Updated on July 21st, 2022
Why SEO Matters? It’s a question that we’ve seen repeatedly asked on many forums. Everyone says that it’s important for a website, but what’s the deal with it? In brief summary:
It matters because free organic search traffic is the lifeblood of any website. Hence by optimising pages and posts for search engines (ie SEO) you can drive a whole lot more traffic and revenue to your site. Keyword research is a major aspect of SEO. It can help to identify what your customers are looking for and hence help you to focus on the content that you can help them with.
So I wrote this article to consider SEO and remind myself why it matters so much when running a website or blog.
For me, SEO is something that often comes to mind while writing a long creative piece. I’ve often mused on whether any of our literary heroes would have had keywords in the back of their minds while penning their creative masterpieces? Search engine optimisation (SEO) sometimes feels like forcing a round peg into a square hole. Like the keywords need to be manually crow-barred onto the post. This is something we want to avoid. Keywords should be used sparingly and naturally in web pages.
Does SEO stifle creativity?
You would think that we could just let the creative juices flow and write posts about whatever is on our mind at a point in time. Some would argue that this leads to more interesting and unusual posts.
However if we want to rank in search engine results we need to focus our posts to include SEO Keywords (often obtained through tools such as Keywords Everywhere or Ubersuggest).
This article delves into the reasons why SEO matters so much when growing your website.
1. Why SEO Matters – If you Don’t Use it Your Blog Won’t he Found
If you’ve started a website or blog, you can see how much work it is. It takes a lot of time and effort to write posts including research and editing.
Accordingly, you should be recognised or all this work.
If you’re just blindly writing posts without keyword research, you run the risk that nobody will read your articles.
Getting free traffic from the search engines is the best way for your site to be noticed. The only real alternative ia to buy paid advertising (eg from Facebook).
Without search engine or paid traffic, you’ll be relying on people stumbling across your site. This is obviously a poor solution.
2. Why SEO matters – Free traffic from Google
With this in mind, the best solution is to tailor your posts so that they are optimised for SEO. This shouldn’t restrict your creative licence or the freshness of the posts.
You just need to tailor your posts so that they will still be relevant for SEO keywords.
These SEO keywords are actual search terms that people are typing into Google or Bing. As they are hard data, they are highly reliable.
3. Without SEO, You’re in the Dark
What are my customers really looking for? This is a question that we should be asking ourselves as bloggers.
Without this information, we’re flailing in the dark trying to work out what they want.
By using SEO keyword analysis, we’re able to see the actual Google searches that they’re making. There’s no debate. We have cold, hard data on the search terms that our core audience are actually typing into their browsers.
This is incredibly valuable information that many industries pay large sums of market research money for. We have this knowledge for little cost using the keyword tools mentioned above.
4. To Build Authority in your Niche
If your intention is to grow your audience and become the leader in your field, you need attention.
So how do you grab attention when you can’t be seen by the search engines?
The reality is that it’s very difficult, nigh on impossible to build authority without help from the search engines.
5. Why SEO Matters – To Boost Traffic for Your Whole Site
The application of SEO techniques on your posts can have profound effects on ALL of your other posts.
To understand this you need to understand the difference between page authority and site authority.
When you have “page” (or post) authority, your posts will rank individually in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Once your whole blog achieves authority with the search engines, it’s deemed to have “site” Authority.
Once your site manages to get a level of authority with the search engines, you’ll find that it will lift the rankings of many of your poorer performing posts.
It’ll also mean that you’re new posts rank much more quickly in the SERPs. So instead of waiting months, you might find your posts ranking in a matter of days!
6. Why SEO Matters – People will Trust You
People trust search engines to deliver high quality content.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find any half-baked sites ranking highly in SERPs on Google or Bing.
This is because the search engines spend an incredible amount of research on making their algorithms bulletproof. Their systems have become extremely proficient at weeding out low-quality and incorrect content.
Thus, if you become adept at SEO and your posts climb the ranks in search results, it sends a positive image to your readers.
A high ranking in search engine results says to the world: THIS SITE CAN BE TRUSTED. This means that readers are much more likely to click on your posts.
7. Why SEO Matters – By creating a Fair Meritocracy
Although many newbies wish the opposite, there’s no easy or quick way to rank on Google. Most of us wish there was a way, but there are no shortcuts.
The result is that we have a system whereby hard work, consistency and quality are rewarded.
The sites which are at the top of the SERPs have been at it for a long while and they produce quality content. Search engine users know this and place trust in Google and Bing that they’ll get it right.
8. Why SEO Matters – To Grow your Business
Business is tough anywhere and markets are competitive.
You can’t compete with your customers if they’re using SEO techniques and you’re not. You’re putting yourself at a significant disadvantage as you won’t be getting enough people looking at your goods and services
The reality is that the more hits you can get to your site, the more likely you are to get a sale.
Even if visitors are just reading your blog, they are still building engagement with your mission and brand.
So it’s massively important to be using SEO to keep pace with your competition.
9. Websites have Clickable Links in the Content
A major advantage of websites over other content platforms is that you can easily embed clickable links in the content itself. This has major advantages for driving traffic to products and services that can expand your business.
In comparison, with Youtube and social media you can usually only include links in the bio and not in the actual posts or videos.
Summary – Why SEO Matters so Much
So to the question of “Why SEO Matters? – It’s universally felt that the advantages of adopting SEO techniques greatly outweighs the extra work required to optimise your posts.
The main advantage of SEO is free organic traffic from Google and Bing search engines.
This is the key reason why we should be optimising all of our web pages so that they work optimally with the search engines.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
Define SEO:
Search Engine Optimisation is the process of producing and curating your web pages so that they have the best chance of being picked up by the search engines for specific SEO Keywords.
What’s a SEO Keyword?
A SEO keyword is a word or phrase that is often searched by many search engine users. Keyword Analysis tools can be used to analyse the frequency of these searches.
What is Organic Traffic?
This is free traffic which can be obtained from the search engines when you employ SEO optimisation techniques.
What is Keyword Analysis?
This is the process of finding search terms that users are actually typing into the search terms using paid or free keyword tools.
Define Site SEO Authority:
Once your site manages to get an overall level of authority with the search engines, you’ll find that it becomes more powerful. Site SEO Authority has the power to lift the rankings of many of your poorer performing posts.
Define Page SEO Authority:
This is achieved when one of your pages or posts answers all of the needs of a SEO Keyword Query and becomes a highly ranked post in the SERPs.
