Need to explain the value of SEO to potential clients, business partners, or stakeholders?

This post focuses on just three key ways that SEO offers immense value to any organization.

SEO:

• Makes the user experience better.
• Helps build a stronger brand.
• Contributes to the bottom line over a long period of time.

1. SEO Improves User Experience

Being a successful SEO professional requires knowing more than ever before.

People who choose to work in the search industry are constantly adjusting their strategies to changes Google makes on a daily basis.

We don’t always know or completely understand every change Google makes to its algorithm. But we use the information Google shares with us to better position our websites to perform in organic search.

We understand that Google’s algorithm has many ranking signals. They have made noticeable efforts the past few years to emphasize the signals related to engagement.

Metrics like dwell time, time on site, pages viewed per session, and page load speed all been emphasized as having greater importance for Google to rank websites.

SEO is more than just looking for high volume keywords and link building. SEO professionals must understand and dive deeper into internal discussions about how to improve the overall user experience using new technologies that Google wants webmasters to adapt.

What are some of these new technologies?

The push toward mobile responsive design, with the impending mobile-first index.
The creation and introduction of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).
The introduction of Progressive Web Apps (PWA).
The creation of Schema and rich snippet enhancements.
Google is constantly evolving to align better with user behavior. As Google changes their approach, it forces those of us who work in this space to also change and adapt.

This is where SEO offers immense value to any organization. SEO professionals are always aware of the latest technologies and trends.

SEOs offer insights and ideas on how to take advantage and implement these new technologies to rank better in search results. Having an SEO means you have a person who is always thinking about how to improve the user experience of the site to meet the expectations of today’s consumers.

Technical SEO also helps support your UX, development, and engineering teams.

SEOs understand that in order to have sustainable success in organic search they must work with developers, designers, and engineers to create a solid foundation for the website before they can even think about creating content. This means putting more emphasis on site performance in page speed, advocating for a mobile responsive experience, and figuring out how to structure all the data on their web pages.

2. SEO Helps Build a Stronger Brand

In addition to helping with the technical side, SEO is also a marketing channel. Most of our efforts are focused on building authority for our domains.

Having success in the organic search channel requires a strong understanding of how Google’s algorithms work to understand the content on a website.

SEOs must both understand their target audience and create content that helps distinguish them from every other brand. This is actually a tall order considering that every website right now produces content, and only a handful of websites will get traffic for any query.

Having someone on your team who knows how to pull in visitors from the most visited site in the world – Google – is a valuable asset. SEO professionals understand what content is being searched for and – with the right tools – knows exactly where to focus their effort based on keyword research.

Creating a content strategy based on keywords focused on a businesses’ specific vertical allows the business to appear as an industry expert. When a business appears enough times in person’s search results it will be seen as a trustworthy source of information and that enhances the brand image creating loyal customers.

Searchers are looking for answers to their queries, and many of these searchers will be people who are getting introduced to a new vertical (new users). The importance of being the first point of exposure, getting the first opportunity to answer a potential customer’s questions is incredibly valuable.

If the searcher enjoyed the experience of your website and enjoyed the content you were able to deliver from the first interaction, it is more likely they will look to your website again to consume more content. The repeat visits will also affect the user’s personalized search results.

3. SEO Offers Long-Term Success

SEOs understand the difficulty and the joy of ranking number 1 for any query.

Ranking high for any keyword with known search volume will generate consistent traffic for as long as it can retain that position.

Actually ranking for these keywords is hard, however. It requires a lot of work.

That’s why it’s important to focus on long-tail keywords. You can find opportunities others have missed to deliver a steady stream of traffic to your clients for a longer period of time while dealing with less competition.

Targeting long-tail keywords require a solid understanding of how to create engaging content.

Organic search is an interesting channel because the search results are based on an algorithm’s interpretation of the most relevant results.

You can’t pay Google to rank your page higher in organic search, so success isn’t based on the amount of money you put in. Also, people tend to trust the organic results more than paid ad results.

So, being able to have success requires a person who possesses a lot of skill and understanding on how to communicate with Google’s algorithm. There is a big learning curve for SEO and as Google changes it seems that whoever is first to adapt will also be the person who will help their business gain new customers before anyone else.

Closing Thoughts

SEO offers every organization immense value because it requires a complete understanding of that organization’s business vertical, their customers, and the organization’s internal teams. SEO professionals can attach ROI to new technology initiatives proposed by development teams.

Organic search can be the first point of contact for a customer and a brand. This first point of contact can ignite further engagement for other channels such as following a social media channel or signing up for an email newsletter.

A channel that is constantly changing means a channel that is also constantly offering new opportunities to succeed before anyone else. This constant influx of change requires constant attention and a knowledgeable person to retain and to grow the existing organic search channel.