Importance of SEO Explained

Table of Contents

There is a lot of information online about search engine optimization. The vastness of this information means that it’s so easy to get conflicted. In fact, most business owners we talk to often tell us they don’t even know who to trust. We can relate to this.

Even with the confusion, search engine optimization still holds the number one position in digital marketing. It’s the prominent method for driving qualified organic traffic to websites. This technique drives hundreds of thousands and even millions of visitors to websites when done right. Isn’t this what you want as a business owner?

From this enormous traffic, you will find qualified leads who you can then convert to paying customers. Any business can achieve this, from small to large international enterprises.

In Google’s elaborate guide on how search results are generated automatically, there are five key items:

Meaning of a user’s query
Relevance of content to the query
Quality of content
Web page usability
User context ad settings (e.g location and past searches)

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As you can see from Google’s blueprint, the focus is on the user. So when we do SEO, we are basically trying to get the above 5 factors right. To do this, we focus on what we call the core ingredients of SEO:

SEO strategy
Keyword research
Keyword planning
Content creation
On-page SEO
Off-page SEO
Technical SEO
Local SEO
National SEO
International SEO

In this article, we discuss the importance of SEO for businesses and how you can use it to increase your company’s revenue. We specifically look at the following:

SEO for small businesses
Local SEO
SEO for national businesses
SEO for medium and large enterprises
B2B SEO
SEO for eCommerce businesses
International business SEO

Importance of SEO for Your Business

When we talk about SEO, most brands think about a potential increase in organic search traffic.

But the main value of SEO isn’t just about bringing random visitors to your platform. It’s about helping you drive highly-qualified traffic. When you optimize the so-called “money keyword,” you can bring in users who are close to making a purchase.

In other words, would you rather set up a brick-and-mortar store on a back alley on an abandoned island or on a busy high street in a big city? SEO is what brings your virtual storefront to the Fifth Avenue of the Internet – the first page of search results.

Yes, being on this virtual Fifth Avenue doesn’t necessarily mean all the pedestrians will make a purchase. But chances are that most of them will eventually convert into loyal customers.

The State of the Hubspot Marketing Report 2023 that surveyed 1200 marketers found that 88% of those who already do SEO intend to maintain or increase their SEO investment. The same report also found that blog posts, an instrumental tool for SEO, is among the number one channels that bring the highest ROI.

Visibility, Credibility and Brand Awareness are Vital to Any Business

The statistic shows that about 70-80% of search engine users only focus on organic results. In other words, they usually avoid clicking on the paid ads at the top of the search results.

Ranking higher in organic search results increases your brand credibility in the eyes of your potential customers. It signals to them that you’re at the top of organic search engine results pages not because you paid for an ad but because other users trust your judgment.

But SEO only works if you reach the top spots. Do you even remember the last time you went as far as the second page of SERP (search engine results page)?

Here’s an interesting graphic from Advanced Web Ranking:

See how Click Through Rate drops by position? Quite dramatic, if you ask us.

Google and other search engines assess metrics such as CTR (Click Through Rate). They then use these metrics to rank web pages. A page with a higher CTR will be pushed to the top of SERPS. It’s a signal that such a page offers more helpful information.

Getting to the top organic search positions for relevant keywords is virtually impossible without proper strategy. This is why on-page and off-page SEO holds such a massive value to your brand.

While the process takes time and effort, it’s necessary for climbing to the top of SERPs. Over time, the improved placement in Google will build brand awareness and increase the company’s reputation.

Understanding Your Customers is Crucial Both for Serving the Existing Ones Best, and For Finding New Ones

Thanks to the various SEO tools in the market, you can get hold of valuable insights into user preferences.

For example, you should understand the keywords that customers use to search for information or products through search engines. This is best done through keyword research, which we discuss further in this article.

It’s also important to consider the aspect of user behavior. One behavior that has gained momentum of late is the use of mobile devices. In a report published on Statista that covers mobile device website traffic, the share of mobile traffic rose to 58% by the first quarter of 2023. What this simply means is that more people are using mobile phones for search. Because of this behavior, search engines like Google have already adjusted their algorithms to give priority to mobile responsive websites.

