What is SEO and Why Your Business Needs it to Succeed

Short for "search engine optimization," SEO is actually a deceptively simple concept in terms of marketing. At its core, it describes a way to maximize the total number of visitors you drive to your site by making sure that said site ranks as highly in search engines like Google as possible.

But it's also so much more than that. It's not only a way to hone your marketing message - it's a way to amplify that message, getting it in front of the widest possible audience that you can. For small businesses, it's also a way to make sure that if you can't outspend your larger competitors, you can still outperform them using the power of the Internet as your guide.

In fact, SEO isn't just important to your business' long-term success. In the modern era, it is absolutely critical for a host of different reasons that are more than worth exploring.

Why SEO Matters: Breaking It Down

To really get an idea of just how essential SEO truly is, consider the fact that according to one recent study, a significant 93% of ALL online experiences still begin in the exact same way: with a search engine. When you also consider that Google owns an estimated 70% of the total global search engine market share, it's safe to say that ranking as highly as possible for popular search terms in your industry is a top priority.

But if you think you can buy your way to the top of the list, you'll definitely want to think again. Consider the following statistics:

• According to BrightEdge, a full 51% of all website traffic comes from organic search. Just 10% comes from paid search, by comparison.

• In fact, over 40% of ALL revenue for a small business is captured from organic traffic.

• All told, about 70% of the links that search users click are organic. Between 70 and 80% of people say that they ignore the paid ads entirely, choosing to instead focus on those organic results.

• Based on that, it should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that 61% of marketers say that improving SEO and growing their organic presence was one of their top inbound marketing priorities last year.

But as is true with most businesses, driving traffic to your website isn't your only marketing priority. As a small, locally-driven business, you've also got a social media presence to think about and are likely using sites like Facebook and Instagram on a regular basis. Luckily, this is also an area that contains excellent news for organizations like yours. SEO can absolutely feed into and empower your social media efforts, and vice versa.

The Relationship Between SEO, Facebook and Instagram for Small Businesses

Maybe the most important thing to understand is that many experts believe that links to your website via your social media accounts on sites like Facebook and Instagram do have a major impact on your rankings and larger SEO efforts. Although Google keeps the finer points of its algorithm secret, the working theory is that these links help search engines "learn" which sites are credible and which aren't based on the conversations happening around them, thus helping them to determine which domains get ranked where for what keyword phrases.

So posting a lot of content that links back to your website via social media can absolutely help drive traffic, just like that website can then direct more and more people to your social media accounts. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in the best possible way, which is also why working with a digital inbound marketing agency is so important. They can help you take advantage of this trend for all it's worth.

Likewise, it's important to remember that your social media profiles will ALSO rank in search engines alongside your domain. Making an effort to always post quality content to Facebook and Instagram will absolutely help increase the visibility of those profiles in engines like Google, which in turn will improve the visibility of your larger website as well. Plus, these profiles give you the opportunity to take up more positions on the first page of search results for popular terms in your industry - which gives your competitors one less chance to hone in on the audience you're trying to reach.

These are just a few of the myriad of different reasons why SEO is not only important, but essential to your business' success. If you really want to make an impression with the widest possible audience - and you do - it's something that is far too important to ignore.

If you're interested in finding out more about how to take your marketing in Pensacola to the next level via SEO and other techniques, or if you're just looking for the right advice to help generate new leads and spread your message to the best possible audience, feel free to contact me.