What are the benefits of SEO?

[SharpKiwi]

If a client asks "why should I spend time and money on SEO?", how would you answer?

Is "to be found in search engines" the answer?

If so, wouldn't it be more cost effective to use PPC instead of SEO?

Is link building a waste of time and money?

Is it better to just concentrate on quality content?

[JaysonB]

SEO is always for the long run. PPC will take you there but If you don't have enough budget. PPC in 1 year will go deep into your pockets and If you don't do well in PPC campaigns you're money will just be wasted.

Is "to be found in search engines" the answer? Yes, but SEO is not all about being found in search engine. SEO is about building brands that can be considered as an authority on its niche. Brands that last in people's mind.

Is link building a waste of time and money? Yes and No. Yes - If you are building links that aren't meant for the long run then they will be just waste. No - if you know how to build links that lasts such as quality content, themed link building campaigns, guest posts and other efforts that raise brand awareness into further level.

_**Is it better to just concentrate on quality content?  **_The word "just concentrate" made me pick NO as an answer.  You need to explore every possibilities when you are doing SEO. Just don't break the rules.

I love the fact that many SEO do experiments and share their success stories everywhere.

[RobertFisher]

Stores Direct makes several great points here; I especially like the paragraph after the list:

SEO doesn't just improve SERP performance - it can also improve website usability and make a better impression on site visitors, thereby having a positive impact on conversions.

Excellent point if you care about what visitors to the site think!

[StoresDirect]

Answering this question "to be found in search engines" is not the right way to go with a client who is concerned about their bottom line. The answer they need to hear is "to make more money", so you need to answer in terms of financial benefits such as

• Reduction of PPC costs
• Increased revenue from long tail search
• Increase in unpaid traffic
• Increased revenue from unpaid traffic
• Increase in Per Visit Value
• Improved conversion rates

SEO doesn't just improve SERP performance - it can also improve website usability and make a better impression on site visitors, thereby having a positive impact on conversions. When our original SEO specialist, who I had been assisting, left the company I had to make a solid financial case for continuing in that role myself. A trawl through Analytics provided an abundance of evidence of financial benefits on all the above points.

Quality content is great so long as people see it. Quality content will attract links effortlessly so long as people see it. People are more likely to see your great content if you rank well in the SERPs. SERP performance improves when you build links. Essentially, spending time link building will make it easier to attract organic links because more people will see your content in the first place.

When asking if link building is worthwhile try looking at the full keyword difficulty reports for any important keywords for which you are outranked, and do a point by point comparison between your site and your competitors for each keyword. If you find you are being outranked by sites whose main advantage over you is stronger link profiles that tells you it is worthwhile to build links.

[RobertFisher]

Based on just about any data you study, even though nearly 90% of every dollar in Internet marketing is spent on SEM, and around 10% on SEO, there are 7 to 8 more clicks for an organic placement compared to a paid. Yes, conversion is better on paid, but only at about 1.5 to 1. So at the end of the day SEO is a better spend by roughly 5 to 1.

That said, assume that is not even the issue for the client. Why are they in business? Do they want to have a website? If they do want one then why would they not want to do their best to have it seen given that the cost is typically incremental?

So, if someone wants to be seen. If they want to have traffic to their site, so that they become more well known, so that they sell a service or a product, so that their poetry is read, etc., then with SEO it is the gift that keeps on giving. Once the money is spent on PPC or TV or radio or print......there is little residual. Even in a competitive arena if you have optimized a site and then do nothing else for 3 months, it will diminish over time providing a residual.

But, hey do some cool PPC and check it out. (No, I am not against PPC, I just believe to do that prior to optimizing fully is a bit of a waste).