This is just a single example of how user experience affects organic traffic and ROI. After all, these are important SEO goals for any company.

Is SEO Important for Every Business?

We have looked at the importance of SEO for a business. But it’s possible that you could still have questions like these:

Do all businesses need SEO?

Can a business survive without SEO?

What happens if you don’t use SEO?

Can I use SEO alongside other digital marketing efforts?

For these and other questions about why SEO is important, the simple answer is yes and yes. But let’s expand a bit.

Our approach to SEO is pegged on your goals, not the type or size of your business. No business is too small to need SEO. No business is too big for SEO. And no industry can do without SEO in the context of online success. SEO importance is relevant for every business that wants success online.

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization for Small Business

Did you know that in the US alone, 99.9% of all businesses belong in the small business category?

In terms of numbers, there are 33.2 million small businesses in the US as of 2022.

Unfortunately, studies indicate that over 20% of small businesses normally fail in their first year in business. Over 30% will die out in their second year of business, and of those who survived the first two years, 50% are likely to fail in their fifth year.

Meanwhile, only about 64% of small businesses have an online presence. But the problem is that even for the many that are online, their SEO strategies are weak and often do not yield the result that they would have wished to have. It does not make sense to have an online presence which does not translate to results that contribute to the bottom line of your business.

The secret lies not just in doing SEO for the sake of it. You MUST get it right, and we can help.

Although other methods like SMM and PPC have their merits, search engine optimization remains the top choice for most brands. After all, more than 90% of all online experiences start with a search engine. Google controls over 90 percent of the world’s share of search engine traffic.

With these stats, you can see why a small business needs to get SEO right as a matter of urgency. This is especially true when we consider how local optimization changed the way we use the web. People no longer ask a friend for referrals when looking for local handymen, for example. Instead, they simply go online, get to a search engine, type “handyman”, and click the results at the top.

SEO tips for small businesses

It’s most likely that a critical challenge for your small business is the lack of sufficient funds to roll out a well oiled campaign.

SEO solves this challenge, since you can do a lot of the heavy lifting without incurring a lot of costs.

Most of the optimization tactics we implement for small businesses are in fact universal. This means you can implement them wherever your company is based anywhere in the world.

These methods will work for your business regardless of industry.

Know your target audience

The quickest way to understand what your target audience wants is to study user experience metrics. Tools such as Google Analytics can help you do this real fast. Look at the click through rate and bounce rate, as well as study your competitor’s content, particularly those ranking on top of search results. We also recommend running feedback surveys where the people coming to your website or social media pages get to tell you what they want.

Perform highly targeted keyword research

Find phrases that are easy to rank for and have a high volume. Sometimes you can forego the highly competitive keywords and focus on what we call the low hanging fruits – the keywords with potential for high search volume but with few websites covering them. You can tell this by going through the growth trends.

Improve page speed

40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. As a small business, you simply cannot afford to lose this much potential traffic.

Stay up to date with the changes in search engines’ algorithms and SEO trends

You can spend lots of time monitoring the newest SEO trends and trying to adjust to them. Alternatively, you can focus on your daily operations and hire MiroMind to do the heavy lifting.

How much does SEO cost for small business?

SEO can cost a small business on average, $500 per month for DIY and about $5000 per month for comprehensive agency services.

This cost is not cast in stone, and the exact cost is best determined by a quote. Please get a free quote. The quote is guided by the specific services that are most critical for you at this moment. We are also ready to jump on a call and understand your most pressing pain points.

We adapt our strategies to your goals, budget, and preferences. Our job doesn’t end after we perform a few basic processes. Instead, we’re constantly looking for ways to make your business thrive.

Importance of Local SEO for Business?

Pew Research did a one of a kind intense SEO study that has been proven true and referenced by many SEO experts. The study found that 46% of all searches on Google are local. Out of this, 92% of the users clicked the websites that appeared on the first page of SERPS. This is to say that these users never proceeded to the second page to see what else was there.

And here’s an even more important weapon for you: only 54% of local stores have claimed their local listing on Google.

