Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving your site to increase its visibility for relevant searches on search engine result pages (SERPs). In the world of digital marketing, search engine optimisation is arguably the most difficult digital marketing discipline to master. To explain this, we must first of all explain what search engines are.
What are Search Engines?
Search engines are digital libraries. However and unlike traditional libraries where books are stored, search engines store web pages in what is called an “index”.
When you type in a search query into a search engine, we’ll use Google as an example. It scans through its index for the web pages that are relevant to your query. It then ranks them on its result pages from most relevant to least relevant.
Search engines are continuously and frequently being enhanced to better understand users’ search intent to deliver the best results to their searches. These frequent upgrades make it impossible to fully master the art of SEO.
Despite this inconvenience, “SEO Experts” still find ways to get it done. These are people that have spent years trying to understand how search engines work. Those who have results to show get paid heavily by companies and businesses looking to rank on SERPs.
Here in Oxford, UK, some SEO agencies charge as high as £9000 per month for their services. While there may not be one outfit that can be called Oxford’s affordable SEO agency, with diligent search and a stroke of luck, you should be able to find some companies that fall in this category.
Why Do You Need SEO?
You need SEO for the following reasons:
Visibility
In today’s day and age, everyone needs to have their website optimised. As long as you have a functional website or some form of online presence, (which by the way, every business needs), you definitely need optimisation.
You need SEO because there are hundreds of other businesses like yours scattered all over the world. Like you, they want to get as many customers as they possibly can. To do that, they go online. Why? Because through the internet, they have access to thousands and thousands of potential customers looking for products they offer.
To be seen in the countless number of businesses similar to yours, there is a need for SEO. Your website has to be properly optimized to appear on the top of SERPs for search queries relevant to your business.
Traffic
When your site ranks on SERPs, the next thing that follows is traffic. Relevant traffic; people who are genuinely interested in your product or services.
In the digital marketing business, more relevant traffic equals more conversions (sales, leads, store visits), whatever your conversion goal might be. This is only possible with proper optimisation.
Better User Experience
The benefits of SEO are not limited to visibility and traffic alone, even though those two might be among its major benefits. User experience is another benefit of SEO. This is because Google takes into consideration user experience when indexing a site.
Sites with low user experience struggle to rank on SERPs. So, by improving your site’s search visibility, you also improve the user experience which is a win-win. Both you and your users benefit from optimizing your site.
Trust
Most people trust sites that appear top of SERPs. This is because they already trust Google enough to believe that the sites it displays at the top of its results pages are credible and trustworthy.
If you are anything like most users, then you never bother checking any site below the third or fourth results. Appearing at the top engenders trust which results in more people visiting your site and potentially converting to paying customers.
It’s Long Term
Sites that manage to rank top on SERPs, stay there for a long time. This feat is very difficult to accomplish, but once done, the returns can last for years.
It goes without question that SEO is extremely important for companies and businesses looking to increase awareness and build trust in their brand. Ranking tops on Google search results can be the most rewarding marketing campaign results any business will ever pull off.
The reason for this is simply because Google controls over 90% of the search market share. Also, Google has over two million partner sites that businesses can certainly take advantage of in their digital marketing endeavors. Here’s a link to the stats on search engine market shares: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/.
Conclusion
We’ve taken some time to briefly discuss some of the benefits that any business can enjoy with proper site optimization. With these in mind, all you now need to do is ensure you find an agency that will deliver these results and at an affordable price.
Once you have found one, entrust your website into their care then sit back and watch the results. This will likely be one of the best business decisions you’ve ever made.
