The Top 15 Benefits of SEO for Business in 2022

It’s hard to imagine that anyone who runs a company and cares for its digital presence hasn’t heard of search engine optimization yet. The benefits of SEO for business are practically endless, and taking advantage of them can improve your brand’s success in the marketplace.

For sure you have explored the basics of SEO so far and studied how it works. But while doing so, you’ve probably discovered that implementing it in your digital marketing strategy is complex and time-consuming. Also, optimizing your content is a long game, and it may take months to reap the results. There was probably a point where you were wondering – is it worth all the hassle? Well, rest assured that it is!

In this article, we’ll show you the top 15 benefits of SEO for your business in 2022 and if you are not sure yet, by the end of it you will be certain why you need an effective search engine optimization strategy to boost your content’s performance in the SERPs.

Benefits of SEO to Your Business

As mentioned, it may take a while before you start to enjoy the benefits of SEO. Keep in mind that search engine optimization is an ongoing process. The rules are constantly evolving and to stay on top of changes, you should be up-to-date with the latest SEO trends.

An interesting SEO update to keep an eye for in 2022 is the IndexNow protocol. Google has confirmed that they are testing it, and although it still has a long way to go before it’s live, the topic is sure worth finding out. With the IndexNow protocol, you will be able to instantly notify Google of new pages, updates, and removing outdated content. This can significantly speed up the results of your SEO efforts, and give you a competitive advantage. 

As you can see, the search engine realm is dynamic, but whatever new changes come our way in 2022, they will most probably contribute to the benefits of SEO for your business.

So let’s see what else SEO can do for you.

1. SEO Leads to Better User Experience

There are many ways you can improve your website and maximize user experience. This includes providing your audience with relevant information, related photos or videos to support text, easy-to-navigate web pages and a mobile-friendly website configuration.

For example, if you feature animation on your page but it’s not rendering well, this will lead to an unpleasant user experience. Optimizing animations will make them easier to detect by Google. This way, when the user scrolls down the page and reaches the animated content, they will be able to enjoy it as it will run smoothly, instead of freezing and stuttering. 

Better user experience results in more clicks, more leads, better brand recall, and higher conversion rates. 

Both your website visitors and search engines value good UX, and delivering it will improve your ranking and keep people longer on your pages.

In mid 2021, Google added a core web vitals report in the Search Console for website managers to track the page experience on their properties. Using this feature, in 2022, businesses can easily identify advanced page performance, and SEO issues and improve how visitors experience their content. Combined with the search performance report, which was also recently improved, businesses have powerful tools at their disposal that enable them to take advantage of the benefits of SEO.

2. SEO Is a Primary Source of Leads

Inbound strategies are the most effective and successful source of leads among Business to Business (B2B), Business to Customer (B2C) and non-profit organizations. Inbound includes search engine optimization, social media, content marketing, referrals and others.

However, if you are not generating new leads from your SEO tactics, then you should revise your approach and make sure you are targeting the right audience. Also, check up on your competitors, maybe another player in the market optimizes their content better and is getting your share of the pie.

According to BrightEdge, search engines are the main source of website traffic for most industries. Nowadays, Search is the top proactive way for users to find a brand. Just think of it – how often do you key in the full domain name in the browser? And how often do you just Google what you remember of it and leave the rest to the predictive text? Case and point! 

3. SEO Brings Higher Close Rates

Statistics show that an average of 14.6% close rate is achieved from SEO leads, compared to 1.7% from outbound ones. Reaching out to customers (outbound or cold leads) often results in lower conversion rates because the interaction is unsolicited.

Whereas SEO leads are customers who have done online research with specific requirements and purpose in mind and came to your product or service. This makes them marketing-qualified leads (MQL) or even sales-qualified leads (SQL) and results in higher conversion rates. 

4. SEO Results to Higher Conversion Rate

The good ranking of your site on any search engine can significantly improve your conversion rates. If you manage to maintain a top position long enough, your target market will soon become more aware of your business and the quality of your work. This will increase your credibility and your reputation as an authority in your industry.

As customers are becoming more familiar with your brand and as their knowledge about products/services increase, there is a great possibility for customers to close the deal with you.

5. SEO Promotes Better Cost Management

SEO is the foundation of successful inbound marketing and, as such, it can help you optimize cost management and save resources from different divisions of your business.

• Low-Cost Lead Generation. The HubSpot reported that inbound lead generation costs 61% less than outbound.
• Cheaper Advertising. When you already have a top ranking, there is no need for you to invest in pay per click or advertise your page. You will continue to stay above the rest of the search results as long as people click your search links.
• Cost-Effective Pertaining Activities. Marketing tasks related to inbound lead generation include social media management, blogging, referrals, etc. All of these have little or no cost at all. Outbound lead generation activities, on the other hand, include making cold colds, visiting clients, or direct selling, all of which can be quite expensive.

Better cost management is just one of the benefits of SEO to your business. Using the right rank tracking tool could help you improve your rankings and organic traffic pointing to your website. By tracking your position, you can make sure that you are always on top of SERPs and your customers can easily find your content on first page.

6. SEO Encourages Local Users to Visit the Physical Store After the Search

Local SEO is especially beneficial for small businesses and companies who have an offline presence and not just digital. After conducting a local search, there is a high tendency for customers to visit the brick-and-mortar location. In fact, a Think with Google study shows that 76% of people who perform a “near me” search visit a related store within 24 and 28% of them make a purchase.

For example, an internet user keys in “Best Seafood Restaurant in Chicago”. This will then show a variety of options. The person will visit their top choice and may become a customer of that restaurant.