This is the main reason why local SEO is awesome. You can beat other brands in your local area by building a large customer base exclusively via Google. By the time they realize what’s happening, you’ll already be dominating the local market.

Local SEO, like any other branch of SEO, entails both on-page and off-page activities. The on-page process helps you build information articles and well-functioning landing pages. Off-page processes increase the reputation through backlinks. The more high quality backlinks the website gets, the more the reputation rises. As your reputation rises, Google gets a signal that there is something of value on your website, and so they send more organic traffic.

Learn More About SEO for Local Businesses

SEO tips for local business

Claim your Google Business profile

There’s no reason why you wouldn’t create a local business profile. It’s free and will help you get into the famous Local 3 Pack. A local SEO 3-pack is the listing of three businesses that appear on top of search results when a user uses terms like “near ‘location’ ” when looking for some product or service via Google. These three listings normally appear right below the paid search results, which are usually at the very top. The three listings will always have a rating based on customer reviews, complete with how many people have reviewed it. Each of the listings has a snippet that gives a precise description of what the business offers.

Local citations are hugely important for your local business

Local citations are mentions of your business details, such as name, address, and number, on websites that are not your own. Google relies on these mentions as a signal of proof that your business is a legitimate entity that indeed exists and serves people in the local area as you claim under your Google Business Profile. Not only should you try to acquire as many reviews as possible, but you should also make sure they’re positive ones.

Optimize for local target keywords

Optimizing for local designations, like the name of the city, is a fantastic way to harness local traffic. Identify all the local keywords through in-depth research. Then, use the ones that make sense for your particular business. For instance, you should focus on specific neighborhoods and services. Depending on your specific case, you could create location-specific pages. In case you still wonder – the quite obvious answer is: SEO is important to all sizes of businesses, and if you do your business locally then local SEO is what you have to invest in to outperform the competition.

How much will local SEO cost you?

As with other digital services, the price depends on a lot of factors. Creating a few articles isn’t the same as performing full local optimization. The good news is that we can come up with an SEO solution for every budget. So, make sure to talk to us today!

Why is SEO Important for National Business?

Generally speaking, as you increase your radius of impact, the complexity of optimization also increases. SEO experts have to consider many more things as they scale the processes and try to reach a wider audience within your country.

Unlike local SEO, we use a different strategy for national optimization. While local brands rely on local citations, structured data, and directories, national optimization presumes keyword targeting, aggressive branding, and link-building tasks.

Do I need local SEO to do national SEO?

In theory, your company can benefit from both approaches. As you can presume, national SEO is much more applicable for companies that have stores all over the country. So we can also do local SEO that is tailored to the locations of the different stores. Local SEO is used for targeting local residents as the primary clients.

When national SEO is better than local?

National SEO is the best solution for a business that operates online and is not tied to any physical location within one country and/or language. It means you want to attract clients from any part of the country.

A good example of such a business is a hotel. A hotel understands that clients will be coming from all over the country. So when marketing, they may not be so keen to project themselves as a local hotel. However, it’s important to show up in results where potential clients are looking for the best hotels in that specific area. If your business operates internationally, you will need to incorporate multilingual & international SEO.

If you are not sure if you should focus on local SEO or national – send us a message, and let’s work together to tailor the best SEO approach for your particular business.

Tips for a national SEO campaign

Apply Google Trends

Google Trends is a platform by Google that features the top search queries on the Google search engine. It breaks down this analysis into different regions and languages. Google Trends is a very valuable research tool for any type of company, but it brings more value to nationwide businesses. This amazing platform provides lots of valuable SEO data that you can use to perform keyword research, analyze traffic and competition. The data is crucial not only for measuring performance but also for tweaking your approach.

Build quality backlinks (backlinks outreach)

In the ideal world, companies would organically link out to high-quality articles. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen automatically for most websites, which is why brands have to perform backlink outreach. In backlink outreach, SEO experts try to connect with bloggers, journalists, and digital influencers in an attempt to build external links for clients. The process takes a lot of time, but the potential benefits are huge. Not only do you get quality backlinks, but you also build rapport with important people that can help you out in the future.

