SEO is an invaluable asset for businesses. While the impact of search engine optimization takes time, the long-term effects are hard to ignore. When implemented correctly, SEO helps businesses establish a strong foundation and sets them up for long-term success.

One of the most important purposes of SEO is increasing visibility. As businesses increase their online presence, it becomes easier for potential customers to find them. An effective SEO strategy will increase your site's search rankings, which means that more customers will see your business and click through your website.

SEO is also important when it comes to increasing web traffic, which is a challenge for many businesses. An effective SEO strategy means that businesses increase their chances of making it to the top page on Google, which ultimately leads to an increase in site traffic.  

An effective SEO strategy is also essential when it comes to establishing authority. Authority is something that's important to search engines and is becoming even more important to users. Having authority means that your website is considered trustworthy, relevant, and high-quality.

The time that you put into your site for SEO, like generating great content and providing on-page and off-page SEO optimization, improves the usability of your website, which leads to a better user experience.

Proof That SEO Works

Let’s dive into 20 statistics that definitively prove SEO is good for your business:

1. If You Don’t Invest Now, Your Competitors Will Beat You in the Long Run

The impact of SEO is undeniable, which is why search engine optimization has become the forefront of a successful marketing strategy. At this point, SEO is no longer a nice addition to a business but is a necessity for business growth.

Unfortunately, businesses that don't prioritize SEO optimization will ultimately put themselves behind their competitors. Optimization is all about creating the best possible experience for your users. When businesses are unable to achieve this, they'll have a hard time attracting their target audience and will quickly fall behind.

2. Titles Aren’t Everything, but They Mean a Lot

One powerful tool used to create off-page SEO content is blog posts. These blog posts must be relevant, insightful, and immediately grab the attention of your intended audience.  

With that said, it's important to pay attention to titles when creating content. While titles aren't everything, they certainly do mean a lot. If your goal is to achieve a high click-through rate, you need to ensure your titles are engaging and encourage the visitor to read further. This means incorporating things like "lists" and "how-to guides" for optimal results.

3. Organic Traffic Generates Leads

While there are various marketing trends, SEO and organic traffic have proven to be the best option when it comes to generating more leads. SEO helps to create brand awareness, establishes authority, and helps create traffic through organic means.

When businesses can generate organic traffic to their website, they are accessing a variety of benefits that can help accelerate their business. Not only is organic traffic free, but businesses build credibility, gain a competitive advantage, and experience a better ROI.

4. Google Means Business

Every business would love to have the number one spot in Google's SERPs, and for good reason. Websites that make it to the top page experience an impressive click-through rate of 32% on average.

Google's job is to ensure that they are delivering the best results for a person's search query. For this reason, they must prioritize businesses that are consistently delivering quality content that delivers answers a searcher may be looking for.

Businesses that fail to do this will have a difficult time getting the top spot on the SERPs. But for businesses that can manage to create content that aligns with their audience's interests, the reward will be a higher search rank, which will produce some noteworthy results for businesses.

5. A Local SEO Strategy Can Go a Long Way

While developing an effective SEO strategy, in general, will provide excellent benefits to businesses, it's equally important to develop a local SEO strategy for optimal success.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, it was documented that 63% of organic search engine visits were conducted from a mobile device. Out of all mobile searches, a significant portion has been related to a local search.

What this means is that businesses are doing themselves a disservice when they don't develop a local SEO strategy. But an effective local SEO strategy will enable you to maximize your marketing efforts and reach more customers who may be searching for your product or services.

6. Creating a Google Business Account Improves the Customer Experience

If you want to improve the customer experience, it's crucial that you create a Google My Business account. Billions of people use Google every day to search for a variety of information, and Google has become a trusted source to help them access it.

When paired with the fact that the average consumer spends 13 minutes and 45 seconds reading reviews, it will be to your advantage to have a presence on Google My Business where visitors can learn more about what you offer and make an informed decision.

7. Consumers Are Fed Up With Ads, Not Authentic Content

While ads have been a great way to help others learn about your company in the past, consumers are ultimately fed up with the ad experience. Ads are disruptive and many consumers don't believe that advertising is true.

Instead, they're interested in authentic content that will allow them to learn about the company in a more organic manner. This means that it's time for businesses to reduce their ad spending and shift their focus to creating engaging and insightful content that will ultimately create a better user experience.

8. Your Customers Are Searching Online. Can They Find You?

Organic search traffic is more important now than ever before. When it comes to increasing your business's visibility and attracting customers, organic search outnumbers other popular search channels, such as paid search and social.

To improve organic search, businesses will need to implement an effective SEO strategy, with a strong focus on things like creating high-value content, developing an effective keyword strategy, and optimizing page titles.

9. B2B Buyers Seek Out Thought Leadership Content on Your Website

For B2B businesses, it isn't enough to create content that is just engaging; B2B buyers are specifically looking for content that is backed by thought leaders. Ultimately, buyers are now prioritizing research and authority, and this is what will drive the most leads for B2B businesses.

In order to be viewed as an authority leader, businesses will need to first understand their audience, curate content that their audience wants to read, thoroughly research their topics, and provide insightful data to back up their content.

10. Your Competitors Prioritize Mobile Optimization. Why Don’t You?

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The number of mobile searches is growing while the number of desktop and laptop searches have stagnated. This alone is why mobile optimization has become so crucial.

