20 Benefits of SEO in 2020

SEO has been around for a little while now, but has really taken off in the past decade. If you’re new to SEO, wondering how it can grow your business, or want a refresher, we’ve provided 20 benefits SEO can have for you this year, and years to come.

In this article, we’re going to break the benefits of SEO out into 4 sections.

If you’d like to jump to a section, click on the anchor text below:

SEO Improves Visibility

1. SEO Ranks You on Google

Okay, let’s start with an easy one; SEO gets you seen on Google. Ideally, SEO gets you at the top of the search rankings.

There are roughly 63,000 Google searches around the world each second.

Which is 3.8 million Google searches each minute.

And 228 million searches an hour.

That’s a lot of Googling!

According to Wordstream, the volume of Google searches grow roughly 10% a year. Also, it’s roughly estimated that 15-20% of searches are brand new, never searched before.

SEO should ultimately get you at the top, if not close to the top of search rankings.

Being the #1 spot versus the #2 spot could be a difference of hundreds of clicks.

Just look at this heatmap of a Google results page:

It’s worth mentioning that to rank #1 and stay #1, you’ll need to invest in SEO for the long haul.

And if you’ve already invested in search engine optimization, you may need to double down your efforts to get real results.

2. SEO Ranks You for Highly Relevant Keywords

We all know that SEO helps with your search rankings and your traffic. But you also have control over what keywords you rank for.

Ranking for high volume keywords is great, but ranking for high volume keywords about your business is even better.

It’s incredibly valuable to show up for relevant keywords as it takes out the guessing game for your users.

There’s less friction in the buying process and ultimately leads to more interest in your brand.

Also keep in mind that longer-tail keywords, though lower in search volume but easier to rank for, drive higher conversions and combined drive higher amounts of traffic.

Thanks to Backlinko, see the graph below.

And what’s even better is you control your keywords.

You determine which keywords you think will work best, and start building a strategy to start ranking.

3. SEO Helps Inform Your Readers

Just because you’re on the first page of Google, doesn’t mean everyone is going to click through to you, let alone show interest in you.

That’s the hard truth, but it’s why when users click through to your site and read your site’s content, they will be much more informed than any other user.

Google’s sole purpose is to put the best, most useful content in front of its users.

When you know your users are more informed, it opens the door to more opportunities down the road.

Identifying your target audience, creating related content that helps answer their questions, learning more about your user’s journey through your sales funnel, and any pain points.

You can leverage so much of the data from users just by clicking through to your site.

4. SEO Rankings are Fairly Constant

Typically, when you rank for a keyword, that ranking will be fairly constant.

There will usually be fluctuations say for example you’re rank #6, and the next day you’re rank #8. However, if you’re on the first page, you should rank on the first page for the foreseeable future .

With that being said, it’s important to monitor these keywords and where you stand on a regular basis.

The point being is, is that when you invest in SEO, your rankings are solidified for the near future.

But just because you may have achieved some success, SEO should be an “always-on” mentality and need to have someone reviewing your SEO on a routine basis.

5. SEO Creates Authenticity

Ranking at the top of Google is no easy feat.

That’s why when you are ranked #1, people will already have a greater sense of appreciation for your brand.

You may not always think it, but when you click through from the search results, you expect to be the best that to be the best fit for your search.

That’s how you can grow your trust and authoritativeness not only in Google’s eyes but your visitor’s.

SEO Saves Cost

6. SEO is Free

Relatively speaking, SEO is free. It doesn’t cost you any money to fine-tune your website for SEO.

Take this on-page SEO checklist for example. All of this is can be done for free and knocked out in a couple of hours.

However, it does take time and some expertise. If you’re not familiar with SEO best practices and having some technical experience, you could end up doing more harm than good.

That’s why you should consider finding a consultant or an expert on SEO that can assist, or manage your site’s SEO altogether.

