There is no question regarding the fact that people from all over the world are using the internet for commercial activities and that the majority of the online traffic these days come from search engines. With Google capturing over 90% of the market, search engine optimization (SEO) makes a lot of sense for many companies and ventures across the globe. Here is how it can help your businesses grow:

Ranking Higher Gets You More Traffic

It goes without saying that the higher you rank on SERPs (search engine result pages) the higher will be your CTRs (click-through ratios) for websites, pages, social media handles, etc. There are however several ways to accomplish this and some of the best practices include:

· Targeting and utilizing the right keywords that are relevant to your audiences that carry the appropriate user or search intent. This can also include the use of long-tail keywords and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords.

· Build links to your websites which can be accomplished through the publishing of high-quality content on high-ranking and high authority domains.

· Social media can also help you in your SEO strategy as these days many people use social media platforms like search engines and they will often search for businesses or offerings.

· Perform on-page SEO for your website to improve performance, navigation, loading times, and user experience, fix broken links, enhance the user interface, and make it mobile-friendly and responsive.

· Implement data analytics to examine the behavior of visitors, the bounce rate, the time they spend on your landing pages, and how they interact with your website to find means of improvement.

SEO Builds Credibility and Trust

Organic search is the primary source of all online traffic and it can play a critical component in your buyer’s funnel by contributing to your brand’s visibility. This can be especially true in niche markets where having your voice heard is essential to reach out to audiences. Plus, people put a lot of trust in Google which means your higher organic rankings can work in the favor of your brand.

However, trust and credibility can also be augmented with the help of natural links, positive user behavior, online reviews, testimonials, machine learning signals, and optimized on-page elements. Having your Google My Business page can also improve your SEO as well as bring more traffic to your website.

You Get to Understand the Voice of the Consumer

The reason why many people these days favor organic marketing like SEO over paid types of marketing like SEM (search engine marketing) or SMM (social media marketing) is that it offers mature leads. The intent to make a purchase of a service or buy a product is much higher in organic traffic as SEO tells us what customers want and need.

Moreover, SEO data and formats offer us clear signals of user behavior and search intent. This can be further enhanced with the use of search query data, SERP analysis, and analytics data along with AI insights. Furthermore, SEO improves user experience as Google continues to grow and improve on interpreting favorable and good user experiences. A positive user experience has become a pivotal element to a website’s success.

It Benefits Other Marketing Initiatives

Digital and internet marketing has become quite expansive over the years including the likes of SEM, SMM, email marketing, content marketing, mobile marketing, and video marketing to name a few. SEO can work in favor of all of them as almost every web project has some element of SEO research involved in them.

In many ways implementing SEO strategies as an organic form of marketing can be used for other channels to support initiatives as it can inform you about emerging trends in the industry. As SEO focuses on making a product or service more useful it can also assist you in making other marketing efforts better.

Gaining an Edge on Competitors

Nowadays businesses are cramped for space when it comes to the top spot and while your competitors are likely to be investing in marketing activities, SEO can give you an edge over them. This will enable you to outrank them in search engine results and gain greater market share. Furthermore, you can also use your competitor's strategy to help improve your own SEO.

Final Word

To sum it all up, SEO is a great way to reach more people and target a more defined audience. It can enable you to attract anyone with the intent to buy a product or purchase a service at any stage of the buying funnel. Furthermore, with local SEO you can also target people according to their locational preferences and local businesses get a huge boost from accomplishing this task when carrying it out diligently.