Reasons Why You CAN'T Afford To Skip SEO

Back in the old days of the Internet, you just built a website and traffic started flowing in. Those days are long gone. In fact, the Internet is getting more and more crowded. If you want your Lubbock based business to succeed, then you need to draw in quite a lot of traffic. While there are lots of methods to acquire online traffic, search engine optimization (SEO) is still one of the best and most cost-effective ways to do so. In this article, we are going to list a few but critical points as to why SEO should be an integral part of your business plan.

SEO is an Investment

According to statistics, the majority of online users will only click the top 3 spots of a search engine results page. This means that if your competitor is sitting in the top 3 spots, then you are leaving massive amounts of sales on the table. If you can get your site to land on the top 3 spots of a critical keyword, then you can expect to see high returns on your investment. Always remember, SEO is not a luxury for your business, but an investment for future growth and success.

SEO is Not Too Costly

For many online entrepreneurs, the idea of spending money on SEO is questionable. Some may know about its importance but are still hesitant to spend money on a Lubbock SEO company as they think it's expensive. This is a big mistake.

Keep in mind that "expensive" is a relative world. For example, say we agreed that you'd give me money today and at the end of the month, I would give you 4 dollars for every dollar you gave me. Do you still think the money you gave me is too much? That's how SEO works as an investment.

SEO Can Maximize Your Website's Visibility

Imagine starting an offline business. As a part of the marketing plan, you start ordering brochures for your business. Let's pretend that you are an inexperienced entrepreneur who decided to order brochures on a whim. You didn't check for grammar and typos and put no thought into the theme and design. As you might imagine, once they arrive, you probably wouldn’t want to give them away. Instead, you’d probably lock them in a cabinet to forgotten.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that this is the wrong way of doing things. As it turns out, this is what is happening with a more powerful marketing tool than a brochure: we’re talking about your website.

If you have a website and you are not doing SEO, you are simply ordering the brochures and locking them away. Remember, a website is just a starting point. It's SEO that will drive traffic to your website, which then converts to sales.

SEO Allows You to Get "Free Advertising"

These days, there are two primary ways of getting significant traffic. You can pay for it, like cost per click ads or cost per thousand impression ads. Or, you can get it by ranking in the search engines.

The difference with SEO is once your website lands on a good position, it will start getting traffic, and you don't pay for each click or per thousand impressions. Yes, you might spend money on ranking the site, but once it's already there, you will start getting "free traffic." This is why SEO is essential for any Lubbock entrepreneur as it’s very cost-effective in the long run.

SEO Makes it Easier for Customers to Find You

Your website is most likely the first point of contact between you and your customer. It's a lead generating tool. Not only does it attract prospects, but it also qualifies them. However, all these benefits start at the point in which your potential customer lands on your website.

If a customer can't find your website, they will never know what solutions you offer. SEO is not about ranking websites and analyzing data. At its core, it's all about making it easier for your potential customers to find you.

SEO Builds Credibility and Trust

These days, search engines are getting better and better at providing results. Consequently, most people would associate being top of the search engines as "the best" on the web. After all, why would the search engines put it on top if it's not a reputable resource?

This means that being on top of the search engines allows you to tap into this psychological loophole. Always remember an old marketing lesson: When given a choice, people tend to buy from someone they trust.

SEO Will Help Make Your Website Ubiquitous

Here's an exercise you can try. Do you know who the first man on the moon is? We assume that you already know the answer. How about the second man? If you are like most people, then you'll have no idea. You can repeat this with other subjects, and you will most likely get the same results.

It is how the brain works. We place great importance on the first, and we tend to ignore the seconds and the thirds. In the search engines, this phenomenon is also present.

In fact, according to statistics, the #1 spot of the search engines receives about 36% of the total clicks. The 2nd only gets 12%, and the third spot gets around 9.5%.

This means that not only can SEO get you massive amounts of traffic, but it can help your business stick to people's minds in the same way that everyone knows Neil Armstrong is the first man on the moon.

SEO is the Long-Term Play

While it is true that paid advertising can get you quick traffic, it can get very costly. As the amount of traffic you get increases, so does the cost. Furthermore, once you stop paying for the ads, your traffic goes away along with the sales. With SEO, once your site lands on the top spot in the search engine results page, it will most likely stick there even if you stop spending money on SEO. 

SEO is Cost Effective

We have already brushed this idea before, but this point is crucial and is worth repeating. In business, there's what we call variable and fixed costs. Your website hosting and the domain name is an example of a fixed cost as the cost does not go up in relation to your sales or some other factors. On the other hand, variable cost is like paid advertising. If you want more traffic and sales, then you will have to spend more and more.

SEO is a fixed cost. That means the cost relatively stays the same even if you're increasing your sales many times over. 

So that's it. Always remember that traffic is the lifeblood of any online business. With a good and successful SEO campaign, you can ensure the future health of your business.