I won’t leave you hanging: Yes, it is. And if you’ve been trying to promote your engineering business online, you probably already know this.
While there may be a few other ways to grow website traffic, search engines like Google are still the number one way internet users will find your website.
So, in this article, I’ll take you through some tidbits on why SEO is still important and why it should form the foundation of your online marketing efforts.
SEO drives traffic
The number one reason SEO is important, of course, is that it’s the primary way for people to find your website.
Think of it like this:
You’ve built a beautiful shop, but you’re located in an alleyway and there aren’t many people in the area. How will you get people to your shop? You’re likely to put up signs and posters in more populated areas to make people aware of your shop.
SEO is much the same, but here the shop is your website and the signs and posters you’re putting up are basic SEO elements, like good keyword research and backlinking strategies.
You wouldn’t put your physical signs and posters anywhere. Instead, you’d spend some time thinking about where to hang these so that they attract the right kind of audience. You’ll think about your poster strategy before executing.
Similarly, with SEO, you wouldn’t just do a random number of things. Instead, you’d focus your efforts so that the right kind of customer will land on your website. That’s your SEO strategy.
In today’s world, there are a few other sources of website traffic – like relying on email marketing, social media, or posting in online forums – but search engine traffic should still be your prime focus.
Most SEO strategies revolve around Google, and this is simply because Google dominates 92% of the search engine market. This doesn’t mean that other search engines like Bing, Yahoo! Search, DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, or Ecosia aren’t important, but that it makes more sense to target the big fish.
And if you’re focusing on producing high-quality content and creating topical authority – something Google really values with their more recent helpful content update – as stipulated in their actual guidelines and the Google doc leak that had SEO marketers quite excited – you’re likely to rank well with other search engines as well.
How does SEO drive traffic?
You’re probably already familiar with this, but let me quickly recap why focusing on SEO is so important when it comes to driving traffic.
I’ll break it down into bullet points so it’s easy to follow if you’re a beginner engineering marketer and this is something you’re not yet familiar with:
- Google, as you know, is a search engine. You enter some key phrases – the thing you want answers about – into the Google search bar, hit enter, and then wait for the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). For example, you may put in the search phrase “best engineering company near me”.
- Using a very complex algorithm, Google will then crawl all the websites that are indexed on the internet (meaning, the websites Google can see) and rank them in the SERPs, in descending order from what they think is most relevant to what they think is least relevant. For the search term above, of course, the engineering companies listed will depend on your location. You may also get listicle results, where magazines or digimags have provided lists of their top engineering companies.
- FirstPage statistics show that almost 70% of all people click on the first three results in the SERPs, meaning that your prime focus would be to produce content so good and so relevant that your website gets into these top three spots.
And that’s where focusing on your SEO strategy becomes so important.
If your engineering website is appearing on the first page, especially in these top three results, Google is directly connecting you with your ideal customer (the one searching for something relevant to your engineering website).
This opens up a whole range of potential, and ultimately, drives more traffic to your website increasing your chances of getting more sales leads and enquiries.
SEO builds your brand
But SEO doesn’t only help in driving traffic to your website. This is the number one priority, of course, but doing well on Google has many more benefits.
Let me use an example to illustrate this.
Alex is a marketing specialist, looking for engineering-related information in his local area. He’s specifically looking into some highly technical aspects of the engineering industry, so he turns to Google on his desktop computer and puts in a search phrase.
At this stage, he’s just collecting information on the results. He scans the top ten results (which is already unusual, since most people don’t scroll past the top few results), and makes a note of the sites coming up. He then does the same for another 4 – 5 search terms. In every search, he notices that Company XYZ comes up in the top 5 results.
Without having looked beyond the SERPs, he’s likely to already associate Company XYZ as a dominant authority, because this is the only one that has come up repeatedly. Next time Alex does a search and sees Company XYZ come up, he’ll recognise the brand and is more likely to click on that result.
This is one of the ways Google helps build brand authority.
Of course, the information presented on the website still has to match Alex’s search intent. If he now clicks over to Company XYZ’s website and it’s a spam site full of technical errors and shoddy information, he won’t be impressed and is unlikely to use the site in future.
But since Google pays such attention to ranking high-quality sites, this isn’t something that should happen.
Get a Copy of Our FREE Content Planner Here
Need help with your content planning?
SEO helps marketers as well
Of course, SEO isn’t only a one-way street.
Building a website that ranks well on Google also allows marketers to learn from the people visiting their site. By using analytical software like Google Search Console and Google Analytics, you can track the data associated with your website.
I always find this particularly useful when looking at my site. I can see which articles are performing well, identify which keywords people are using to find my articles, and also gain audience insights about what devices my readers are using, where they are located, and how much time they spend on different pages.
This is invaluable information, as it helps me build a more concrete and successful SEO strategy.
Say I have an article targeting the “best aerospace engineering universities in Boston”, but I notice through my analytics that the article is actually ranking really well for civil engineering universities in Boston. This presents a problem, as the key phrase I was targeting isn’t being matched. This probably means I didn’t do a very good job at presenting my information, and may have to either change the target of the article or change the article to better match my original target.
I would never have known this if I hadn’t been able to access the analytical data provided to me through an SEO focus.
Let me help you with your strategy
If you aren’t sure how to go about your engineering company’s SEO strategy, let me help you. We can work together to develop a more successful SEO strategy that concentrates more on what works while wasting less time on what doesn’t.
Book a no-obligation 30 minutes consult with me by reaching out to [email protected]
SEO Strategy FAQs
Is SEO cost-effective?
Building and executing a successful SEO strategy is a long-term goal and requires a significant investment of time and money.
However, since it focuses on targeting free, organic traffic, a successful SEO strategy still ends up much cheaper than other paid-for advertising methods, like PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns or social media ads.
How long will it take for me to see results from my SEO strategy?
SEO is definitely a long-term strategy and it’ll usually take at least six months before you’ll start seeing results. Generally, significant results usually come after twelve months of consistent effort.
However, this isn’t always the case, and I’ve had instances where I saw a massive rise in traffic just a few weeks after publishing some new content, or improving the on-page SEO for existing content for example.
A lot depends on the competitiveness of your niche market and the keywords you’re targeting.
Can I do SEO myself or do I need to hire a professional?
You don’t necessarily need to hire a professional, but it does help, especially if you’re looking to create a successful SEO strategy that doesn’t waste time.