Do not ignore low search volume keywords

Even when a keyword has low volume, it might be worth pursuing depending on its commercial intent. The best examples are money keywords, a category of phrases most likely to bring in sales.
A lot of businesses are too focused on broad long-tail keywords with high volume. As many brands are vying for these phrases, it’s usually too hard to rank them. What’s worse, there will always be a brand that can pay more money to optimize its pages for such keywords.
Furthermore, while broader keywords might deliver more traffic, that doesn’t always mean more conversions. In fact, the broadest phrases are usually informative and attract the least qualified audience.
When performing keyword research, you must leverage a wide range of opportunities and consider short and long-term goals. Thorough analysis is crucial for your SEO efforts, and can quickly take you to the top of search engine rankings.

Optimize each page for certain keyword clusters

Content clusters are groups of articles that are related and together build towards one topic. You interlink the articles in a way that ignites a desire in the visitor to read several aspects of the same topic through several articles.
Let’s say you want to rank for the keyword “ auto repair company”. You can write one article that generally talks about auto repair. Next, you create content for additional articles (like 5) that focus on specific different aspects of auto repair. For example, you can write 5 articles that focus on auto repairs for different car models. All these 5 additional articles then link to the first article. The first article also has internal links to each of the additional 5 articles. You can add a final article that talks about how to find a good auto repair company. Link this article to all the six articles, and link the six articles as well to this article.
In the last few years, interlinking and creation of topical clusters has proven to be a good way of boosting page and overall website performance.
The structure ought to be logical such that after reading one article, the visitor feels compelled to continue to the next most relevant article by following a link. Not only does this improve user experience, but it also sends a strong signal to Google.
Google starts perceiving your website as an authority, and this increases rankings across the board. This small trick makes a difference between average posts and high-quality content.

The Importance of SEO for Mid to Large Enterprises

In our rapidly moving world, the online market is evolving very fast. This causes many issues for large international conglomerates. Huge companies often stumble with website optimization, as they have to focus on so many different things.

It’s highly possible that your biggest issue as an international brand is the excessively complex website structure. As your company does business in various markets, you probably have several versions of the same website.

For many decision makers at this level, there is always a certain level of comfort in knowing that the abundance of resources can always do the trick. But it’s not always the case that large budgets will lead to automatic SEO success. Even with sufficient resources at your disposal, you still need to employ the right enterprise SEO tactics.

How enterprise SEO will help your company?

Better Rankings, More Exposure & ORM

Search Engine Optimization will help the company’s websites gain authority and credibility and reach more audiences.
The right enterprise SEO will optimize your website structure plus code as well as configure the servers better for improved crawling and indexing by search engines like Google.
It will also solidify the brand reputation by promoting positive content while suppressing negative information about the company, if any. Brand image is key at this level.
It’s also important to note that enterprise SEO requires a comprehensive long-term strategy, which is why you need a partner that is experienced in crafting successful long-term SEO strategies. Brand messaging, in particular, should be one of the focal points for giant enterprises.

Local citations are hugely important for your local business

We talked earlier about local citations or mentions of your business on various business directories. These are major ranking signals for mid to large companies too.
These are the backlinks of local SEO. So make sure to have your business listed on all of the possible Yelps and Yahoo! Locals. And make sure your NAP (name, address and phone) is consistent throughout all of these mentions.

Nurturing the audience

One huge benefit of enterprise SEO is that it leads to improved relations with the audience. Turning random visitors into fans is a long and arduous process, but it’s one of the best ways to build long-term brand awareness.
Luckily, our marketing team doesn’t only focus on keywords and traffic but also on building tangible human rapport.
Although many people don’t know about this, experts implement SEO strategies that would help build a stable relationship with the target audience. Even when the SEO experts have left, the company shouldn’t lose its loyal users.

How much does enterprise SEO cost?

To determine the cost of enterprise SEO, we first look at the current condition of the website and company requirements.

Perhaps the company has a great online presence for a certain segment of the website and lacks in one or two niches. Or the website is huge and out-of-date, not optimized, and has never really known any search engine optimization work.

