Unfortunately, print media is a dying art and technology is becoming increasingly more important with each passing year. According to a recent study, just 44% of consumers surveyed use traditional newspapers to find local business information whereas nearly 75% of consumers turned to their favorite search engine. As consumers come to rely on the Internet more and more, digital marketing strategy can make or break a business. No matter how big your business may be, you get away from the importance of SEO but, as important as SEO is, it is just one part of a successful digital marketing strategy. In this article, you will learn why SEO is important for digital marketing but, more importantly, how it is just a small part of the greater whole for successful digital marketing.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is how your website (and therefore your business) gets found on the internet. By defining your target audience, choosing your keywords, and making sure that your web content comes together cohesively with these things you can make sure that your website ranks higher than the competition in search engine results. As you can imagine, the higher your search engine rankings, the more traffic that flows to your site, and the more your business grows! It is really that simple. But why exactly is SEO so important for digital marketing and how does it really work?
The term SEO is thrown around in online communities and it is used in reference to a number of different things. SEO relates to keywords, URLs, meta tags and titles, quality content, and more. Effective use of SEO will help your target audience find your business more easily, it will make your site run faster and it will lead new users to your business – all of these things add up to more money in your pocket. If you’re still having trouble seeing the bigger picture, think about this: many of the people who visit your site aren’t actually looking for your business - your website came up in a list of search results– take the follow page of search results for “overnight dry cleaning” as an example:
SEO is the reason your business name showed up on that list and its position in the list either increased or decreased the chances of that person clicking on the link. While advertising and direct marketing campaigns certainly play a role in driving traffic to your site, a successful digital marketing strategy will also include SEO. Keep in mind that SEO encompasses a variety of different digital strategies that you can tailor to suit your business’ online marketing plan.
In our technology-driven world, a business is unlikely to survive without a digital presence. More and more, sales are flowing away from brick-and-mortar stores to online suppliers. A strong digital marketing strategy is the best way for a modern business to achieve their goals from building their brand and acquiring new clients to generating revenue and fueling growth. A strong digital marketing strategy will be unique to each individual business, but there are certain components that must be included. Digital marketing includes everything from organic search and content marketing to mobile marketing, social media, paid ads, and more. Here are the top six components of a strong digital marketing strategy that any modern business should consider incorporating into their plan:
No matter how large or small your business may be, digital marketing is the key to your future. According to data leaked from AOL search query logs, the first ten results on a search page receive nearly 90% of all click-through traffic. If you neglect to acknowledge the digital side of your marketing strategy you could end up among the 10% fighting for scraps. Take some of the tips provided above to heart and really think about how you can use SEO as a part of your larger digital marketing strategy to drive traffic to your site and to increase sales.