Is SEO worth it?

SEO is a powerful way for businesses to boost their online visibility and attract organic traffic through search engines. It’s a smart investment for any business that wants to get found online. Whether you're in a highly competitive industry or operate in a niche or local market, good SEO helps the right people discover your products or services when they’re searching for them.

1. What is SEO?

2. How does SEO work?

3. Is SEO worth it?

4. Can SEO benefit your business?

1) What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is all about helping your website show up higher on Google when people search for things related to your business. The goal is to make sure your business is easy to find online when someone is looking for what you offer.

When done right, SEO is like putting up a bright, attention-grabbing sign outside your shop on a busy street. If the sign is clear, inviting, and shows exactly what people are looking for, more people will notice, stop by, and turn into customers.

Without SEO, even the best products or services can go unnoticed. If people can’t find you when they search online, it’s like your business isn’t even there.

There was a time when SEO was pretty straightforward, just sprinkle in some keywords and watch your rankings climb. But those days are long gone. Today, search engines like Google use complex and constantly evolving algorithms to evaluate websites.

Now, it’s not just about keywords. Search engine bots, also known as crawlers or spiders—look at things like how relevant your content is, how easy your site is to use, how it’s structured, and the overall quality of the information. These bots scan your site and send that data back to search engines, which then decide where your page should show up in the results.

When you optimize your website with the right keywords, structure, and quality content, you're helping search engines understand what your site is about, and your business has a better chance of showing up when someone is actively looking for the products or services you offer.

The result? More organic traffic to your site and a greater chance of converting visitors into customers. 

2) How does SEO work? 

SEO is all about making your website appealing to both search engines and real people. This means optimizing things like keywords, meta tags, backlinks, and overall site structure.

When someone searches online, search engines sort through billions of pages to find the most helpful results. Good SEO helps your site stand out by meeting key criteria like having relevant content, fast load times, and a mobile-friendly design.

On a very basic level, these are the factors that an SEO specialist will use to ensure your page gets the attention it deserves:

• Keywords: Using the words people search for in your content.

• Content quality: Creating helpful, engaging, and original content.

• Page titles and descriptions: Writing clear, keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions.

• Headings: Structuring your content with headings for better readability.

• Images: Optimizing images with alt text and proper file sizes.

• Website speed: Ensuring your website loads quickly.

• Mobile-friendliness: Making sure your site works well on all types of devices.

• Internal links: Linking to other pages on your website to increase visibility.

• External links: Linking to other reputable sources to improve credibility.

• Backlinks: Getting other websites to link to your site.

• User experience: Making your site easy to navigate and use.

• Security: Protecting your website with an SSL certificate.

• Local SEO: Optimizing content for location-specific searches.

• Technical SEO: Fixing behind-the-scenes issues like broken links or duplicate content.

• Analytics: Tracking how people find and use your website to improve results.

By getting these elements right, your website has a better shot at appearing in search results, driving more traffic to your site.

3) Is SEO worth it?

For your business to be visible in search engine results and attract customers, SEO is essential. It’s a long-term strategy that helps you draw organic traffic, meaning people find your website without clicking on ads. Over time, SEO builds credibility, reduces marketing costs, and generates valuable leads.

So, for many businesses, SEO is the key to unlocking an untapped revenue stream.

Every business needs SEO to ensure they’re visible to potential customers online. For businesses with a broad consumer base, like e-commerce stores or tech providers, a comprehensive SEO strategy is crucial to attract consistent search traffic.

However, for niche or local businesses where personal connections or word-of-mouth play a bigger role, you may not need a full-service SEO package. In these cases, a more targeted or simpler SEO approach could be just as effective when guided by a reputable SEO agency. 

That doesn’t mean you should skip having an online presence. Even small local businesses and niche specialists depend on customers finding them through online searches. For example, if someone searches for "bakers in Boston" or "plumbers near me," you want your business to appear prominently in the search results.

4) Can SEO benefit your business?

In most cases, SEO is incredibly beneficial for businesses because it makes it easier for potential customers to find you online.

Let’s go back to one of our earlier examples, the one where you’re craving a delicious treat and search on Google for a bakery in Boston. Your search will only show results for bakeries with an online presence, meaning the artisan bakery down the street could easily go unnoticed.

Even though that bakery is just around the corner, you might end up at one several blocks away, settling for a mediocre pastry, simply because the farther-away bakery invested time and effort into building a strong online presence.

So, even if a bakery (or any business) doesn’t rely on online sales, having some form of SEO is crucial for attracting new customers. Great products alone won’t cut it if people can’t find you!

For businesses that do depend heavily on online traffic, the results of a well-executed SEO strategy can be game-changing. We’ve seen clients boost their revenue by 150% in just six months, achieve a 30x increase in leads, and attract over 45K organic visitors per month, thanks to a targeted SEO approach. It’s a pretty great outcome!

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My name's Claire and I’m an SEO and content strategy expert. I help startups and ambitious businesses improve their content, so that customers can find your website in search, and so that when they do, they convert.

I’m a former startup CEO, and I’ve worked for some of the world’s biggest publishers (Penguin Random House, Oxford University Press), as well as training with Google's in-house SEO team. I even built a website to attract 45k in organic search visitors/month. Drop me a line if you need help of any kind with SEO and content.

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