So you’ve arrived here because you are either investigating “what is SEO” from a career choice or you require the service for your business. For a business, SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a term that you may have heard but don’t quite fully understand. Let’s get into it.
So what is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation is a term used to describe the process of driving traffic organically from search engines such as Google to a specific website. An easier way to understand it is when you searched on Google “What is Search Engine Optimisation”, a bunch of results showed up. Some of which are Google AdWords adverts, the other results are known as “Organic Search Results“. These results are based on what Google perceives as the most relevant results to what you have searched for. In some cases, there are websites that are not ranked highly due to problems with bad coding or other factors that influence this relevancy ranking. Addressing these issues and implementing good content is part of what is collectively known as “Search Engine Optimisation”.
Now that we’ve clarified what search engine optimisation is, it’s time to understand why it is valuable to businesses. Below are some of the reasons to use SEO.
- Free Clicks
- Unlike Google AdWords, when a user clicks on an organic result, there is no cost to the website owner. This means that once the groundwork has been completed to achieve results and maintain the results, all traffic through these results is FREE.
- Conversion Rates
- Conversion rates on organic search results are generally higher than Google AdWords adverts or similar forms of Pay Per Click advertising. Meaning, the value of these clicks is higher than other forms of Search Engine marketing.
- Awareness
- Having keywords that are optimised puts your brand in front of potential customers consistently and helps to drive brand awareness.
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Search engine optimisation services are not cheap, but in terms of ROI and overall long term costs, it works out cheaper, in the long run, to utilise SEO over other forms of paid marketing channels.
- Improved CTR (Click Through Rate)
- Click-Through Rates are generally higher with organic search results than with Google AdWords adverts. This means that you get more clicks that cost nothing over your competitors who are potentially having to pay for the same clicks.
What strategy should you be using?
We recommend using a combination of PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising such as Google AdWords or similar in conjunction with Search Engine Optimisation. The reason for this is because SEO takes time to generate results, it is far from a quick fix. Whilst waiting for the SEO results to mature and come to fruition, Google AdWords can be set up and drive traffic almost immediately.
If you have any questions or would like an in-depth explanation of SEO and how it could help you, please get in touch. For Australian based customers, please visit our SEO Agency based in Adelaide or book a free SEO consultation online now.