Search engine optimization (SEO) gives you the potential to rank higher in Google search results for searches that are relevant to your business. If done well, you can climb to the top of the rankings in just a few months and start generating massive volumes of organic visitors.
SEO has always been a valuable marketing strategy, but its value seems to only be increasing. Despite occasional naysayers who insist that SEO is dying, or that SEO is a fad, more and more people are seeing value from this strategic approach.
Why is this the case? And could SEO keep increasing in strategic value indefinitely?
More Options to Practice SEO
One explanation for the increase in value is the fact that there are more options to practice SEO than ever before. This makes SEO easier and more accessible, while giving more options to the major players trying to push their massive strategies even further.
- SEO agencies and contractors. Wherever you’re doing business, and whatever your goals are, there are people who can help you accomplish your SEO vision. You can work with a Garland SEO firm, hire contractors independently, or even build an internal team of your own. Whether you’re just getting started with a strategy for your startup or you’re competing with some of the biggest brands in the world, you can tap into valuable resources to achieve your goals.
- SEO tools and plugins. It also helps that there are thousands of SEO tools and plugins that can help you with things like keyword research, content analysis, backlink tracking, and competitive research. These have reduced SEO from a mystical art to a practical science that anyone can understand.
- An ever-increasing knowledge base. On top of that, our collective knowledge base keeps growing bigger and more robust. Every day, thousands of new articles on strategies and tactics for SEO get published, and there are always new things to learn.
More Searchers and Visitors
SEO is also becoming more valuable because there are more searchers and more visitors available. People who have had access to search engines for many years are searching more frequently and leaning on search for more daily tasks. At the same time, internet access is growing, introducing more people around the world to fast, reliable connections. The end result is millions, if not billions of more searches – and an equal number of opportunities to win new customers.
Smarter, More Targeted Strategies
SEO strategies generate more revenue today because of strategic improvements like these:
- Quality over quantity. Search optimizers have gotten smart, focusing on quality over quantity. Instead of churning out hundreds of articles and tons of backlinks, strategists are trying to create a smaller number of more valuable articles and links. This allows them to do more with less, ultimately putting them in a more competitive position.
- Sales funnel targeting. Your sales funnel is a model that approximates the average flow of a consumer from being unaware of your product to eventually buying it. For a normal business, the phases go something like: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. You can see better SEO results, and much higher conversion rates, if you optimize for individual stages of the sales funnel.
- Long-term value optimization. SEO is a long-term strategy by default. You can get even more value out of it by making all your strategic plays focused on long-term value, rather than generating immediate results.
The Threats
So is it possible that SEO keeps increasing in strategic value indefinitely into the future? The short answer is yes, but there are some important threats to keep in mind:
- Total competition. As SEO becomes more valuable and more popular, and as the footprint of the internet continues to expand, the total amount of competition is expected to rise. More competitors in your niche means it’s going to take more time, effort, and money to compete with them directly. It also means you’ll need to think more creatively and strategically to avoid butting heads. Still, there are some clever ways you can mitigate your competition and see great results regardless.
- Rich results. Google offers “rich results” for certain types of searches, providing users with immediate answers and paragraphs of context for what they’re looking for. As a result, these users are less likely to click links and visit websites; that means even if you’re at rank one, you may have trouble generating organic traffic. Most search optimizers don’t believe rich results are much of a threat in their current form, as high-ranking positions are still valuable in these SERPs, but if rich results grow more sophisticated or more common, things could change in a worse direction.
- Increasing costs. There’s no doubt that SEO is getting more expensive. There are so many more tools to use, so many more competitors to deal with, and so many new Google algorithm updates to understand; if you want help tackling these challenges and others, it’s going to cost you. The ROI of SEO is still quite high, but you’ll need to spend more money to get the results you want.
SEO has increased in strategic value for many years, and it’s likely that this trend will continue into the future. If you don’t currently have a search optimization strategy, or if you’ve been looking for a way to get more visibility and traffic for your brand, now could be the time to jump in and get started.
