Why businesses should pay more attention to SEO

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about digital marketing channels? You probably think of social media, website, or email marketing, or even display/banner ads, mobile app, or content marketing.

But do you think of search engine optimization (SEO)? If you’re like most companies, the answer is a resounding no.

And that’s a big problem because your lack of focus on SEO might be derailing your laser-like focus on other digital marketing channels, and driving up your marketing/advertising costs.

In other words, a solid SEO strategy can help you concentrate your online presence in a particular niche, which can have a positive impact on the rest of your digital marketing strategy and overall marketing budget.

Unfortunately, most businesses neglect to invest in SEO.

A recent report by Clutch found that the top three digital marketing channels are social media marketing (81 percent), a website (78 percent), and email marketing (69 percent).

The least popular digital marketing channel businesses invest in is SEO (44 percent). In fact, 56 percent of businesses will not invest in SEO this year.

Why is SEO so unpopular?

According to Clutch, there are two reasons why SEO is unpopular among digital marketing channels:

#1 | Businesses misunderstand SEO

SEO isn’t a channel that you can invest into with a few clicks on some portal or platform. It takes time and effort, and requires help from specialists who know what methods, tools, and techniques are right for a certain kind of business.

There’s no one size fits all formula with SEO, and marketers need to understand that when considering their marketing channels and strategies.

Jeremy Greenberg, Founder of Digital Marketing Agency 97 Switch says businesses don’t fully understand how SEO works alongside other digital marketing channels.

“They’re saying they’re not investing in SEO, but if they’re investing in and telling their story on social media and they’re doing email marketing, that’s part of it. If they’re creating shareable content online and they’re investing in their website, that’s SEO,” said Greenberg.

Businesses are likely to participate in more digital marketing channels than they think, even if they don’t actively invest in these channels.

#2 | SEO doesn’t produce immediate results

One of the biggest reasons SEO isn’t as popular as other digital marketing channels is that the results aren’t as obvious or immediate as other channels.

IntelliChief, for example, told Clutch that it spent several months on SEO before the channel delivered measurable results.

“When I first came on board, prospective customers were getting confused and leaving our website, and absolutely nobody was finding us in the first place. So, by researching the keywords that our prospective customers are using, creating valuable, optimized content that focuses on those keywords, and promoting that content across various channels, we worked hard to increase our digital profile,” said IntelliChief Content Marketing Manager Faith Kubicki.

As a result, IntelliChief’s has managed to boost website visitors from organic search between the first and second quarters of 2018 by 25 percent.

SEO is hard work, but businesses shouldn’t count it out, concluded Clutch, who believe SEO deserves more attention from businesses that want to play the long game.