Short answer: yes. If you’re trying to promote an engineering business online, you probably already know how important SEO is. Without implementing an SEO strategy, how are you going to get the traffic your business needs to grow? After all, search engines like Google are still the number one source of traffic in the game as you’re probably already aware.
In this article, we’re going to look at why SEO is still important and should be the foundation of your online marketing efforts. While there are still other avenues you should explore, a competent SEO strategy should still be your number one priority when trying to market your business online.
You can’t get to the top of search engines anymore without a solid SEO strategy. It’s as simple as that. Many marketing managers have relied on short-cuts to the top of search engines in the past, but those short-cuts simply don’t work anymore. Most businesses still get most of their traffic from search engines like Google, so it stands to reason that SEO is still crucially important to your business.
While there have recently been a few moves in the market – like an increase in search-engine bypassing traffic from sources like social media – the vast majority of businesses still receive most of their traffic from organic search results. And yours is probably still one of them.
And when we say “search engines” in the marketing industry, we basically mean Google. Yes, there are alternatives, but Google has a massive market share of almost 90%.
That doesn’t mean the likes of Bing should be ignored completely, but Google should still be your main priority. That’s why a successful SEO strategy is normally built around prioritising Google first. In fact, most successful SEO techniques that are built around Google will still see your site rank well on other search engines.
Why your position matters
The reason a good SEO strategy really matters to your business is because it has a direct impact on how high you get on Google (and other search engines). As a marketing manager, you’re probably already aware that if you can’t get on the first page for results, you might as well be nowhere. But the importance of a successful SEO strategy doesn’t stop there.
If you think that getting on the first page for your search term is all you need, that simply isn’t the case. Each position counts. First place on Google gets up to 33% of clicks for a specific search term, while around seventh on the same page nets you less than 5%. Since SEO is the only thing that determines where you’re going to rank for a particular term, you can see how important it is.
SEO improves the experience for your customers
You shouldn’t simply see a solid SEO strategy as a way to boost your site up Google and get more traffic (and more potential customers). While that’s obviously the main priority, it isn’t the only reason SEO is important.
You see, Google’s algorithms have come a long way over the years. That means they’ve fine-tuned their process in delivering exactly the sort of results people want when they search for something (most of the time). That means when you properly optimise your site for certain keyword search terms, you’ll be getting exactly the right sorts of visitors. Those visitors shouldn’t be frustrated by garbage results that don’t mean anything to them when they arrive at your site. You’ll be delivering exactly what they searched for, so they’ll already be switched-on to your message and could be more likely to convert to a customer.
SEO builds your brand
When you rank high for a particular search-term, it’s going to do more than just drive traffic to your website. People are going to see you at the top of the rankings and remember you. Quality SEO actually helps build trust in your brand if you can sit at the top for industry-specific search terms.
This works especially well compared to simply paying for an advertising spot for a particular search term. Most people realise that the actual search results for a term are normally better quality options than those sponsored posts you see near them.
SEO helps provide insights about your visitors
SEO isn’t just a one-way street these days. We’ve already looked at a few reasons why it’s not just about getting lots of traffic. That’s still the main cornerstone of SEO – but it can also help you learn about your visitors. When you plug-in some analytical software like Google Analytics, you can learn which particular search terms are working best for your business along with a ton of other data.
If you aren’t sure which keywords are working best for you, you can find out for sure. This lets you help develop a more successful SEO strategy that concentrates more on what works while wasting less time on what doesn’t.
Hopefully, this article has already given you enough answers to the question, “Is SEO really that important?” While there might be some worthwhile alternatives, a quality SEO strategy isn’t something you can ignore if you still want to be a success in 2019 and beyond. Do you need more SEO optimized blogs for your engineering audience? Have a look at some of these samples we’ve created at Engineering Copywriter for clients – just like you.
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