The amount of effort required to get your website on the first page of search engine results has greatly increased over the last few years. But does that mean SEO is a waste of time and money?
We think not.
While it has certainly become harder to rise through Google’s rankings, if done right, search engine optimization offers many benefits, including an ROI (return on investment) that cannot be matched by any other form of marketing.
Is SEO a Waste of Money?
Many businesses abandon SEO because they do not see clear, immediate results in terms of search engine traffic, conversions, and other important metrics.
That is understandable: if you are paying someone for SEO services, you are going to want to see a clear ROI.
However, you have to remember that optimizing your website for search engines means playing the long game. SEO has the potential to deliver amazing results, but you have to be consistent with it.
In addition to that, many businesses are using SEO incorrectly.
SEO is no longer about adding a bunch of keywords to your website and calling it a day.
Instead, it works best when utilized as a part of a complete inbound marketing strategy.
To rank higher in search engines, you need to optimize your website according to Google’s guidelines, share original, valuable content with your audience, and work on earning high-quality backlinks to your site.
If you consider all of these aspects in your SEO optimization plan, you are going to start seeing results – minimally, you will see an increase in traffic!
The best part about SEO is that it brings qualified leads to your site. These leads will be much easier to convert into paying customers because they were already looking for your product or service when Google showed them your site.
That’s why SEO is such a great ROI, and not a waste of money.
In addition, you won’t have to spend a lot on SEO to keep the leads coming.
If you done right, you could have qualified leads flowing to your website for years to come, with minimal upkeep and maintenance costs.
How Long Will It Take to See SEO Results?
Business owners often struggle when not seeing immediate results from their SEO efforts.
If you are applying all of the important SEO strategies correctly, it can take 4 to 6 months to see results.
However, keep in mind that SEO benefits tend to grow exponentially.
While the results you will see at the 6-month mark may seem modest, 12 months of consistent SEO make the first 6 months seem tiny in comparison.
You can speed up the process by hiring an expert marketing team specializing in content marketing and SEO.
What Can You Do to Make SEO Work for Your Business?
The most important thing about SEO is utilizing it as a part of a larger marketing strategy that you work on consistently.
It is not a one-and-done deal of adding some keywords to your website. It’s an investment in your business.
To get started with optimizing your website for search engines:
- Do keyword research. Figure out what your potential customers are searching for to determine which keywords you want to use in your content.
- Use keywords effectively. When creating content, use your keywords through your content, as well as in the title. However, be careful not to overuse them, as that may get flagged as a black-hat SEO tactic by Google, and get your site penalized.
- Stay consistent. Consistency is key when it comes to SEO. Google loves fresh content and will rank you higher if you regularly publish new content on your website. Here’s how to choose the ideal blog post frequency for your company website.
- Optimize your website. While content is key to great SEO, you also need to pay attention to your website structure and HTML. When it comes to ranking higher in search engines, your title tags, URLs, and meta descriptions matter, as does your site’s domain security and mobile-friendliness.
- Consider outsourcing. Outsourcing your marketing and SEO team can be more cost-effective than building an in-house one from scratch. Since outsourced marketing teams live and die by ROI, you will always know that your business is using the best, most cutting-edge SEO strategies out there.
We also have a comprehensive guide to SEO if you would like to learn more about making SEO work for your business.
How Handmade SEO Can Help
Here at Handmade SEO, we don’t just grow traffic.
We create and execute a complete content marketing strategy that helps you become an authority in your niche and snag that top spot in Google’s search results.
We always look at your marketing from a business owner’s perspective to determine which SEO strategies are going to get you the best ROI, and which ones would be a waste of your time and money.
Want to see how we can work together?
