This guide is intended to help busy business owners and managers understand the importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for their business.

Since most businesses have a website, the importance of SEO should not be underestimated.

The SEO process requires an investment of time, effort and funds. So, before you think of using SEO it is important to understand the benefits it could bring to your business.

To further help you, Acumenology has produced a series of Business Guides on a range of relevant topics. You can find these at: www.acumenology.co.uk/business-guides

SEO (search engine optimisation) is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic, as well as exposure to your brand, through non-paid (organic) search engine results.

It helps by making your website rank higher in search engine results, which in turn helps bring in potential customers.

The first question you have to ask yourself is what role and how important is your website for your business?

If your site is not there to generate business, then there is little point in wasting resources on SEO.

If your website, whether it provides content, services, products or information is an important part of your business model then SEO has an important role to play.

Since 93% of internet traffic comes from search engines the importance of achieving a high rank in a search engines listing is clear. If your website is not ranked highly then customers will go to your competitors

Thus, SEO is important because it will direct targeted traffic to your website and improve sales conversion rates through optimised site architecture.

Search Engine Optimisation doesn’t cost the earth and offers one of the best returns on advertising investment one can find.

Before resources are allocated, let us examine what benefits you can hope to achieve.

However, a word of caution. Great search engine listings do not happen overnight. It takes lots of skilled effort and time to ensure your search engine rankings are accurate and stable.

Here are some of the key benefits of SEO for a small business:

High ROI
Outperforms most other forms of marketing in terms of ROI (return on investment) and generation of qualified leads.

Targeted traffic
Delivers potential customers that are actively searching for your product or service.

Improved conversion rates
A website designed for SEO requires it to be well-designed and user friendly. By doing so it compels the visitors to stay longer, Similarly, relevant tailored content provides visitors with the information they are looking for.

Long term positioning
Aproperly optimised site should stay long term in the rankings compared to PPC (Pay Per Click) where costs and outlay are ongoing and unpredictable.

Increased online visibility
Getting your site on as many search engines and directories as possible will help you reach more of your target audience bringing you a greater web presence.

Fixed Costs
The cost of SEO is relatively fixed, is independent of click volume and the cost per click from SEO declines through time after initial optimisation costs and lower ongoing optimisation costs.

If your website is an important part of your business model, then SEO should be an essential element of your marketing.

It is relatively inexpensive, though it will take some time to take effect.

We hope the information presented here will help you better understand how SEO can help your business.

Acumenology has produced a series of Business Guides on a variety of topics relevant to starting and running a business.

These can be found at: www.acumenology.co.uk/business-guides