7. SEO Doesn’t Require any Ad Spend

Unlike Google AdWords, Facebook ads, or traditional media like TV ads, SEO doesn’t require you to spend any money to be in front of potential customers.

Your listings do all the work for you.

In fact, according to Searchenginewatch.com, 85% of clicks go to organic listings, whereas 15% go to the paid listings.

Also, 33% of clicks go to the #1 spot. And overall, 92% of all clicks happen on the first page.

8. SEO Decreases Your Cost per Acquisition

It goes back to knowing your audience from tip #3.

Whether you’re looking for more phone calls, leads, sales, anything; SEO makes it easier.

When a user clicks to your site, you know they’ve expressed some form of interest in you.

When you know who’s come to your site and engaged versus the people that bounced, you get a much clearer understanding of who you should focus on.

Heck, users that have engaged with your site may have already reached out to you by just being number one in the search results!

However, the people that haven’t reached out yet, you can learn more about them.

Why did they leave your site? What other types of content or are they interested in? How can I win their business over?

You can even use these users for retargeting down the road since you know they’ve already engaged with you.

This tactic ultimately decreases the cost it takes to receive an acquisition whether it be a phone call, a lead, or a new customer; it’s always better going after those that have shown interest in your brand than those that haven’t.

9. SEO has a Great ROI

SEO is not only cost-effective, but the benefits drastically outweigh the costs.

Once you build your online presence, it’s there for the long haul.

As long as you have a website optimized for SEO, you’ll be reaping the rewards for quite some time.

Check out this graph representing SEO vs PPC budget spend.

SEO may take a few months to ramp up to results, but it’s steady.

When you rank #1 or even on the same page for the right keywords that get enough searches, the results are priceless.

With the little cost it takes to get started with SEO, you can see jumps in traffic within the first couple of weeks.

The result is that you’ll be found in the search results, increase your traffic and sales, and look to expand with your new stream of revenue.

10. SEO is Scalable

Not only is SEO inexpensive, but the results are easily measurable and scalable.

By measuring your site’s traffic, domain authority (DA), page authority (PA), and other metrics, you can see just how much your business has scaled with SEO. It may even be worth doubling down into more SEO efforts.

A free, effective way to see where your site currently stands, is to use the MozBar Chrome extension from Moz to see your website’s DA and PA scores.

Whichever way you look at it, SEO is an incredibly affordable, and scalable option to market your business. By listing on Google, you open your business to the masses.

SEO Increases Conversions

11. SEO Increases Sales

Higher rankings = more traffic.

With the increase in traffic to your site, the next sensible thing to do is increase your sales.

If you’re at the top of the rankings or on the first page of Google, you’ll probably see a jump in sales without even doing much!

It’s important to look at users that purchased versus users that haven’t to see how they got to your site, how long they were on your site, and what content they engaged with on your site.

When your site receives more traffic, it receives more patterns like these you can identify.

Once you learn more about your users that purchase from your store, you can create more content for those users and get them to purchase again, or seek an audience that is on the fence and acquire their sales.

12. SEO Provides the First Step into Your Funnel

When a user clicks to your site, that’s their first engagement with you.

Make sure to make the most of it.

Include an offer, a piece of content for their email, or why you’re the right team for the job. Ultimately, give them another reason to continue to the next step.

The first click to your site, is the first step to your funnel. And usually the first step is the hardest; make the most of it!

13. SEO Can Help Upsell

Much like how SEO can help you sell, and get users in your funnel, it can also help you upsell. It’s no surprise that a user is more likely to purchase from you again if they’ve already done so.

It’s also true that if a user has gone through your sales funnel, then they’re more likely to buy even more from you. It may sound like business 101, but SEO can play a massive role not only to first time buyers, but to also repurchasing and cross-selling.

14. SEO Builds Trustworthiness

In today’s age, Google ranks the best of the best. If you want to rank at the top of Google, you need to provide expertise, authority, and trust (also known as EAT.)

