What are the REAL Benefits of SEO? (Hint: It’s Not Traffic)
Last week, we talked about whether SEO (search engine optimization) can work for small business. (See that post here: Does SEO Work?)
But what does it look like when you actually have SEO working for your small business?
What are the real benefits of SEO?
Of course, there’s the one that almost every thinks of – more traffic.
Did you know that search is the #1 driver of traffic to content sites, beating social media by more than 300%. (study by Outbrain)
More traffic that might look like this:
My monthly search traffic regularly reaches 60% of my total traffic.
But that’s not the reaaaaal benefit of SEO.
What about more conversions? You know, more people signing up for your newsletter? or more people applying to be a client of yours? or more people buying your products?
Did you know that SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate? (Source: SEJ)
Even that’s not the real benefit of SEO.
Sure, leads that come in by way of The Google have been found over and over again to be better quality than paid leads or other push-style marketing.
Sure, SEO is one of the few ways you can market your business that KEEPS WORKING FOR YOU even when go “off the grid” or stop putting money or time into it.
Sure, dominating the search results can mean huge things for your brand, edging out your competition and expanding your reach online in general.
But what does all that mean?
It means…
- LESS time spent on push-push-pushing your social media audiences to your website to sign up for your latest offering.
- LESS time trying to figure the latest and greatest Facebook ad or promotion option.
- LESS money wasted on ads that don’t send as many quality leads and that stop working once you turn the ad spend faucet off.
Which means…
- MORE of your ideal clients knocking on your virtual door.
- MORE of your ideal prospects emailing you out of seemingly nowhere.
- MORE time to spend on the parts of your business that you love.
- MORE time to spend serving the clients you adore.
- MORE time to spend AWAY from your business.
- MORE time to spend with your friends and family.
- MORE time spent on vacation
This is what I think of as the REAL benefit of SEO
Getting to relax at the beach thanks to leads coming in from solid SEO :)
When you have solid SEO practices in place, you have a steady stream of leads coming to your virtual doorstep even when you sleep – even when you pack up and head to an exotic location or just to your local getaway spot.
The REAL benefit for me of doing SEO the right way is spending more time with my family & more time on VACATION. Who’s with me?
Click to tweet: More traffic is NOT the real benefit of SEO. It’s something better: http://bit.ly/realbenefit via @lizlockard
What about you?
What do you want more traffic for? What do you want to be released from? Or what do you want to be propelled toward? Share with me in the comments.
This is the second in a series on SEO for small business. Read the first post, Can SEO Really Work for My Small Business? here. Keep an eye out for next week’s post where we’ll be chatting about why that favorite SEO tool of yours isn’t really working for you. Get on the insider’s list here to be the first to hear about it, get practical SEO tips and other upcoming free SEO training.
Awesome article….Keep it up with great work….You have very well explained the real benefits of SEO. Thanks a ton for sharing this valuable information with us
Great article thanks for sharing, my clients often don’t understand the importance of SEO until they see the traffic and extra business that can be generated from it, until then they see SEO as a cost rather than an investment.