Why SEO Is Important For Your Company In 2018

Why should you bother with using the best SEO tactics for your website? Consider the following SEO travel company example: You’ve finally saved up enough money for that dream holiday in Europe. The dreaming phase now moves into planning. But how do you plan a trip to the other side of the globe, to a place you’ve never visited before? You use Google.

Same scenario if you want to find the closest Indian restaurant to your house after relocating to a new city. Or if you want to research the best new running shoes on the market. When you don’t know something, you Google it.

Top 5 Benefits of the Best SEO Tactics

There are a variety of search engines out there, but Google has managed to become the top household name. People use it like a verb to describe a hunt for information. As a company, you cannot afford to not have an online presence. While there are other search engines as well, we advise that you allocate the biggest portion of your advertising budget to ensure a high ranking on Google.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a way that you can leverage the behind the scenes system of search engines to climb the ranks of the search results. Google Analytics is a highly sophisticated system that offers statistics about how users interact with your website.

You can also opt to activate Google AdWords to make sure that your website is featured at the top of search result pages. But an effective organic SEO strategy can help you achieve more sustained success. What can SEO do for your website?

Increase Traffic to Your Website

This is one of the biggest reasons why you should invest in a SEO strategy. Ask yourself how many times you’ve clicked through to the second page of the search results. Chances are, you usually click on one of the first five pages that appear.

Potential customers will be able to interact with your company much quicker after your SEO strategy kicks in and your website consistently ranks high on search results. If your website appears at the top of the search results page, people will assume you’re the best at what you do. Whether it’s true or not, being at the top of Google search results create industry authority.

Return on Investment (ROI)

With the help of software like Google Analytics, you can monitor every little step of your SEO strategy, ensuring that you are heading in the right direction. If you notice your website is not gaining any traction online, you simply adjust the strategy. Aspects that can be monitored include increase in traffic and search results ranking, as well as sales conversions. A SEO streamlined website will also attract more high quality clients looking for your specific product/service.

Cost Effectiveness 

Setting up a good marketing campaign oftentimes feels like a hit and miss undertaking. For example traditional methods such as cold-calling or flyer distribution can be very pricey, with a very low impact. Investing time in creating a dynamic website with a solid SEO foundation can yield much better returns. It’s also a more targeted marketing approach.

The digital marketing trend is on the rise in South Africa. You want to remain at the forefront. By optimising your website with the best SEO tactics, you can quickly move up in the rankings and not get left behind. There are still many industries that don’t have competitive online campaigns. You can be the first company to move to the top in your specific industry. Once you’re at the top, it will be much harder for your competitors to catch up.

Increase Your Website’s Usability

There’s nothing more annoying, than landing on a website that has nothing to do with the search criteria you put in! You want to attract users that are interested in your unique product/service. And by adding the correct SEO keywords, you can access potential customers that are keen to do business with you.

Increase Brand Awareness

This lines up with the idea that you automatically gain credibility with potential customers when they see that you are at the top of the search results page. People trust the information provided by Google. By adding small little tweaks, such as an accurate meta description (the short piece of information below the website link) you can access the customers that will become passionate brand followers.

Why SEO Optimisation Is Important

SEO optimisation is all about showcasing your company effectively on search engines, with Google being the most popular one. You want people to click on your website link because they find your product/service most useful. This way you will attract potential customers that can benefit from interacting with your company, instead of having to sift through endless amounts of useless leads.

Search Engines Are Acquiring More Market Share

Stats show that between 80 to 90% of people first research a product/service online before deciding which company they prefer using. If you don’t optimize your website with the best SEO tactics, your competitors will snatch up the market share.

Local Search Optimization Is On the Rise

You need to make sure your website is mobile-friendly, displaying correctly on Smartphones. Mobile web users have steadily increased the last few years. It opens up a whole new aspect of SEO tactics, you can effectively target potential customers in your specific area.

A Bad Content Profile Can Damage Your Brand  

Creating a website once-off and leaving it static for years, will get you penalized on Google. The search algorithm also takes other online platforms into consideration when ranking you, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. You need to be consistently active online, on various platforms. Sporadic social media posts, or blog posts once in a blue moon, is not enough. Google wants to know that you are actively engaged with your brand followers. Creating an SEO strategy that reaches across online platforms will be the best way of staying at the top of search result pages.

Your Competitors Are Definitely Using It 

Search engine optimisation remains a never-ending process. You need to tweak your SEO strategy on an ongoing basis. Depending on your industry, keyword competition can be fierce. By thinking a little bit outside the box and using unique long tailed keywords, you can steadily inch ahead of your competitors.

Internet Usage in Africa vs The World

The Miniwatts Marketing Group estimated in June 2017 that Africa makes up 10% of the world’s internet users. In 2000 the South African population was roughly 44,900,000. On 31 December 2000, there were an estimated 2,400,000 internet users in the country. In 2017 the South African population was roughly 55,400,000. The latest estimate on 30 June 2017 of internet users was 29,935,634. This is a 1,147.3% increase in internet growth between 2000 and 2017.

Currently the internet researches about 54.0% of the South African population. And on 30 June 2017 it was estimated that 16,000,000 South Africans were using Facebook. For more African internet statistics, visit internetworldstats.com.

Storyteller Design Loves a Good SEO Challenge

If you created your website before SEO tactics became a crucial element of digital marketing, you don’t have to recreate your site to jump on the bandwagon. All you need to do, is assess your content and optimize it to include relevant SEO keywords to almost instantly push up your Google ranking..

At Storyteller Design we stay on top of all the new SEO trends, ensuring that our client websites consistently hit the first page of search results. We can assess your website and inform you of changes needed.

To continue with the SEO travel company example, people research and plan their trips online. They might use websites such as TripAdvisor or Airbnb, but they are most likely to enter very specific keyword phrases. By using a combination of an organic SEO strategy and an AdWords campaign, you can effectively target a niche market of potential customers.

Click here for a free SEO audit of your website.