An investment in search engine optimisation (SEO) is a smart move for any business; the hardest part is making sure the people holding the purse strings have got this fact straight in their minds. Today, we are going to explore some key issues and reasons why SEO is such an important part of any business’ marketing strategy.

First, lets just get a few points clear about SEO and where it differs from Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.

1).  SEO is about making your website rank highly for keywords in the “natural” (i.e. free) listings on the search engines.
2). There is no charge for natural (sometimes called organic) SEO listings.
3). Natural search engine optimisation is a long term initiative, results do not appear overnight.
4). Search engines do not tell anyone how they rank websites (i.e. what their algorithm is), so SEO involves a certain amount of experimentation to find out what does and does not work.
5). Time and time again, statistics prove that people are more likely to click on natural listings than the PPC adverts
 

So what exactly does all this mean to my business and the bottom line?

1). Want more customers, more sales and more leads? The internet is the biggest growing market place full of potential buyers waiting to hook up with your products and services. People are no longer scared of buying online.
2). It is pretty much guaranteed that some, if not most, of your competitors have invested in SEO, don’t let them get ahead!
3). Because organic clicks are essentially free, in the long run your CPC (Cost Per Click) will be greatly reduced when compared with PPC spend
4). Paid search is constantly increasing in price as more and more people bid to rank for certain keywords. This trend is unlikely to change, so now is the time to bite the bullet and get started on your natural SEO.
5). Paid search is getting more like search engine optimisation, therefore you need good SEO in order to perform well at PPC. Check out my earlier blog on how PPC is like SEO for more information.
6). You don’t need to be number one - people get good traffic in the top five and even the top ten spots
7). Good SEO will help improve your website in terms of accessibility and usability, so not only will you get more customers, you will also have a better website!