In today's digital world, it is necessary for any business to have a website that is optimized to rank well in search engines. SEO is not only necessary, but it is one of the best investments you can make for your business. Without an online presence, you will miss the opportunity to tap into a growing digital market and you risk losing customers to your competition who are utilizing SEO services to their advantage. 

With millions of websites are created every day how do you expect Google to find your site? Simply building your website will not be enough. When you build your website correctly, you let future customers find you. In addition, when you create a seamless website experience, you are increasing the chances of converting new leads into paying customers. 

Countless articles will come up when you search for SEO online. With some results saying that SEO is dead and marketing through social media platforms is the way to go for promoting your business. As business a business owner, all the contradicting opinions about SEO may be confusing, so if you are wondering how to scale your business online, we are here to provide you with some clarity about what might work best for you: 

• Key Statistics 

Let's first review some SEO facts that every business owner should know. 

1. 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine 

2. Google is a leader in the search engine market, generating 65% to 70% of all search queries in the U.S. 

3. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate. In contrast, traditional marketing methods (also referred to as outbound lead generation) such as print advertising or direct mail, only have a 1.7% close rate. 

4. Inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound lead generation methods.

5. 81% of shoppers turn to the internet to do online research before purchasing products

6. 72% of people who did a local search visited a store within five miles

• SEO Provides Exponential Growth 

SEO does not promise to bring game-changing results to your business overnight. But the longer you stick to doing SEO, the higher the returns you can expect. The growth to your business will of course depend on the way the SEO campaign is executed because website optimization requires knowledge and experience to yield favorable results. 

SEO is not about targeting high competition keywords, stuffing them into every part of your website, and expecting to rank for those keywords. It is about serving the needs of your customers at every stage of their buying life-cycle. At different stages of the buying process, consumers will use variations in search terms, from reviews about certain products, to search terms about where to buy those items. The goal is to market at each stage of the buying process: 

1. Awareness Stage - Discovery of information about a product or service that the customer is interested in. At this stage, the customer will enter search terms into search engines to know more about the items.

2. Consideration Stage - comparison of products and reading up on expert guides about the product the consumer is interested in

3. Preference Stage - the customer starts to develop a logical inclination towards one brand over the others

4. Purchase Stage - the action of buying from your ecommerce site 

Keep in mind that not every customer is decided on buying straightaway. So it is important that you focus on how to serve the customers' need for information throughout the buying process. This way, you can establish your brand as an industry leader in a specific field. 

SEO is one of the most cost-effective channels you can use to attract new customers to your site. It comes second to word of mouth, the Holy Grail of marketing. But remember, SEO will only be effective and profitable if you, or the SEO agency you hire, has a proven process and experience to get you results. 

The sooner your business sees SEO as an investment, rather than expense, the sooner you’ll see how important it is to reinvest.