Throughout this past week we have talked about search engine optimization, local SEO, why SEO should be important to you as the business owner, and the IMPACT that social media marketing can have for your company. However, over this series we have received several e-mails and questions asking if SEO is truly needed by that company/site. To help you decide if search engine optimization is something that you need, take this quick evaluation and find out:
- Do I have a website that could rank higher? If your answer is “Yes”, then you need to search engine optimize your site. The bottom line here is that a higher ranked site gives the user a perception of a higher level of trust. And, you want to be trusted more than your competition, right? Right!
- Do I have a website that doesn’t drive much organic traffic? If your answer is “No”, you most likely drive a majority of your traffic through your current clientele and/or pay per click marketing. Either that, or you are having trouble driving any traffic to your site at all. That said, successful companies derive over 80% of their business from organic search results. So, if you drive more traffic you drive more revenue, right? Again, right!
- Does my website reach my target audience? If you answered “No” with this question then you definitely need to optimize your site for search engines. Local search engine optimization can significantly help with reaching out to your target audience, but a global SEO campaign can also help you communicate with your target clientele. The higher percentage of target audience to visit your site means that your site efficiency increases as does your revenue stream.
- Does my website provide value? Even though you may think that your website provides value to your visitors, it’s always a good idea to get a professional opinion and/or have your content written by professionals. Think about your website content as the gateway to viral marketing; outstanding unique content, phenomenal means to communicate that message, vast and effective social media marketing campaigns, and consistency of that message significantly increases the chance that your visitors will spread the word about your site and what you do. In other words, if you site is not being shared then you need to evaluate the quality of your content.
When it comes to your website, you need to consider it as an appendage of your company, an outlet to further reach to your target audience, a method to increase your business’ reputation, and a significant opportunity to add a revenue stream. However, unless you take advantage of search engine optimization (both local and global SEO), you are missing out on an immense opportunity to drive traffic to your site.
