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Why your site needs SEO – Top 5 reasons

When explaining “Why your site needs SEO” it’s probably a good idea to answer the big question. The one that’s always asked when trying to explain it. “Why do I need to pay additional money when I’ve already paid out for the website to be made?”.  And it is a common question asked by many of our customers. The answer is based around how search engines work. Google is the top dog when it comes to search engines, so largely dictates the landscape when it comes to how websites rank. For many years its focus has been on providing the best results for its customers (that’s you when you’re searching).

Google’s emphasis is on pointing people to websites that would be best suited to answer:

(a) their question

(b) display the product they want to buy

(c) give them the right information.

To do this it has to judge the quality of the website. It currently has over 200 ranking factors that dictates how suitable it thinks your website is. From this it decides what position it ranks you on the pages of Google. And sadly just having a website is not one of those!

What is SEO?

Search engine optimisation does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a process whereby your website, and its individual pages, are optimised to appear as high up the rankings in Google as possible. The process is centred around the factors that Google uses to rank a websites quality. And because Google changes these regularly, just having a website built without optimising it regularly is not enough. It means that you wont be hitting many of the requirements Google looks for. So you’ll drop down the rankings. And your potential customers will be less likely to find you.

But I paid for the website!

Paying for an all singing, all dancing website is unfortunately not the end of the story. The changes that Google makes to its algorithm means your site can’t sit still. Because of the shear volume of websites on the internet now (1.8 billion at the last count, and yes, someone does count them) it is more and more difficult for your website to stand out. If you’re just relying on your site to attract visitors without doing anything to improve the chances of that happening, you can bet that there are 10’s of thousands of competitors that are!

So, whether you learn how to do it yourself or employ the services of an SEO expert, the bottom line is it’s a must for your website. We’ve outlined one of the top reasons for needing SEO but this one of many. The following paragraphs cover what we consider as the top 5 reasons that SEO is a must, but this is by no means an exhaustive list. There are innumerable reasons and benefits to your site by engaging in regular SEO.

1) SEO can be relatively cheap

Of course, a cost is involved so your perception of cheap is dependent on the value that SEO brings to your site. It’s also dependent on what agency/company you use. As with anything, there exist large companies that employ hundreds of “experts” and can charge hundreds to thousands of pounds per month to employ. They’ll generally do a prescribed list of tasks on a regular basis to satisfy the basics of SEO on your site. And then the more you pay, the more they’ll do. The problem with using these larger companies, we’ve found from experience, is that you can often feel like just a number.

Great SEO isn’t just about ticking boxes in our opinion. SEO works best when the person engaged in doing it understands your business. And more importantly your customers. Having a more personal approach benefits your site by making it a lot more targeted in terms of your potential audience. And this doesn’t have to cost and arm and a leg. Many smaller companies focus on smaller businesses and can be very reasonable in their costs. They understand the financial pressures of running a small business. And if you think of SEO as an investment in your business rather than a marketing cost then getting good SEO will pay back on your investment several times over.

Why do i need SEO?

2) SEO practices are changing constantly

As mentioned previously, Google pretty much calls the shots when it comes to how its search engine ranks your site. It also constantly changes the algorithms that dictate this. It does this to improve the experience for the person searching. But for your website it means changes to your ranking. Google makes thousands of changes to the algorithm each year. At least a couple of these will be major changes that have large ranking effects. Having an SEO strategy in place is crucial. An SEO Experts job it is to keep abreast of and understand the changes that are made. As a result they’ll do things to ensure your site is not left behind.

3) You create a better experience for your website visitors

Think about how you use a search engine. I’m betting you want to find the most useful result as fast as you can with as few clicks as you can. The fact that Google will list millions of results for your search is overwhelming enough. If you’re like me you want to be able to cut through the news and find the right result. And that’s how Google wants it too.

It’s emphasis is on rankings sites that are the best suited to satisfying your search. And SEO is important in doing this. Great SEO ensures your site is a clean, streamlined experience. Information is readily and easily available. Your site is structured to make navigating it an easy experience. All of these elements of SEO contribute to Google’s emphasis on a positive user experience. It also means people will want to spend longer on your site and come back to it. That’s priceless.

4) SEO drives E-A-T

E-A-T or Expertise, Authority and Trust are 3 factors that Google uses in its algorithm. They’re used to quantify how much trust to place on a brand or a website. This is important as we’ve already established that Google wants to direct your search to the best sites. And it will classify the best sites as those it and customers trust. And trust isn’t something that is achieved overnight! Having an SEO strategy that centres on honest, reliable content will help to build trust in your brand.

Including content that shows your expertise not only gives your customers confidence but helps you stand out in your sector. A great indicator of a trusted website is one that has quality websites linking to it’s content. For example, a major brand sharing one of your posts. These are called back links and quality back links make a huge difference to how your site ranks. Great SEO includes finding and maintaining these sources of trust and authority.

5) SEO can influence your potential customers

In most surveys conducted on the subject, at least 85% of the searches conducted on the internet are for research purposes. And when it comes to shopping for services or products it’s the number one way that your customers will use. And customers are increasingly researching the service or product they want online. With the understanding of this you can use SEO tactics and strategies to capitilise on this. By optimising your content for your products and/or services based on how people will search for them gives you a great chance at increasing your conversion rates. Focusing on local SEO also gives you the chance to increase your visibility in your town, city, county. Coupled with all the other strategies mentioned this will help drive customers that want what you’re selling find your site and increases the likelihood of them staying and buying.

SEO Builds Trust

So, why your site needs SEO…

In summary, among the numerous benefits of a good SEO startegy, these 5 reasons are why your website needs SEO in 2021:

  • 1) SEO can be relatively cheap comnpared to other forms of marketing
  • 2) SEO practices are changing constantly so it’s best to keep up
  • 3) You create a better experience for your website visitors
  • 4) SEO drives E-A-T, Expertise-Authority and Trust
  • 5) SEO can influence your potential customers by tailoring your content to how people search

If you’re still unsure as to whether you need SEO there’s a great article that covers what Google and other search engines are looking for in websites here. If you want to talk to us about our SEO services and how we can help you grow your business then click on our contact form.