Is SEO a Good Marketing Investment: ROI from Implementing SEO
21st Oct, 2020
When marketing online, you must prioritize marketing strategies that give you definite results in the long term. Search Engine Optimization is one of those marketing strategies available to all online businesses that can make them a top-of-mind business or brand, without having to spend money on advertising budgets. SEO is one of the marketing optimisation strategies that lead to huge ad spend cost reductions as well and a better return of investment than any other digital marketing channel.
In this article, we are going to help you understand what SEO is and how its benefits businesses in the long term. Once you have an idea, we will explain the significant Return of Investment (ROI) of SEO!
What is Search Engine Optimization?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a marketing approach focused on optimizing your online assets or website for better search engine rankings as well as increasing the user experience of your website or landing page, for your specific target audience. In other words, it is the online marketing strategy that will help you show up where your audience is looking for you and then leave a great impression. Eventually, the strategy will help you grow your online audience and lead to increased website conversions.
Benefits of Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization is an online marketing strategy that has unmatched benefits. Let’s discuss the most important ones in brief.
1.Targets Quality Traffic
SEO does not just boost your website traffic; it ensures you get the correct quality traffic as well. It all starts with a comprehensive keyword and competition research. Once you have the right set of information, you can start optimizing your website, online profiles, and content for better customer reach. Most importantly, it helps attract the right audience.
2.Get More Clicks than PPC
While your PPC ads will function for as long as your budget lasts, your rankings due to SEO will keep producing results for your online business. If you happen to stay on the first page of Google for a competitive keyword, you will generate a lot more clicks than any PPC campaign. And you will also save a significant amount of your marketing budget. Google automatically decreases the industry standard cost per click, in Google Ads campaigns, when the final URL delivers a great user experience and is optimised to the search term or keywords you are bidding on.
3.Involves Ongoing Assessment
Search Engine Optimization does not stop. You will always need to check if your website and content match the guidelines prepared by major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. Google alone, releases between 500 and 600 updates per year, to their algorithms. On-going testing and optimization will help you to gain an edge over your competitors.
4.Increases Site Usability
Most importantly, Search Engine Optimization will improve your site’s ability to provide value to your target audience. In other words, it will make it easier for them to find the information they are looking for, eventually leading them to trust your brand and contact your business.
The ROI Breakdown of Search Engine Optimization
To understand the Return of Investment of SEO, you will first have to figure out what objectives you want to achieve from your SEO strategy. In other words, you will need to identify your SEO goals. More often than not, it will be to boost your business website’s search engine rankings, but you need to understand which keywords or search terms you want to rank for, what the monthly search volumes of those keywords or search terms are and how much competition there is for those specific keywords or search terms, to ultimately make a decision on whether you do or don’t want to rank for them.
The most common comparisons of online marketing tactics that you will find anywhere on the internet will be between SEO and PPC or Pay-Per-Click. Both help you achieve the same goal - get in front of your target audience on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s).
Although PPC will give you instant results, it will quickly eat through your marketing budget. On the other hand, SEO will keep bringing you consistent results within a matter of a few months. Most customers are concerned with the time SEO takes to get results. SEO takes a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 6 months to start showing an increase in website traffic.
The correct process to follow, is to start with your website technical optimisations as provided by Search Engines like Google, then work on an effective on-page strategy whereby you initiate effective keyword research and then optimise your website meta data with your chosen keywords. Lastly, you would need to focus on off-page optimisations and consider generating engaging, unique content that can be shared on social media channels and used as a reference by other websites ( also known as backlinking), to build the authority and trustworthiness of your website, to Search Engines.
When you understand SEO and its principles, you will be able to implement an effective SEO strategy for your websites or online assets. However, even if you choose to hire an SEO expert or outsource your SEO strategy & implementation to a digital agency, the reality is that your SEO campaign will pay for itself, and for many years to come.
SEO is not a plug and play strategy. It is an investment that has critical implications not only on your website’s search rankings but also within your online business. It truly opens the door for exponential growth.
In Summary
It is important to understand that SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. Although it could require small investments related to content development, the investment significantly improves the ROI of SEO with time. Also, the same content can be used not only on your website, but also in email & SMS campaigns, social media posting and even various other lead generation campaigns. If you have any questions about SEO, feel free to connect with us!