That’s a HUGE amount of searches, right? Whether you agree or not, people use search engines A LOT.  If you’re running a business and looking to grow your sales and traffic, SEO is a powerful marketing strategy.  If you’re curious to discover the biggest benefits of SEO, this post is exclusively for you where we’ll talk about various things including;

Advantages of SEO Two essential things you need to succeed in SEO and many more

Before diving into the details, let’s start with the basic question first: What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which is the process of improving a website in ways that help it rank in search results when users search for specific words and phrases. So if you’re looking to grow your website sales and traffic online, SEO is your best bet. Let’s now get into the details of SEO benefits.

10 Incredible Benefits of SEO Optimization: Why Is SEO Important for ANY Business? 

1. SEO sends you free traffic 

SEO means FREE traffic. Yes, you can also pay for PPC (Paid Per Click) to generate traffic from search engines like Google but SEO generates you traffic for free. Most people don’t know the difference between SEO and PPC traffic.  So let us explain the difference in simple terms so you can understand it better. The major difference between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) is that traffic coming from SEO is totally free while traffic generated from PPC is NOT free as you’ll have to pay for ads. Let us give you a simple example of PPC and SEO so you’ll understand it even better. PPC traffic is similar to turning on the water tap. As long as the tap is ON (i.e you pay money for ads), traffic will flow. But as soon as the tap is OFF (i.e. you stop spending money), you’ll no longer generate traffic. Whereas SEO helps you generate long-lasting traffic for free. So if you’re looking for free ways to generate traffic to your website, product or business, SEO is what you’ll need.

2. SEO increases overall sales 

We started our blog BloggersPassion in 2010. Did you know that only 3000 people visited our blog in the whole year (i.e 2010)? Did we give up? No! Instead we put our efforts on creating better content and SEO which resulted in HUGE sales. The blog you’re currently reading now generates over $10,000 EVERY single month. Thanks to SEO. Just from a single affiliate program (Semrush affiliate program), we generated over $338,000 so far. So yes… SEO works like a charm and it helps you increase your overall website sales if done right.

3. SEO helps you build brand awareness

Building a brand is the KEY to success online (or offline). People don’t buy from strangers. That’s why you need to build a strong brand. People should know your business, brand, or product. Only then, you’ll be able to convert normal visitors into buyers. The more people search and engage with your brand online, the faster your brand will grow and the higher you will rank. Branding is everything. It’s as simple as that. You can use SEO to build and grow your brand online. There are many to do that including;

Using branded keywords Ranking for navigational keywords (Navigational queries include: Facebook, Google, Twitter, or your brand or product’s name) Implementing local SEO strategies and the list goes on

All in all, SEO helps you grow your brand awareness.

4. SEO is measurable

One big reason most brands and small businesses invest in SEO is it is measurable.  You can measure the traffic, conversions, leads, and the source of conversion including the time taken by it to convert. That being said, here are some of the essential KPI (Key Performance Indicators) to track in SEO.

Organic traffic (which shows you how many visitors come to your website from organic search results and it can be easily discovered from Google Analytics) Keyword rankings (which shows you how your keywords are performing in search results and you can use tools like Semrush to track keyword rankings) Search visibility (which tells you how often your domain is shown in search results for the keywords it’s ranking for and it can be discovered through Google Search Console) Average session duration (it shows you how much time your visitors spend on your website and it can be found from Google Analytics) Organic CTR (it measures the ratio of clicks on your link to the total number of users who viewed the search results) Bounce rate (it shows you how much percent of your website visitors bounced from your website without taking any action and it can be easily discovered from your Google Analytics account)

As you can see above, most of the SEO KPIs can be easily discovered when you’ve access to both Google search console and Google Analytics. Both are free to use.  So once you set up a website, make sure to connect your website to Google Analytics to measure your SEO efforts. 

5. Helps the business in the long-term

SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. The ONLY drawback of SEO is it takes time to build and grow your search traffic. But once you start generating organic traffic to your website, it will keep growing in the long run. You need to constantly improve your website by analyzing the latest Google algorithm updates.  You should always focus on improving your website’s design, user experience, products, and content. That’s how you’re going to outrank your competitors in the long run. Once you start treating SEO as a marathon, you’ll start putting serious efforts on creating better content, improving your UX, and so on. Ultimately, those efforts will pay off in terms of traffic, leads and sales. Just make sure to stay away from black hat SEO techniques to improve your rankings quickly as they are NOT going to help. 

6. SEO helps in offline sales as well

In this digital era, everyone is searching for a brand or store before visiting it offline. They’re looking for the products, reviews, feedback, etc before hitting the store offline. So if you’re already running a business offline, investing your time and money on SEO can help your business grow immensely.  According to a study, 82% of smartphone users research a product with their phone before they make their final purchase in-store offline. The study also found that 45% of consumers read reviews online before making a purchase offline. Also, 90% of people are influenced by online reviews according to a few surveys. What does it tell you? If you’ve a solid SEO strategy online, it helps you grow your offline sales as well. Here are a few things you can do online to improve your offline sales using SEO.

