When it comes to the marketing department it becomes important to tap each activity taking place to increase brand visibility and save expenses to gain higher returns.

Today, digital marketing has taken over traditional marketing practices and the majority of the companies are using technology and all kinds of digital channels to build their brand image. There are so many services that fall under digital marketing like SEO, PPC, social media marketing, and Email marketing, to name a few.

There is always an ongoing tussle for a business owner to decide which service will be beneficial for the business? The decision often toggles between paid advertising and SEO.

I was also given the project six months back where the whole criteria were to increase the organic traffic to improvise the existing ROI. I literally took this up as a case study to solve the basic question that is, Does SEO can really save monthly ads budget and improve ROI?

If you are also having the same query then keep reading this article because in subsequent sections I will be showing you the runway to fly higher on the ROI scale.

Does SEO really optimize the website?

SEO or search engine optimization is often assumed as a service that is limited to writing blogs. But that’s not true. SEO help in improvising website content, creating better landing pages, and developing Onsite & Offsite blogs to spread brand awareness among a large audience. This is a long-term process and requires patience and dedicated efforts to reach the final goal.

As a business owner if you are aiming to spread the word in the market about the products/services that your brand is offering in a quick way then paid advertising is the option for you.

Does Paid Advertising is a Sustainable Option?

Undoubtedly paid advertising help in displaying your brand in every possible way on social media sites, video channels, blogging sites, etc. But the moment your monthly ads budget starts to run dry, you lose the brand reach and visibility. That’s why paid advertising is good for short-term gratification but I am sure as a business owner you will always aim for something that is sustainable and give long-term benefits to your business.

When I say SEO it is important to learn the basic steps that are involved in the process. When I got this project, I focused on understanding the targeted audience, their demographics, preferences, and behaviors, which involved collecting and analyzing data from various sources, such as web analytics tools and customer surveys. I also conducted market research to gain insights into the industry trends, competitive landscape, and market size, which helped me identify potential growth opportunities and areas for improvement.

Finally, I identified the problems that the website was facing by analyzing user behavior data, such as bounce rates, conversion rates, and click-through rates, and used this information to recommend data-driven solutions that would improve the overall user experience and drive business outcomes. Throughout the project, I relied on my expertise in statistical analysis and data visualization to ensure that my insights were accurate, relevant, and actionable.

All of these aspects are essential for building robust SEO strategies. If the strategies are not formulated carefully then no matter how much time you spent on SEO, it will not yield the results. Therefore before developing SEO strategies it is important to have clarity on the purpose behind and end results. Here in this project, the first step was to gather organic traffic over the website.

Now when I say organic traffic, I am referring to the traffic generated without using paid channels. To achieve this it is important to develop the SEO by understanding the user’s intent, queries, preferences, liking and disliking. When you do this, the audience feels tempted to click on your website to learn more about your brand and the products/services it is offering.

As it is clearly visible in the graph that the total impressions jump from 199K to 1.19M in the span of six months. The increase in impressions results in more clicks over the website.

The result-oriented SEO strategies backed up by effective implementation give a remarkable presence to your business website in this digital world. The websites appearing in the organic search results automatically reflect their credibility and build immense trust among the users. As per the study, 95% of people make Online searches for products/services that they want to buy. SEO gives an opportunity to incorporate search queries in the content to gather thick traffic over a website and also improves its SERP. This ultimately results in building a good brand reputation over a period of time.

As you can see in the graph given above the new users were 137 in May 2020 but it reached 1776 by the end of January 2021. This is achieved thoroughly through SEO and not through paid channels of advertising. If you will see the acquisition overview you will see that this traffic is gathered through organic search results. Isn’t it astonishing to see how SEO can really generate organic traffic on a website?

Undoubtedly SEO is the most effective way of spreading brand awareness among the mass audience and boosting the conversion rate. In this entire process, it is very important for the business owner to have patience and trust in the SEO team because SEO takes a minimum of 6 to 12 months depending on the industrial domain of the company to show its results.

After this stage the most important question you must be waiting for.

Does SEO Really Give ROI?

To answer this question just have a look at the graph given below. You can see the net worth of organic traffic was $0 in May 2020.

Now hold your breath because what you are going to see in the next graph is the equivalent value of organic search traffic that could have been acquired via paid advertising.

From zero dollars in May 2020, it shoots up to $3543 by February 2021. This means the company saved $3543 per month through a robust SEO plan. A strong brand reputation drives high organic traffic over a website for free of cost. The traffic generated through SEO does not require advertisers to pay money for every click or impression. Therefore SEO helps in gaining more ROI for the business.

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