Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been around since we all started building and marketing websites. Over the years, numerous additions to digital marketing tactics have improved, automated, complicated, and confused marketers to this day. This sometimes leads to moving on to the next shiny object before maximizing the value and returns of our more mature customer acquisition and retention vehicles. SEO is at the top of this list and remains the most misunderstood strategy to increase visitors and conversions on your site.
To this day, my most spirited discussions with clients and prospects relate to SEO and why it is necessary. If you are convincing in your logic, your next lively debate is when you can either stop it or scale it back. Even if it is working, it’s both frustrating and amusing. I’ve never had a client ask me to scale back a paid search campaign to generate positive results. A search of “Is SEO Still Relevant 2022” generated over 100 million results. I guess I’m not alone in my thoughts on this topic.
So…Why is SEO still relevant in 2022? Too many reasons here, but to name a few:
SEO + Paid Search Campaigns > Stand Alone Paid Search Campaigns – Search Engine Land has a recent study showing that running SEO and paid search together improves click thru rates and decreases paid cost per click. We have also seen this happen when clients decide to cut branded paid search so that it doesn’t compete against the organic listings. Overall, traffic to the site has declined in every instance.
SEO Supremecy Reigns in Competitive Analysis – We always ask prospects for their top competitors and immediately plug them into a tool to see how they stack up. Their chief competitors, more times than not, are killing it from an SEO perspective, whether a national brand or a local business. The prospect has never embraced SEO or had the patience to stick with it.
Content is King and SEO Expands Your Kingdom – Bill Gates told us in 1996 that content is king, and we’ve been arguing back and forth on this topic ever since. Wherever you sit on this fence, if you do not have a sound SEO strategy to support your content, your kingdom or website traffic will be smaller than you desire. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Well…Does your content without SEO get read?
Remember the adage; Nothing Replaces Anything. Embrace SEO. And don’t take my word for it. Plug your top competitors into SpyFu and see how you compare. Then let us know if you want to discuss a sound SEO strategy.