Whatever the case, each client needs an individual approach with a tailored strategy. This makes it tricky to calculate the price straight away. Generally speaking, the costs will depend on the following items:

Number of full-time or part-time SEO specialists
Level of website design or redesign required
The quantifiable results needed by the company e.g increase in number of organic visitors by X percentage
Duration of implementation
Amount of content that needs to be created
Reporting frequency

A monthly flat rate that covers a comprehensive long term execution is normally the best approach. This is particularly important if there is a lot of work to be done and when the results needed are significant.

It takes both the SEO agency and the client to perform an audit of where things stand, where the company needs to reach, and the budget. Contact us and let’s discuss all these factors plus more.

The importance of SEO for B2B companies

Why do B2B companies need SEO? Well, 71% of B2B searches start with basic search engine browsing. Furthermore, 77% of B2B buyers say they won’t speak to a salesperson before doing their own online research.

In a report by Forrester titled “Younger Buyers Have Changed The Business Buying Landscape“, Millennials and Gen Z now constitute 64% of business of B2B buyers. Millennials alone constitute over 50% of business buyers.

This calls for a radical shift in B2B SEO strategy, because millennials rely on online browsing far more than the previous generations. Their methods of looking for information online are different.

SEO tips for b2b companies

Rely on low-volume, high-intent keywords

The B2B world is much smaller than the B2C market. So, even if you rank at the top of a search engine result page, you still can’t expect enormous traffic. Luckily, you can compensate for this low influx of visitors by only optimizing high-intent keywords.
These phrases are more important for leads than regular internet users, so despite low volumes, you should have high conversions.

Nurture your reviews

One of the main characteristics of B2B is long sales cycles. Studies show that over 60% of companies look for third-party reviews before actually approaching a provider.
Round-ups, expert opinions, and company mentions will not only improve company perception but will also deliver much-needed natural backlinks to improve your rankings. In that regard, optimization has direct and indirect benefits for brand awareness.

Cater to multiple decision makers

B2B transactions are usually long-term arrangements, not one-time purchases. Most deals involve several decision-makers, which is the reason why they take so much time. Interestingly enough, SEO helps you to cater to all these individuals.
By creating several articles, you can target decision-makers from different angles. A well-done B2B SEO campaign will take various verticals of managers into consideration.

Price of SEO for B2B Companies

Like many of the types of SEO services we have discussed above, the B2B SEO cost will vary from one B2B client to another.

This is because different companies will always be at different levels, meaning the needs also vary. Maybe your website structure is great, and so we may not have much work to do there. This means costs like website redesign will be minimal. Or perhaps your messaging is not targeting millennials and Gen-Z, who are now the majority of business buyers, meaning we need to get some significant work done here.

There are a lot of things we’ll need to look at before we put a figure on the B2B SEO service that is customized for your business. This is why we love to start by looking at your assets, hold a conversation on what needs to be done and finally give a quote based on the agreed items.

The importance of SEO for eCommerce

Why do eCommerce websites need SEO? Is this promotional method necessary for eCommerce brands? The simple answer is – absolutely!

To illustrate the importance of eCommerce SEO, let’s just look at a few numbers. As early as 2016, surveys had already started indicating the high preference for online shopping among millennials. BigCommerce found out that 67% of millennials preferred to shop online. By 2022, this percentage had climbed to 80%, based on a study conducted by CouponFollow

On the other hand, 62 percent of people will perform online product research, as opposed to 29% of clients who prefer talking to sales reps.

At least 43% of all traffic to eCommerce websites is organic traffic from Google, and the top 3 results of SERPs get 54.4% of all the clicks. These are just a few of the reasons your online store site needs SEO services.

It’s a tough and long road to get to those top spots, even with a well-executed SEO program. In most cases, it will take you from 3 to 6 months to notice the first results. However, without optimization, you’ll never get that juicy traffic from Google.

Even though the initial period is rough, things improve over time. And the sooner you start doing SEO, the sooner you’ll see results

How does SEO help eCommerce?

