The question of why SEO is important for businesses gets asked a lot. You may have heard the term “SEO” from your colleagues and other business owners about why it is beneficial for websites, but probably don’t know exactly how it is beneficial. This article will help shed some light on the primary reasons SEO is important for your website and, ultimately, for your bottom line.

Organic Search Drives over 50% of Website Visits

Out of all website visit traffic sources (PPC, Direct, Organic, Referral, and Social), organic search drives over half of all traffic to websites. An article by Search Engine Land states that organic search drives 51% of traffic. The second channel driving the most traffic, at 34%, comes from referral sites, email and display banner ads. Having over half of your traffic coming from organic search engine listings is huge. When you optimize your site with SEO in mind, you have a better likelihood of ranking for keywords that your customers are searching for.

Optimized Websites Help Provide Positive ROI

You spend a lot of time building and managing your website, so it should give you some return on all the investment you put into it. When you factor in all the costs associated with your website, (domain name, hosting, design, development, and maintenance) you want to make sure it is generating some type of return, such as leads, brand awareness, and revenue. Having a website that cannot be found online does not help your bottom line. Having an SEO work on your site will ensure you are getting the most from your digital assets.

Online Shoppers Outnumber Brick-and-Mortar Shoppers

More people prefer shopping online rather than at brick-and-mortar stores. According to an article by CNBC during the 2013 holiday season, online shopping was set to become the number one choice for shoppers. If you have an ecommerce site today, it is important to make sure it can be found online. You should target searchers who are in the shopping mode. These shoppers are the most critical, because they have a higher chance of making a purchase. The more of these types of searchers you can target by optimizing your site with SEO, the more money you can make in the long run.

The Total Number of Digital Shoppers is Rising Year-over-Year

More and more people are becoming digital shoppers. According to an article by Statista, the number of digital shoppers continue to rise and will rise 7% by 2018. You want to be available and in front of customers wherever they are shopping. Since a vast number of people are shopping using their computers and mobile devices, digital marketing is imperative. Since over have of these people are using a search engine to find what they want, you want your website to show up to capture that traffic. Without SEO, it will be very difficult for users to find your website.

These are some of the top reasons why SEO is important for your business. Now you have a better understanding of how it is beneficial. SEO will help drive more traffic to your site and will help bring it in front of searchers when they are looking to do some research or make a purchase. If done properly, SEO should ultimately affect your bottom line in a positive way.