Is SEO Worth It for Your Business?

Search engine optimization gets touted as the end-all, be-all, of digital marketing, but are SEO services worth it? According to research, 63% of small businesses think so. Are they right, or are they wasting money when other marketing strategies would serve them better? Let’s take a look into this complicated matter.

Are SEO Services Worth It?

In most cases, SEO is a worthy undertaking. For the vast majority of companies with websites, content created with SEO in mind can yield improved metrics and profitability. If you rely on the internet to build your customer base, that can make all the difference.

However, there are always exceptions. Your industry may not lend itself to e-commerce, or alternative marketing tactics may serve your goals better. To determine whether you fall into this minority, let’s look at what SEO does well and where it falls short.

What Does SEO Do Well?

Honestly, SEO services are worth undertaking only if your needs align with the strategy’s strengths.

That’s not to discount optimization — it’s incredibly useful for the following:

• Boosting website traffic
• Increasing brand awareness
• Improving user experience

First and foremost, SEO makes your website easier for internet users to find. Changing your web content to appeal to algorithms means a higher ranking on search engine result pages, which has a massive effect on site visits. 

In fact, 50% of clicks go to the top three organic links on SERPs, so the higher your rank, the better your chances of getting customers.

Ranking high has a secondary effect: It builds customer trust. Search engines prioritize delivering the best answer to users’ questions, which is why they try to measure content quality. As a result, people trust top SERP results.

Additionally, familiarity breeds trust. The more often consumers see your company name, the more they’ll trust your business. You can benefit from this effect with just a few searches.

SEO also makes your website easier to navigate. Algorithms factor user experience into rankings, so following SEO guidelines can simultaneously improve your SERP position and make a favorable impression on visitors.

Finally, it’s relatively easy to measure if SEO services are worth it. You can find the answer by checking the quantifiable results:

• Increased backlinks
• Improved organic conversions
• Increased organic traffic
• Boosted click-through-rate

What Are SEO’s Weaknesses?

As powerful as SEO can be, it has downsides. One of the biggest is how long it takes to work. It can take anywhere from a month to a year to see the desired results. If it isn’t working, you must adjust your approach and wait again.

For many businesses, SEO is a long-term strategy that pays off eventually. However, it may not be the best approach for short-term projects, such as pop-up shops or limited-edition goods.

Implementing SEO can also be expensive. If you don’t have your own marketing department, you may need to hire a third party. Since it is also long-term investment, you’ll have to carve out a portion of your budget for it.

Can you tackle SEO yourself? Yes, but it’s a new skill you’ll have to cultivate.

You’ll also have to keep up with algorithm updates, new search features and web content refreshes. These responsibilities take time and energy away from other aspects of running your business.

So, are SEO services worth it? If you need a quick marketing strategy that requires minimal maintenance, probably not.

Do SEO Services Really Work?

Yes, SEO services work under the right circumstances. First, SEO needs to be a good fit for your industry. If you cater to a niche market, SEO may not provide a payoff since only a few people will search related keywords.

However, if you offer common goods and services, such as plumbing repair, SEO can work wonders — as long as it’s well done. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as bad SEO:

• Overstuffing keywords
• Neglecting title tags and meta descriptions
• Creating poor-quality content
• Choosing the wrong keywords

Misinterpreting the concepts behind SEO or failing to put in the effort won’t optimize your website for search engines. In fact, some tactics (such as keyword stuffing) may drop your rank. This is why we recommend partnering with SEO experts if you want to utilize this marketing strategy.

There are also several types of SEO, each with different effects:

• Technical SEO: This approach optimizes the technical side of your website by shortening loading times, fixing broken links, improving website design and implementing mobile-friendly features.
• Off-Page SEO: Some SEO occurs on third-party sites such as social media platforms and review pages.
• On-Page SEO: The most common idea of SEO, on-page optimization happens on your own website.
• Local SEO: This optimization targets searches in your area to appeal to nearby consumers.
• Voice SEO: Consumers phrase queries differently when searching through voice assistants. Voice SEO optimizes your site for searches through Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri.

Is It Worth Spending Money on SEO?

In terms of money, are SEO services worth it? The answer is: It depends.

Let’s say you have a great team that creates high-quality web content that perfectly aligns with your objectives. Your metrics improve as the months go by, and your team adjusts its approach to stay effective. That’s a success, isn’t it?

It certainly looks like it on the surface. However, you need quantifiable evidence before deciding whether the results are worth the money spent. The best way to do so is to calculate the return on investment.

ROI calculations are standard in many aspects of business and a good way to gauge whether an approach has merit. Due to its many measurable key performance indicators, it is fairly easy to calculate ROI for SEO. In fact, you can estimate ROI before you even embark on an SEO campaign.

What Is the ROI of SEO?

To calculate the ROI, subtract the revenue generated before SEO from the revenue generated after SEO. This shows the increase in revenue.

How do you calculate the potential revenue? There’s a relatively simple equation:

Profit = number of visitors a day x average order amount x conversion rate x number of days

Let’s plug in some numbers for an example. You want to know how much you make a month based on 500 website visitors a day, 5% of whom place orders with an average of $50 per order. Based on this data, the equation looks like this:

500 x $50 x .05 x 30 = $37,500

The right SEO can increase both the number of website visitors and the conversion rate, depending on how you implement it.

Let’s say you use targeted keywords to boost daily visitors by 50%. Your keyword choices and web design improvements have increased your conversion rate to 7%. Plugging in the number, you will get this:

750 x $50 x .07 x 30 = $78,750

Your revenue increase is $41,250, a boost of about 52%. Are SEO services worth it based on these numbers? It depends on what you pay for the services and what other marketing strategies have to offer. As long as this revenue increase is larger than the combined cost of both, the answer is yes.

What Is the ROI of Alternative Marketing Strategies?

SEO is a major player in digital marketing, but other strategies can be equally if not more helpful based on your needs:

• Social Media Marketing: Businesses can build brand awareness by maintaining social media accounts on multiple platforms.
• Email Marketing: Once you have an email address, you can reach out to past and potential customers.
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising: These ads appear on SERPs, but you only pay when someone clicks them.

Social media marketing is an excellent way to boost backlinks, as it allows you to share videos and blogs widely. If you want to build trust with your customer base, this is an excellent way to do it. PPC advertising can achieve similar aims while keeping costs low. Once these tactics get visitors to your website, email marketing is a great approach to remarketing.

Are SEO services worth it if these marketing strategies yield better metrics? Surprisingly, they might be.

You can use PPC advertising, email marketing and social media marketing on their own and get decent results. However, adding SEO can boost your overall success.

For example, you can incorporate SEO into your social media marketing, increasing the odds of your posts showing up on SERPs. Organic links next to your PPC ads cement your business as an authority and contribute to brand awareness. Increased traffic to your website provides more opportunities for email marketing, especially if your keywords reach an interested audience.

Using SEO in concert with other marketing creates a stronger campaign overall. Even if it doesn’t yield a worthwhile ROI by itself, it may prove valuable with your other efforts.

Are SEO Services Worth It for Your Business?

BKA Content can help you find out if SEO services are worth it for your company. Our experts offer a variety of services to meet differing needs. Discover the difference SEO can make for your business.