Trustworthiness is vital when it comes to users initiating the next step with you. And by highly ranking, you’ve already established some form of trustworthiness with your content.

Establishing trust early in the buying process makes it much easier to close versus going after a cold lead. With SEO, visitors have already expressed some level of trust with you.

15. SEO is Measurable

Not only is SEO affordable, but it’s measurable. With the increase in traffic (or lack of traffic), you can determine which pages and keywords are performing the best. You can also keep a close eye on your keywords, where you’re ranking, and historical ranking data.

There are multiple tools online that can assess your website’s SEO for free. Check out WooRank, it’s a free, premium Google Chrome extension, and it gives you a good glance at your site’s SEO. You can then work to improve your site’s SEO and increase your rankings.

SEO Makes the Web Better

16. SEO Ranks the Best Content

It’s been said multiple times in this article, and it’s one of the most important things to note:

Google ranks great content.

Take these 10 ranking factors from Zyppy that Google uses to rank content:

When you’re searching for anything on Google, you expect the best result to be the first result. We’ve been conditioned to think this, and the search engines are the ones to thank.

Their algorithms find, crawl, and rank the content they think is best so us users can spend less time searching.

17. SEO Makes the Web more Mobile Friendly

The next three involve ranking factors Google takes into consideration when ranking websites. With that being said, Google rewards websites for these three items, which are quickly becoming essential if you want to rank.

As mobile device usage has taken off over the last decade, so has the need to make websites responsive to our phones.

In certain industries, searches predominately occur on mobile devices. Take this infographic for example showing the amount of web pages served by Google over the years.

It’s essential to have a website that loads on both desktop and mobile.

Google has already adopted a ‘mobile-first’ crawl and indexing of websites, and will penalize sites that have a lackluster mobile experience.

18. SEO Makes the Web Faster

Along the lines of having a responsive website, is having a website that loads fast.

The last thing you need is for a site to load slow. Google knows this and encourages web owners to speed up their websites not just for their rankings, but for their users.

An awesome, free tool you can use that Google has provided is their PageSpeed Insights tool.

Developed to give web owners a clear understanding of what’s slowing down your site, and giving you a grade on your overall site speed.

It’s also estimated that for every second it takes for your site to load, your conversion rate decreases by 10%.

So by increasing your site speed, not only will you help your users have a better experience, but you can also.

19. SEO Encourages Reviews

Remember tip #14 on trustworthiness?

Reviews are crucial. It’s estimated that 80% of people search for reviews at some point in their buying process.

Reviews also play an important role when it comes to ranking locally in the Google maps pack.

By encouraging honest, organic reviews for your business, you can see higher rankings in your local area, as well as build more credibility and assurance with your potential buyers.

20. SEO is Becoming 0 Click

You might be wondering what 0 click is.

0 click is when an answer is in Google’s featured snippets and doesn’t require a click to access the page’s content.

Take the phrase “what is a featured snippet” for example.

Google’s completely spelled this out. No other clicks needed.

That’s the way of the future with 0 clicks and Google. More and more search queries have a featured snippet that provides the answer to the question without needing to click through to a website.

If you’re a little worried, you’re not the only one.

It’s much more difficult to track the effectiveness of featured snippets since if a user reads the snippet and leaves, they didn’t click through to your website to capture that data.

Featured snippets are a case by case basis and you would need to determine if you would benefit from a featured snippet or not.

Generally, if you’re in the hunt for a featured snippet, the higher you are in the search results, the better.

Conclusion

There it is. That’s 20 reasons to invest in SEO in 2020. If you have any questions or any inquiries about SEO, reach out to cincyseoservices@gmail.com

If you would also like to learn more about our SEO services, we offer affordable plans starting at $299 a month that get you numerous amounts of features such as keyword research, page optimizations, keyword tracking, and more.

Give us a call at 513-454-5025 or email us to learn more.