Is Organic SEO still vital in 2018? – #WednesdayWisdom

In 2018, many digital marketing campaigns are driven by an urgency to succeed. This urgency, coupled with a desire to be the first result that a potential customer will see in the search engine results (SERPs), has produced a shift in focus.

52.2% of web pages are served to mobile devices now and this has also brought about a significant reduction in web-user's attention spans over recent years. The rise in popularity of Google Ads is testament to that. It is no longer a viable argument to say, 'well people don't click the ads anyway'. They do. And they are doing so more often, to Google's undoubted delight.

Google Ads are the quick fix investment for those looking to get 'instant traffic' for a shiny new website. It's a smart move actually, particularly if the campaign is run effectively and efficiently by a Google Certified partner. If tracked and analysed properly, investment can easily be measured against return. See last week's Wednesday Wisdom article for more on getting instant traffic to your site.

So, if you can now buy your way to the top of the SERPs - no matter how poor your website is – is there any point in doing any Search Engine Optimisation these days?

The answer is of course, 'yes'!

Here's 5 quick fire reasons why SEO is still vital:

1. Organic traffic converts at a higher rate

Traditionally, and from my direct experience, visitors who land on your website via organic rankings are more likely to result in a conversion (send an enquiry, call, buy, download etc.). Plus, there is still a sizeable percentage of users who will ignore the ads and spend more time checking the results.

2. Organic rankings are still vital

People just seem to 'trust' natural rankings and are harder to get through to with ads of any kind. I'll bet that these are probably the same ones who turn the sound down on the TV when the ads come on. They don't want to be sold to unless it is on their terms.

3. Page quality affects PPC performance

Optimising your site doesn't just mean weaving some relevant keywords into your meta data and text. SEO, proper SEO, should be considered right from the design and planning stage and should always encompass user experience. It's written in Google's own guidelines that they will favour websites with a good page score. This means optimising the content of your page to give those who land on it exactly what information they expect. Google scores landing page experience, and favours competing Ads, according to how well people interact with the pages that they land on.

4. SEO is longer lasting

The traffic that you get from Google Ads can be cut off instantly too. If your organic traffic levels are poor, then you're essentially cutting off your site's life support machine.

5. SEO is global

The reach of your website shouldn't be restricted by the limitations of the target audience that you set within your Google Ad campaign. For example, your google click budget may be set to reach web users in Scotland only, if you don't rank organically out with Scotland, you're posted missing.

Does this mean you shouldn't do PPC?

Absolutely not, you need to find a balance between SEO, PPC and any other relevant digital marketing services. This is why Big Red Digital take a blended approach to digital marketing to combine only the most important services that your business needs in order to get the best results.

Find out more about our Digital Marketing services here, or give me a call on 0141 771 7242 for some free advice. It costs nothing to talk.

By Steven Blood