Are you finally getting to your new website and still just thinking about SEO but not completely sold? Let’s discuss why you need SEO now more than ever and why search engine optimization needs to be fundamental to your marketing strategy and brand resolutions for 2015.
Here are 8 important statistics that should help convince you:

SEO is not going away

Every client who walks through our door interested in digital marketing, wants to be found online. What most however don’t understand is that once we design and develop the fancy new website, there’s not some unseen magical process that makes a website come up #1 in search every time a potential customer is looking for what it has to provide. SEO is online marketing. It’s both a science and an art, and it’s technical aspects are interwoven with constant evolution and changing of search algorithms, social media queues and user habits and preferences (people using the internet).

SEO Statistics

Whether you’re starting a new business, rebranding an existing one or still trying to compete online with your company, you can’t ignore SEO and having an SEO strategy. The following 10 SEO statistics will show you why …

1.      93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
2.      Google owns 65-70% of the search engine market share.
3.      70% of the links search users click on are organic.
4.      70-80% of users ignore the paid ads, focusing on the organic results.
5.      75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
6.      Search is the #1 driver of traffic to content sites, beating social media by more than 300%
7.      SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.
8.      Search and e-mail are the top two internet activities.
9.     Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages. And companies with more indexed pages get far more leads.
10.     When consumers are exposed to search and social media influenced by a brand, overall search CTR goes up by 94%.

Ok so how do I start with SEO?

A proper SEO strategy for your business will help you take advantage of these statistics and begin to compete – or compete better – online.  It’s important to know that SEO is not a one-time thing. And it no longer involves optimization to only your website. It also involves what’s going on ‘off’ your website and the activity that’s coming back to it. A few of the ongoing elements of SEO include:

• A well-built website, including clean code
• A solid keyword strategy
• Well written (and sufficient amount of) content
• A well balanced link strategy
• Relationship building
• Ongoing website analysis and tracking

The list goes on. The best idea is if your current online marketing strategy doesn’t include SEO, rethink it now. Stop wasting marketing dollars at methods that aren’t delivering you traffic or phone calls.
When you’re stuck or ready for help with your SEO, just give us a call. Our branding and digital marketing agency is based in Bend Oregon with offices in Santa Barbara, California, but wherever you are, we can help.

Have fun out there, Christina
Creative Director @ Savy