Do you really need SEO? Let me first address your question with a couple of other questions.
- Do you want more traffic on your website?
- Do you want highly targeted, highly motivated customers coming to your website?
- Do you want them to consistently visit your site day in and day out?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then, YES, you undoubtedly need SEO.
It is a virtual certainty that out there in the vast world of the internet, someone or many “someones” want what you have – you just have to reach them. That’s what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) accomplishes. With SEO you are simply reaching your target audience by making your company, your products and services noticeable to exactly the right people - those who are searching for you but don’t know you are out there. Long story short, SEO gets your website in front of more people.
If you are selling a product in a grocery store for instance, you want that product to be placed up-front and center in several locations throughout the store, increasing the likelihood that it will be both seen and purchased. To accomplish this you must convince the grocery store manager that the product both deserves notice, and is beneficial to the store’s patrons. In this example, you are using “product placement optimization.” In much the same way, search engines act as the “store manager” on the internet, and SEO ensures optimal product placement.
Google is like an internet “grocery store manager” but it doesn’t deal in the placement of products, rather in the placement of keywords and/or phrases. Google, like other search engines, provides the most beneficial and deserving results to people based upon the keyword or phrase they use in their search. Now consider this:
- There are tens of millions of websites with billions of pages that are subject to the peering eyes of search engines like Google.
- Only the top 10 web pages are listed on a Search Engine Result Page (SERP). These ten are the most relevant for the keyword or phrase that is being used in the search.
- Statistically, 68% of all people who “google” don’t look further than the first page of links on the SERP.
- And, 98% don’t go past the third page.
Do you really need SEO? We think the answer couldn’t be clearer. Without SEO, you really aren’t doing business on the internet because you are invisible to the search engines. Lacking relevant keywords and phrases, your website will drift amidst the tens of millions of other websites on the internet, an obscure URL known only to a few.
Now, having said that…
Being easily found on the bigger search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing is obviously important. But rankings and traffic aren’t the whole picture when it comes to the success of your website. The look, feel and function of your website itself still matters a great deal, so don’t separate SEO and website design. The two go hand-in-hand. The most successful websites are structured and programmed in specific SEO-friendly ways. They are also engaging, interesting and easy to navigate so people will spend time on them, come back and even tell their friends.
The important thing to remember here is that you don’t want to do SEO on a less-than effective website, and there really isn’t much point in creating a great website and leaving SEO out. The two go hand in hand. The smartest way to leverage your online presence is by working with Internet Marketing Professionals that understand the interplay between the two disciplines. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for us at iTownz to completely redesign websites for our clients because of programming that is unfriendly to both search engines and humans.
A synergy between Search Engine Optimization and effective web design is necessary to any business seeking online success. The benefits of successful online strategies yield highly targeted traffic, sales and positive ROI (Return On Investment.) Contact us today and get the visibility that your business deserves.
Email us: conductor@itownz.com |
