SEO is a fantastic way for brands to achieve their goals, but it can be tricky considering the amount of time and effort that’s usually required. Creating and maintaining a strong SEO strategy can help ensure that a brand is being seen by the right audiences, and it’s a cost-effective method to drive traffic, leads and sales.
Let’s dive deeper into what it is and why it’s important for brands.
What Is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s essentially the process of ranking organically, right below the paid search ads, on any search engine. This can be Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo or any other search engine. SEO is an earned media tactic—rather than paying per click for search ads in the sponsored section on Google, your website ranks organically for intent-based searches. If someone clicks on your organic listing, you don’t have to pay Google for it. This makes SEO an efficient and often the most profitable way to drive new leads and sales for a business.
How It Works
First of all, it’s important to understand that it takes much longer to see results from SEO compared to paid search ads. Typically, it takes about six to 12 months. This makes SEO better suited for long-term projects, permanent products and general brand awareness. Brands looking for a quick response or awareness for products that have very short sales cycles aren’t likely to benefit as much from SEO. Instant results and direct responses aren’t achievable through SEO—these are benefits of paid search.
The way organic rankings work is that Google grades content based on factors like a page’s backlinks—both quantity and quality—the relevance of the page’s content to the search term and the bounce rate on the website. These indicators help Google decide which page will be shown first in the organic listings.
Despite the amount of time it takes to generate results, organic traffic from SEO can eventually lead to an increase in key performance indicators like leads and purchases. Typically, organic traffic is the highest quality traffic. People are actively searching for answers or solutions when they use search engines. They’re usually going to spend more time on a page that provides them with the solutions they want. For any brand, company or product, you want to have visitors spending more time on a page, and you want to have a lower bounce rate because it usually means visitors are more likely to take the desired action, such as making a purchase.