Amazon controls the US online retail market, followed in second place by Walmart. And while you can’t expect to take down the top performers, you can still take a piece of that beautiful pie.

SEO will put your site on Google maps and significantly improve your sales numbers. Not only that, but it will significantly increase your profitability over a longer period. Your brand will receive continuous benefits, which can’t be said for other promotional methods such as Pay-Per-Click.

At Miromind, we have a specific approach to eCommerce sites. Besides providing basic optimization and doing all that boring, technical stuff, we also give your business a face. We ensure that you have a solid basis for building brand awareness, which can separate you from the competition.

Best SEO tips for eCommerce sites

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, is a security technology that establishes an encrypted connection between a server and a browser. All the data that goes through such a connection remains private.
These days, with all the security scandals in the media, SSL is essential for any online platform. Security technology is even more important for eCommerce websites than regular sites. In fact, 84% of consumers will not finalize a purchase if the website is not secured with SSL.
The simple reason for this is that a customer visiting an ecommerce website will potentially take out their payment method like credit card and make a purchase. So when they get a sense of insecurity, they develop cold feet and run away. An ecommerce website is like a financial services website – users want to be satisfied that the security is foolproof.

Optimize your images

eCommerce websites are always full of images, and this is good for customers as they are able to see a product from all possible angles.
Search engine algorithms, however, can’t interpret the images. You have to tell the search engine what the picture is about by adding alt tags and file names. These elements describe the visuals and allow the ecommerce website to rank in Google image searches.
Speaking of images, they take up a lot of space and can significantly slow down the site’s loading time. Please optimize them so that they are light in order to optimize loading speed and, thus, user experience.
For images with many colors, use JPEG. For transparent images with simple graphics, use PNG. For image types like logos, use SVG.

Other actions you can take to optimize include:

Image compression
Resizing
Browser caching

Lazy loading (delaying the launch of images until they are needed as the user scrolls)
Use of Content Delivery Networks (CDN) to distribute images.across multiple servers.

Product pages and landing pages have to be unique

Many eCommerce websites struggle with duplicate content. This is especially noticeable when a company has complex menus and the same page shows in several places.
Keep in mind that each version of a page should have different content. Otherwise, you might get in trouble with search engines like Google.

Categorize your products

Categories provide a sense of organization that search engines use to organize the content in search results. From a user experience angle, the visitors to the website find an easy time looking for different products. And this means they will spend more time on the site, another strong signal to search engines that the site has value.
Furthermore, the good architecture makes it more likely that the users will return, which significantly increases the chances of conversion.

Watch out for the ‘unwanted pages’

Unwanted pages can lead to various issues like thin content, content duplication, and content overlaps. A lot of eCommerce websites have tag pages, paginated pages, or pages with dynamic URL parameters.
Although this isn’t something that will get you in trouble with Google, it might cause other problems. When you de-index useless, unwanted pages, you make things easier for users. This practice increases the likelihood that people will land on pages that actually carry value and avoid those that don’t.

How much does monthly eCommerce SEO cost?

On average, the cost of eCommerce SEO per month usually ranges from $1,000 to more than $10,000 per month.

You need to view your investment in eCommerce SEO as a way to increase sales numbers, which is why you work daily. Eventually, with enough investment and quality SEO services, your eCommerce brand will rise to the top and compete with the best.

Please contact us and let’s have a look at your eCommerce ecosystem. With this, we can together arrive at a cost that reflects the needs of your business.

Industry Specific SEO Expertise

Although every SEO expert knows how to improve a website, the approach can vary from company to company. Two campaigns aiming for similar goals can involve completely different methodologies and provide completely different results.

At Miromind, our approach will vary based on the industry and requirements.We understand that every business has its own target audience and terminology, specific goals, and, most importantly, specific ranking factors.

In most cases, SEO hinges on extensive industry research. Performing thorough analysis helps providers find prospective customers, interesting keywords, and optimal article types. This is what industry-specific SEO expertise is meant for.

Trusting SEO experts who have had their fair share of experience in your niche or industry will deliver better and quicker results.

Let’s evaluate the SEO needs of your business.