Implementing a solid SEO strategy for a good digital presence is crucial but it has always been put on the back seat by many organizations/companies. Behind website re-designs, client approvals, improving UX & UI, basically behind almost everything. Even when SEO is considered in the blueprint, convincing the c-suite to prioritize, allocate sufficient budget, find the best resources and then initiate the process, is like climbing a mountain. But one thing that many c-level executives are not familiar or don’t want to be familiar with is that getting the SEO part right is very important for digital success. SEO should be the core component of a digital marketing strategy as it creates synergy in-sync with other sub-sets of digital marketing and boosts traffic and conversions (leads, sales etc.).
SEO plays a very crucial role in any holistic digital marketing strategy because SEO has the potential to change the digital scenario of your organization. If your organization/company hasn’t seen the potential or results of SEO so far, maybe it’s not given the right priority or the process may be handled by the wrong person – In the meantime your competitors may be reaping the benefits of SEO fully, watch out!
As a CEO or any C-level executive, you may have the following questions in mind.
- Why should we invest in SEO?
- Is this going to be profitable?
- Do you have proven results?
- What does success look like? What are your KPIS?
Therefore, this blog is for all the CEOs to read and understand- Why you should Take SEO More Seriously and also the need to review the SEO process of your company if you already have one which is not yielding the desired results.
Let’s first begin with the baby steps to understand what SEO is actually. To put it simply, SEO is the short form of Search Engine Optimization, which is a process (if done right) that helps your website to rank better in search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. for the right keywords used by users and there by brings in traffic and leads/sales and ultimately revenue. As you know these days users/people turn to search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing to search and find products, services and a wide range of information.
Depending on various factors, SEO can be a time consuming process which happens behind the scene and doesn’t yield significant results instantly in many cases and since it’s full impact is not seen in the short-term (though it starts yielding results within a couple of months in most cases, depending on factors), many businesses tend to not take SEO seriously the way it should be when compared to other channels of digital marketing like online advertising, email marketing etc. but if you are determined to transform your company’s digital marketing process and make it yield significant results consistently and want to see growing contribution of digital marketing to your company/organization’s bottom line, you should seriously consider SEO as a core component of your digital marketing and consider investing in it heavily for both short-term and long-term gains. Here are 10 compelling reasons that will motivate you to do so:
1) SEO Drives More Traffic than Any Other Digital Marketing Channel – Exceptions apart, search engines are major drivers of traffic to any website, thus organic (traffic from search engines) as a channel is always far ahead of all other channels of digital marketing when it comes to driving traffic to the site and SEO makes it possible.
2) SEO is cost effective & a great ROI-booster – SEO is cost-effective in the mid-term and long-term compared to other forms of digital marketing like social media marketing, PPC advertising etc. While the spend remains stable or you may have to increase the spend in case of other forms of digital marketing in order to keep the returns intact, in case of SEO returns increase manifold and cost keeps coming down or at least remains stable – this happens because many of the SEO activities are done one-time and they keep bringing benefits perpetually.
3) Your Digital Marketing Process is incomplete without a holistic SEO Effort – Modern SEO holistically integrates with every component of digital marketing. Focus on SEO means leveraging Digital to the fullest for business growth.
4) SEO builds trust and credibility- The primary objective of any SEO process is to increase the search presence/visibility of the website/business for relevant key phrases and increased search visibility of the brand results in repeated appearances in search results which in turn leads to building brand image, trust and credibility among your target audience who are actively using search engines to look for products/services.
5) Your competitors are doing it – just check Google results for keywords related to your industry – Google it and find which of your competitors out there are on top, if they are dominating Google page one, then you are already losing out a lot of traffic/prospects to them. It’s high time you kick-start your SEO campaign more aggressively. If your current SEO efforts are not yielding results, then something is wrong, hiring or consulting an SEO consultant/expert won’t be a bad idea!
6) SEO is an Investment not a cost- It is definitely an investment with higher returns. It is all about waiting for the right time to get the best return and conversion rates. SEO, if done right, gets better with time and cost starts decreasing after a certain point or atleast doesn’t increase unlike other channels.
Many fall into the trap of considering SEO as a secondary channel believing that it doesn’t yield short-term results and more efforts are put on other channels but the fact is two-fold; depending on factors and case to case basis, SEO may bring in results in the short-term too and if you don’t put in adequate efforts on SEO, you may not be able to reap the full benefits of SEO in the long-term as well. SEO is an investment as it yields perpetual results and the investment has to be made consistently and adequately.
7) SEO multiplies impact- To summarize; SEO is not only cost-effective but also creates synergy when combined effectively and holistically with other forms of digital marketing. It creates snow-balling effect that yields positive results as it gets better over-time with cost coming down or becoming stable. That’s why it is often dubbed as ‘free advertising’ – most of the SEO activities are one-time and they bring benefits perpetually and content assets you build for SEO also involve one-time cost but they bring in benefits in multiple ways including reusing those content assets for social media marketing, PPC advertising and more.
A Word of Caution: These benefits of SEO can be realized only when SEO is taken seriously and dedicated processes and efforts are in place. Most importantly, your SEO process should be in the hands of experienced SEO professionals who understand SEO and Digital holistically. Apart from other factors, one of the primary reasons for SEO failing to yield results is that it is handled by people who haven’t adapted their strategies to today’s modern search engines. Outdated methods and spammy tricks are recipe for failure.
Want an SEO expert to audit your SEO process or looking for an SEO agency to handle your SEO process effectively, you should contact us – Finessse Interactive, we have 12+ years of experience designing and implementing SEO strategies for some of the biggest brands in the country. Read about our ROI-focused SEO service here or call us on +91- 9810619956 or email us at info@finessse.digital