy that can be optimised to help your website rank higher on the SERP. Paid advertising can force your advertisements to appear near the top of search results but there is a growing doubt regarding the effectiveness of paid advertising particularly in comparison to ranking organically by using SEO.
The majority of marketers are now tending to favour SEO when trying to drive useful visitors to their website, as the findings from Databox show that SEO can bring better results than paid advertising – particularly in the long run. The effectiveness of your SEO strategy also depends on its integration with the overarching marketing strategy, such as paid advertising campaigns and content creation on the website.
How does SEO benefit your business?
Seeing returns on your SEO strategy can take 3-6 months, and sometimes even longer, depending on the characteristics of your campaign and industry competitiveness. However these returns can be monumental in causing leads to become goal conversions, so it makes sense to invest in SEO sooner rather than later.
The benefits of investing in SEO are made even clearer when one considers the fact that there is an enormous amount of growth potential for the online market. Deloitte reports that people are increasingly choosing online shopping over retail stores, and that this has only been amplified by COVID-19 restrictions across the world. It is expected that the shift to online shopping will increase rapidly, as consumers are preferring the convenience and safety of online shopping, with further integration of retail apps, social media and mobile payment options streamlining the entire experience.
What does the future hold for online businesses?
The shift from offline to online shopping is further accompanied by a shift from desktop to mobile searches.
By 2025, CNBC expects that approximately 73% of all internet users will be accessing the internet with only their mobile phones, according to data collected by the World Advertising Research Center. This means that right now is the most opportune moment for businesses to adapt to the changing online business environment and prepare for the future by investing in SEO to ensure that their web pages load quickly, serve relevant and engaging content to match users’ search queries, and provide a mobile-friendly experience.
It is quite clear then that SEO is one of the best ways to capitalise on changing consumer behaviour because it can directly boost a page’s ranking and increase the potential for leads and conversions tremendously.
In everyone’s search for a first place in SEO, consistent work on search optimisation should be considered a core component of a digital marketing strategy, rather than a “nice to have” or added extra. The beauty is that the impact can be measured, monitored and adjusted as needed to match any circumstances for any business.
Tick tock. The time to implement SEO is now – get in before your competitors do.