In order to explain the benefits of SEO it is useful to explain what SEO is. Basically it is the process of doing things top get your website to the top of the search engines. This involves making changes to your website as well as link building. If you look at Google they use about 200 factors to rank websites and so you need to tick as many of the boxes as possible to get to the top.



Now you know what it is why do you need it? Well you might be unaware but the vast majority of people will find what they are looking for through the search engines. Think about when you use the internet, isn't the first place you start Google? This is the same for most people. If you do not appear anywhere how are people going to find you? The answer is, unless you are very lucky that they won't.

One of the best ways I have heard it described is to image you have a real shop. If it is on a high street then you will get a lot of people just passing by and coming in. However if it is on a little back road that no one walks down you will only get visits from people who know you. This is quite clear and something anyone would consider when opening a retail outlet. The internet is no different. Being on the first page of Google is like being on the high street. You will pick people up just by being there and so you will see high sales. If you appear nowhere then you will have to rely on people knowing you.

The other alternative to SEO is PPC. These are the sponsored results that appear on the right hand side of the search engines. The problem with these is that there is a very high competition to get on the first page and you could find yourself paying a very large amount per click. The other important thing to remember is that only around 30% of people ever click on paid results so you are still missing out on a huge amount of potential traffic if you only use a PPC campaign.

Let's look at an example. Suppose your budget is ?500 per month and you are looking to spend it on either PPC or SEO. Suppose your main keyword has 10,000 searches per month and suppose you pay ?1 per click. This means you will get a maximum of 500 potential customers clicking on your advert and coming to your website. If you are in the top 2 results of the free listings then you could get as many as 8,000 clicks in a month. This means you will be paying a little over 6p per click. This shows just how economical SEO can be and the real benefits you your business.

In our opinion all businesses should be focusing on SEO to grow their business. However you need to be prepared that SEO will not take effect over night and you will probably have to wait a few months to get the real benefit but when you do you will realise it is really worth it.