SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an undefined set of optimisation techniques for gaining visibility on search engines.
These SEO optimisations are not at all automatic. Even though we speak of “natural” search, the only natural thing about it is the name. It is therefore important to call on an SEO consultant to conquer the search results.
What this infographic shows is that 98% of sites count around sixty visits per month through SEO, which amounts to 0 to 3 clients per month, or fewer than a dozen sales for an e-commerce site. A large majority of these 98% believe that natural SEO happens on its own.
By calling on an SEO expert, you will be among the 0.3% of websites that generate money through natural SEO. From that point on, you will understand the value of having a website beyond simply having one.
1. SEO VS Other Acquisition Channels
While paid advertising, social media, and other online platforms can generate traffic to websites, the majority of online traffic is generated by search engines.
Organic search results cover more digital space, appear more credible to savvy searchers, and receive far more clicks than paid ads.
Among Google searches, only 2.4% resulted in a click on an AdWords (paid) ad compared to +51.55% organic clicks (natural SEO).
This means that on average, natural search results are clicked 24 times more than the ads that are displayed. This is a non-negligible loss of potential customers.
If we now compare Google and social media, we see that in France Google generates 3 to 4 times more traffic than all social media combined.
Moreover, SEO attracts traffic from visitors who are actively searching for your services, unlike social media for example. There, internet users are often (99.9% of the time) in situations where they have no desire to investigate your company — and I choose my words carefully.
SEO is also one of the only online marketing channels that, when properly set up, can continue to bear fruit over time. If you provide solid content that deserves to be ranked for the right keywords, your traffic can snowball over time, whereas advertising requires continuous funding to send traffic to your site.
Therefore, investing in SEO is a prerequisite for growing your business in the long term.
Note: There is nothing stopping you from combining SEO & SEA & SEM — it would even be a good decision.
2. You Are Credible
A website needs to be credible to make sales, whether it is selling services or e-commerce products. Between dropshipping and all kinds of scams, the credibility offered by organic display is not insignificant. In other words, an organic click will have a better conversion rate than a PPC click (ADS ad).
Beyond trust with your prospects, you will also obtain more opportunities for partnerships, opportunities, and authority.
Establishing this authority will do more for a brand than most, if not all, other digital optimisations. A good ranking for organic searches suggests to your customers that you are a leader in your field and that you are recognised as such.
3. SEO, a Channel for Conversion
Natural SEO attracts quality traffic — internet users are already searching for what you sell — but you can also attract prospects who do not yet know they need you.
Indeed, with a good content strategy, it is possible to create very effective conversion funnels.
Suppose you are a plumber. At the first stage of their journey, your prospect might use search to understand the extent of their problem, such as:
“How to fix a water leak?”
A few weeks later, for one reason or another — lack of time, no tools… — this same searcher had heard about your 1-hour call-outs when reading your article and ended up calling on you. Simply because you explained how to fix a water leak during their journey.
At each stage, it is possible to write and rank content that addresses a wide range of questions and concerns:
You then appear as if by magic at every stage of the process and cement your brand in the minds of your prospects (among other things).
4. SEO Is (Very) Profitable
Natural SEO is free in the sense that appearing in a search engine’s results is free.
In reality, it is essential to call on an SEO professional to appear on the first pages of Google. Even so, the cost will remain very low compared to other traffic channels.
Moreover, once SEO is in place, you will no longer pay an SEO professional for the keyword you are already ranked for, or it will require very little human and financial resources.
This is called the virtuous circle of SEO. Once you are ranked, more and more people link to you and you become increasingly well ranked.
According to Hubspot, the cost of acquiring a lead through Inbound methods (including SEO) is on average 61% lower than that of traditional methods.
Moreover, Hubspot generates 1M organic traffic visits every month, which would roughly equate to €2.5M per month in advertising. Which for any company is unthinkable. And I doubt they have spent more than €1M optimising their SEO.
Per year, this equates to €30M in advertising to acquire the same volume of traffic. Given that traffic from advertising converts less due to the lack of credibility compared to organic display.
Think about it.
Note: More than 80% of current B2C sales start with an online search. For B2B sales, it is over 70%. Be present.
The money gained through SEO traffic is easily quantifiable.
5. SEO Is Not Random
What is frustrating is that the majority of people who have used one or more SEO specialists have not seen the slightest difference. Most CEOs think an SEO specialist is a miracle worker and that their performance is random. This is not a generalisation. Natural SEO is a genuine methodology like any other profession that leads to concrete results.
The reasons for this bias can be various:
- There are fraudsters in every field
- Do not hire service providers paid next to nothing using platforms whose name I will not mention.
- The consultant provided an audit that was never acted upon
- The webmaster decided not to apply all the recommendations.
- The site owner placed a noindex tag after the SEO’s work, preventing the crawling robot from indexing the site’s pages.
- …
Our blog covers the subject thoroughly from every angle. If you wish, you will be able to learn everything there is to know about SEO.
If you need help, do not hesitate! An SEO expert will be able to answer all your questions.