Why SEO Needs to be at the Heart of Your Corporate Strategy

By now, you’ve heard of SEO. Any business that has made a serious effort at launching their own website will either know what SEO is or, hopefully, have hired someone who understands (ask your web designer).

But is SEO just another corporate buzzword, or is it really as important as everyone makes out? The answer is an emphatic yes – SEO is very important to any business.

Web Searches are the Most Common Driver of Internet Traffic

Most internet traffic today is generated by search engines. Without them, we would be completely lost online. Imagine a world where you can only access websites if you know their exact URL. The world of marketing would be very different for one thing; you would have to publicise your web address to consumers.

You can’t afford to be missing out on the traffic that search engines can bring to your site. SEO will bring your website towards the top of those results pages. The vast majority of traffic goes to the first few websites on that list and the top three results will take around 90% of the traffic. SEO is how you climb the ladder.

Build Trust and Credibility

Google’s algorithms have become vastly more sophisticated than they once were and they are now adept at sorting out legitimate content, like this article, from a page that is created purely to artificially boost SEO. There was a time where you could literally just spam a link on otherwise blank web pages and send your SEO through the roof.

Fortunately, search engine providers are all now able to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate content. This means that a website’s SEO score gives us a proxy for measuring trust. Also, when other trustworthy websites link to your website, you will gain a nice SEO boost.

Local SEO Drives Footfall

Working with an seo agency that also handles local SEO can give your brick and mortar business a significant boost in footfall. SEO isn’t just about reaching out into the cold vast expanse of the internet; it can also benefit your business offline as well.

When consumers want to find a particular product or type of business, the vast majority of them will begin by searching for what they need on their smartphone. If your business is one of the names that they see and you are near to them, they are more likely to pay you a visit.

It’s Constantly Changing

You need someone to monitor and regularly update your SEO if you are to be effective. The landscape is constantly changing as Google’s algorithms evolve. See the adpocalypse for an example of how an update by Google can have far-reaching consequences. If you let your SEO practices slip behind then your website and your business will both suffer.

SEO is far too important to be an afterthought when you are devising a corporate strategy. Without SEO, your website will be all but invisible to most internet users. That should be reason enough to convince you it is worth investing in.