7. SEO Builds Brand Credibility

Ranking first, second, or third may give your customers the idea that you are one of the top players in the industry. Another benefit of SEO is that it suggests that what your offer is better than the competition.

On the other hand, if you are at the bottom of the search engine results, people may not even find you or, if they do, they may think that you lack credibility or expertise in the industry. This may also lead some customers to reconsider doing business with you and choose someone with a more solid online presence and a better reputation.

Furthermore, as of late 2021, news-related content from all providers, not only digital publishers, is eligible to appear in Google Top News. This means that if you write on fresh and current topics that your audience cares about and optimize your content for Google News, in 2022, you will have more chances to boost your credibility by showing on what seems to be the internet’s front page. 

8. SEO Helps Establish Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is the extent to which the target market recognizes a brand. This refers to how familiar your customers are with your product or service. According to Investopedia,

“Creating brand awareness is one of the key steps in promoting a product.”

Search engine optimization ensures that your product is easily found in organic search. Once you remain at the top of the ranking, people will be able to see you more easily.

This leads to a higher tendency of your links being clicked and brings in more users to your website.

Establishing your brand’s awareness even further is one of the top benefits of SEO for your business. It promotes word-of-mouth marketing and can help you build up your business and increase sales.

9. SEO Ensures Mobile-Friendliness of Your Website

Strictly speaking, SEO doesn’t improve your website’s mobile friendliness – it’s the other way round, for SEO advantage you need a website that looks and functions well on mobile.

66% of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices, and if your website is not optimized to look good on screens of all shapes and sizes, your customers will not be likely to stick around your pages.

With Google’s mobile-first indexing kicking in in 2021, websites that are not mobile-friendly, lose their visibility in organic search results. Not complying can compromise all your content creation efforts and hurt your business immensely.

SEO benefits the user experience because it results in better user experience and easier navigation of websites.

Also, in October 2021, Google introduced continuous scrolling on mobile. After this update, the search results will not show in separate pages as they used to but are now merged together similarly to in a single-page website. This means that, in 2022, links that didn’t make it to page one will have more opportunities to be viewed and clicked by users.

If you want to make your website mobile-friendly, Google will help you in getting it started.

10. SEO Can Be a Long-Term Marketing Strategy

As mentioned, SEO is a long-term marketing strategy. Six months is the minimum duration for a website to maintain optimal ranking. The good news is that, although it takes what seems an eternity to reach those top ranks, pulling you down the list also takes time.

However, Google algorithm regularly changes and updates, and other competitors work hard on their SEO advantages too. Monitoring your ranking will allow you to track your performance and make adjustments when fluctuations in your performance occur.

If you stay on top of the latest SEO trends, you will be able to constantly improve the search engine optimization of your pages and will keep your favorable position in the SERPs.

11. SEO Helps You Gain Market Share

Being on top of the search list means a high probability for your website to be found by prospective customers. Once they discover their required information on your website, they may become leads, and, eventually, turn into customers.

Leads may either make a purchase, sign up for a membership or subscribe to a newsletter. Bottom line, your conversion rate increases. Once this happens, your market share grows and so does your business.

12. SEO Creates Synergy of All Digital Marketing Activities

All of your digital marketing strategies contribute to the success of your search engine optimization efforts. Activities such as content marketing, direct email, social media marketing, blogging, web management, eCommerce, and others will help you get better rankings in search engines.

When all of your digital marketing activities are integrated and aligned towards a common goal, you will achieve success in your strategies, including SEO.

13. SEO Increases Your Followers on Social Media

Improving your visibility in organic search means that more and more people will know about you and, if your content is good, they will consider you an authority in your field. As social media platforms are the go-to place for current information for most online users nowadays, people will start to follow your profiles to be the first to see relevant updates.

At the same time, maintaining social activity and engaging with your customers can boost your website traffic, increase your brand’s credibility, and, thus, improve your overall SEO advantage and ranking as well.

14. SEO Improves Website Speed

Website speed is one of Google’s user experience signals, and it can now seriously affect your ranking. With the core web vitals update in place, the loading time of pages can influence how they compete against other pages with similar content.

If your website is clumsy, the content shifts position while loading, and the user has to wait to be able to interact with it, this hurts UX. And if there is a page that can offer the same value but without the hassle, it will beat you in the SERPs.

Optimizing your content to avoid that will not only improve your position in organic search, but will speed up your website, which will ensure the pleasant experience of your visitors, reduce bounce rates, and can even improve your sales.

15. SEO Takes You Ahead of the Competition

One of the most lucrative benefits of SEO, which unites everything we covered so far, is that it can help you beat the competition.

By making your brand more recognizable and building credibility, you consolidate your position as an industry leader and an authority in your field. Customers will always bet on the choice that provides them more security and includes less risk, and being on top of the SERPs shows that others have already trusted you and you’ve provided.

You will grow as a business once you’ve implemented digital marketing strategies to your overall organizational plan. These strategies include search engine optimization. Integrating all of these together will help you take the lead amidst competitors in the market.

Imagine how far you’ll have aced the competition if all of your competitors are just using traditional marketing? Keep up with the advancements in the digital world and you will stay ahead of the rest. This era is constantly changing, make sure you adapt well to the changes.

Conclusion

The opportunity for your brand, in terms of awareness and brand equity, is limitless. The digital world has provided us with a myriad of options to explore with the aim of achieving overall organizational goals.

Search Engine Optimization is one of the strategies that will help you ace the competition. SEO refers to the ability of a website to gain quantitative and qualitative website visits through organic search engine results. Make sure to take on the challenge and use SEO to your advantage.