Your competitors know it too, which is why almost 25% of companies are investing in mobile optimization as a top SEO tactic. In order to gain a competitive advantage, businesses must prioritize mobile optimization.

This means making sure that all content is the same on desktop and mobile, using AMP on your website, and ensuring that you have a responsive website design for the best navigation experience.

11. SERPS Rankings Are a Determining Factor

Improving your search rank doesn't just increase visibility, it's something that visitors are paying attention to as well. This is why an impressive 92% of searchers choose businesses that show up on the first page of local search results. With that said, businesses need to prioritize on-page and off-page SEO efforts with a refined focus on local SEO if they expect to capture their target market.

12. Your Target Audience Is Spending Their Time Online

Increasing your online visibility is more important now than ever before. Your target audience spends a significant amount of time online researching information. This means that businesses need to focus on positioning their company in front of their intended audience for the best results.

You can increase visibility by developing an effective SEO strategy that includes a mix of on-page and off-page SEO that helps businesses establish authority and increase their search rank. Additionally, businesses must realize that SEO isn't a one-time effort but that it takes consistent implementation in order to be effective.

13. Covid Changed People’s Habits, and Businesses Need To Adapt

The pandemic has caused many people to adjust their lives, and this adjustment has certainly changed the way business is done. In the wake of Covid, many businesses had to implement a business approach that minimized face-to-face interactions and increased the option for digital, self-serve, and remote engagement.

These new changes have led to new habits in which consumers now expect businesses to continue with this digital practice. If you haven't already, it's time to adapt to the new habits of your customers to ensure that you continue to provide a positive customer experience.

14. One Piece of SEO Content Isn’t Enough

Consumers aren't naturally trusting. In fact, a B2B buyer will conduct at least 12 different online searches before interacting with a website to ensure they've found the right one. This is exactly why one piece of SEO content just isn't enough.

If you want to get a buyer to build credibility and establish your business as a thought leader, you will need to develop an effective SEO strategy that includes high-quality and consistent SEO content that attracts the attention of your ideal customer and actually solves a problem for them.

Working with a B2B SEO agency can help ensure you create high-quality, consistent SEO content that attracts the attention of your ideal customer and solves their problems.

15. It’s Not Just About Creating Content, It’s About Creating Quality Content

Many businesses know the importance of creating content for their audience. But, many companies have operated with the idea that the more content they create, the better.

While consistently creating content is important for an effective SEO strategy, it won't offer many benefits if the content isn't quality. All content must be useful, which means that businesses need to focus on creating relevant, in-depth content that can ultimately provide something insightful and addresses a potential pain point.

16. You Can’t Afford To Not Be There

If you think that you can skip out on building an effective SEO strategy, think again. SEO is the most viable and cost-effective way for businesses to not only understand their customers but actually grow their business. Ultimately, SEO needs to be a prime focus for any business that expects to dominate the digital age.

Businesses that make it to the first page on a Google search receive over 90% of traffic. This traffic doesn't just lead to an increase in visibility, it gives organic search traffic a serious boost, and creates more opportunities for businesses to convert leads into customers.

Unfortunately, many businesses miss out on the opportunity to grow their customers because they underestimate the importance of a solid SEO strategy. As a result, businesses have a difficult time climbing the search ranks and increasing their visibility to their customers. The truth is, the benefits of SEO are so great that businesses can't afford to ignore it.

17. It’s Not All About PPC Anymore

In the past, PPC was one of the most popular options when it came to attracting customers. PPC is measurable, trackable, relatively cost-effective, and includes incredible targeting options.

While PPC is still a great implementation into your marketing strategy, it's no longer all about PPC anymore. Ads like PPC are becoming more of a disruption for consumers' viewing experience. In fact, consumers prefer to learn about a business in a more organic way.

For this reason, businesses will need to plan their PPC more carefully and strategically while prioritizing SEO as their primary way of connecting their business to their audience if they want to ensure that they increase their business's visibility while still providing a positive customer experience.

When Is The Right Time To Invest in SEO?

SEO needs to be an essential part of your marketing strategy if you want to maximize your impact. A successful SEO strategy can ultimately allow businesses to reap numerous rewards that will help take their business to the next level. With that said, there's no better time than now to begin investing in SEO for your business.

If you're ready to get started, you should certainly plan to make a budget. How much you should invest in SEO will depend on your business goals as well as how much your company can afford to allocate to your SEO needs. As you budget, it's important to set your expectations and be realistic. SEO takes effort, and you will certainly get what you pay for. But when done correctly, SEO can provide some powerful results for your company.

Here at Steel Croissant, we're here to help businesses by making marketing more accessible. We can help you cut through the noise by developing specific search strategies to help you connect with your customers with ease.

With that said, we can help improve your website optimization by ensuring your site meets SEO standards to improve your Google search rank. We'll also tackle your on-site content to ensure that things like blog posts and meta descriptions are SEO-friendly.

We also provide message testing to give you a better idea of what appeals to your audience, whether you're distributing an ad, landing page, or social content.

To complete your SEO strategy, we'll help you create impactful written content for digital storefronts, social media, and more to ensure that all content reflects your business and connects you with your intended audience.

If you're ready to start a project with Steel Croissant, connect with us today to get started.