Maintain accurate local business listings about your stores Use Google My Business (which is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps) Create a website, optimize it for specific keywords that are relevant to your business and build backlinks

7. SEO gives a high Return on Investment (ROI)

Everyone looks for higher returns on their investment, right? One of the biggest advantages of seo is that it produces high ROI no matter what industry you are in. If your website or business is performing well in organic search results (oftentimes focusing on short-tail keywords), you can definitely expect higher returns in terms of traffic, qualified leads, and sales.  Here are some of the things you can consider while calculating your ROI on SEO.

Newsletter signups Product purchases or subscriptions Repeat traffic from search engines and more

8. Drive targeted traffic to your website

One of the biggest benefits of SEO is it sends you targeted traffic. If you’re doing any business for a while, you may already know how important it is to drive “targeted visitors” to a website, app, or store. Targeted visitors convert! If you’ve the right sales funnel, you’ll be making a ton of sales by generating traffic from search engines. You can drive targeted visitors from search engines by targeting relevant keyword phrases, creating content that’s relevant to your target audience, and so on.

Search engines like Google give #1 preference to the websites that have more (quality) backlinks. One of the proven ways to attract quality backlinks is to start a website and start doing SEO. If you’re wondering… a backlink is simply a link from one website to another.  There are basically two types of backlinks;

Dofollow backlinks (Dofollow tag tells search engines to to follow the link, these backlinks are essential to grow your search traffic) Nofollow backlinks (Nofollow tag tells search engines to ignore a link)

Just make sure to avoid toxic links (backlinks that come from malicious sites or spammy websites).  If you’re curious to learn how to build quality backlinks to your website, here are a few proven ways for you.

10. SEO can help small businesses to compete with BIG brands

If you’re running a small business and looking to boost your sales and leads to your website, SEO is the best channel for you. SEO helps small business owners create fast and secured websites that rank higher in search engines like Google. Not only that, you can even compete with the big brands and authority websites in your industry with the help of SEO. All you need to do is to pick low competitive keywords, build relevant links and focus on offering the right products to attract customers.

Two ESSENTIAL Things You Need to Succeed In SEO

So what do you need to succeed in SEO in 2023 and beyond? Fortunately, SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy to grow your business or website online. But… you need to invest in a few things to succeed in SEO. Here are the TWO essential things you must need for SEO success. Let’s talk about each one of them in detail so you can understand it better.

1. A WordPress Website

The good part? It doesn’t cost you thousands of dollars to start a WordPress site. In fact, you just need around $100 per year to launch a professional website on WordPress. Here’s a simple tutorial on how you can start your own WordPress website within a limited budget. Quick note: For web hosting, we suggest you Bluehost which is officially recommended by WordPress itself and it currently hosts over 2 million websites worldwide. Click on this exclusive link to visit Bluehost which looks like this; As you can see above, you’ll get Bluehost plans starting only at $2.95/mo (instead of $8.99 per month). Once you’re on their website, click on the Get Started Now button to select your hosting package. Here’s how it looks like; As you can see above, Bluehost offers 4 pricing packages which are listed below along with their hosting limits. Basic: If you want to install only 1 website and are looking for the cheapest plan from Bluehost, this one’s for you as it costs you only $2.95/mo and gives you access to the following limits.

Install 1 website Get 50 GB website space and bandwidth Free SSL 1 Free Domain (for 1 year) 25 Parked Domains and Subdomains 5 Email Accounts and Email Storage

Plus: If you want to install multiple sites, this one’s for you and it costs you $5.45/mo which gives you access to the following features.

Install unlimited websites Get unmetered website space and bandwidth Free SSL 1 Free Domain (for 1 year) Unlimited Parked Domains and Subdomains Unlimited Email Accounts and Email Storage $200 Worth Marketing Offers 1 Spam Experts

Choice Plus: This is the HIGHLY recommend plan as it gives you access to a ton of features for only $5.45/mo including;

Install unlimited websites Get unmetered website space and bandwidth Free SSL 1 Free Domain (for 1 year) Unlimited Parked Domains and Subdomains Unlimited Email Accounts and Email Storage $200 Worth Marketing Offers 1 Spam Experts 1 Domain Privacy Site backup included

Pro: If you want additional features such as dedicated IP, this one’s for you which costs you $13.95/mo and gives you access to the following.

Install unlimited websites Get unmetered website space and bandwidth Free SSL (Premium Positive SSL) 1 Free Domain (for 1 year) Unlimited Parked Domains and Subdomains Unlimited Email Accounts and Email Storage $200 Worth Marketing Offers 2 Spam Experts 1 Domain Privacy + Protection Site Backup (CodeGuard Basic) Dedicated IP 1 Office 365 Mailbox (free 30 days)

Once you’ve selected a hosting plan from Bluehost, you’ll be asked to create a domain for FREE. You can either register a new domain for free or skip this step to proceed to their payment page.  In the final step, you’ll be asked to create an account with Bluehost. Once you’re done with it and make the payment, you will get a confirmation email from Bluehost. That’s it, you’re done! Now, you can install WordPress on Bluehost within a few minutes. If you have any questions, you can email me at [email protected] and I’d be glad to help.

2. SEO Tools

Over the last 10 years, we’ve used a TON of SEO tools. Out of all, we REALLY loved the following THREE SEO tools. Let’s briefly talk about these SEO tools along with their features and pricing so you can pick the right one that suits your needs.

1. Semrush

If there’s ONLY one SEO tool we recommend for website owners and small businesses, it is undoubtedly the Semrush SEO toolkit. We’ve been using Semrush for 7+ years now and it’s a widely popular tool that’s used by over 10 million people worldwide. How much does Semrush cost? Semrush is a premium SEO toolkit and it currently offers the following three pricing packages.

  1. Pro: This plan is perfect for website owners and costs you $119.95/mo ($99.95/mo if billed annually) and gives access to the following limits.

Results per report: 10,000 Reports per day: 3,000 Projects: 5 Keywords to track: 500 Pages to crawl: 100,000

  1. Guru: This plan is suitable for growing businesses and costs you $229.95/mo ($191.62/mo if billed annually) and gives access to the following limits.

Results per report: 30,000 Reports per day: 5,000 Projects: 15 Keywords to track: 1500 Pages to crawl: 300,000

  1. Business: This plan is suitable for agencies and costs you $449.95/mo ($374.95/mo if billed annually) and gives access to the following limits.

Results per report: 50,000 Reports per day: 10,000 Projects: 40 Keywords to track: 5000 Pages to crawl: 10,00,000

Use the following link to grab their free trial.

2. SE Ranking

If you’re looking for a 360-degree SEO software that’s both powerful and affordable, SE Ranking is exclusively for you. How much does SE Ranking cost? SE Ranking is an AFFORDABLE SEO toolkit. If you can’t afford an expensive tool like Semrsuh, SE Ranking is a great alternative for you. SE Ranking gives you access to the following pricing packages.

  1. Optimum: This plan costs you only $31 per month where you can track up to 250 keywords and you’ll get the following features.

Add up to 10 websites Website audit for 25,000 pages Monitor 5000 backlinks Check backlinks for 20 domains/day On-Page Checker for 150 pages

  1. Plus: This plan costs you $71 per month and you’ll get access to white label SEO reports along with the following features with this plan.

Add unlimited number of websites Website audit for 150,000 pages Monitor 25,000 backlinks Check backlinks for 100 domains/day On-Page Checker for 450 pages Monitor up to 100 pages for changes  SEO/PPC database expansion: 10,000 White-label reports 

  1. Enterprise: This plan costs you $151 per month where you’ll get the following features with this plan.

Add unlimited number of websites Website audit for 250,000 pages Monitor 75,000 backlinks Check backlinks for 300 domains/day On-Page Checker for 750 pages Monitor up to 250 pages for changes  SEO/PPC database expansion: 25,000 White-label reports and API

So what are you still waiting for?

3. Rank Math

Rank Math is the most powerful SEO plugin that helps you optimize your blog’s content with built-in suggestions. It offers a wide range of features including;

SEO Analyzer Google Search Console Keyword Ranking Schema Markup And many more

We’ve been using the same Rank Math SEO plugin (Pro version) on our blog BloggersPassion for more than 2 years now and we’re extremely happy with the results.  How much does Rank Math cost? Fortunately, Rank Math offers a free version which is extremely useful for most beginners. But if you want to get more out of this plugin, grab their premium version. Side note: Here’s the link to grab their plugin for free. Rank Math has 2 pricing packages in the premium version which are listed below. Pro: This plan costs you $59 per year and gives you access to the following things.

Unlimited personal websites Track 500 Keywords Powerful Schema Generator 24/7 Support

Business: This plan costs you $199 per year and gives you access to the following things.

Support for client websites Track 10,000 Keywords Powerful Schema Generator 24/7 Priority Support

Both of their premium plans offer you a 30-day money-back guarantee and you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel your plan at any time. In a nutshell, if you’re looking to grow your sales and traffic online, SEO is the perfect weapon for you.  Read: Important SEO Statistics You Need to Know in 2023 Here’s a list of some of the frequently asked questions around search engine optimization.

Final Thoughts

– Increases your sales– Increases your traffic– Helps you generate qualified leads– Improves your brand online– Gives small businesses an edge over big brands 

Semrush 30 Days Free Trial: Try Pro or Guru Account for Free Now 5 Conservative Search Engine Alternatives to Google Yoast SEO Premium vs Free Plugin: An In-Depth Review Best Alternative to KWFinder for Keyword Research Ubersuggest vs Semrush: Which SEO Tool Is Worth Trying? Best Answer the Public Alternatives for Topic Research Most Effective Google Search Tips And Tricks for 2023 YouTube SEO Tips: 11 Ways to Get Your Videos Noticed 10 Best SEO Books to Help You Master SEO in 2023

If you’re not giving #1 priority to SEO, you miss out on all the local searches that people are making about the products or services you offer. 

Your target audience and customers are using search engines almost every single day. That’s why you need a marketing strategy like SEO to reach them.

As discussed above, there are a ton of benefits of SEO including increasing your traffic, leads, sales and more. 

So what do you think? Are you going to start focusing on SEO to improve your business online? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments.