Is Investing in SEO worth it?
The quick answer is a strong yes. In this digital age, everything you see and do online is SEO-related. All online businesses want to rank on page 1 and get their content seen. One of the bigger implications of SEO is the cost, which we will discuss. But first, what is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s all about optimizing the content on the web with the goal of a higher ranking. A page 1 ranking on Google is always the goal because the majority of users don’t visit pages beyond page 1. You don’t want to be losing out on traffic because you appear on page 2.
If you are an online website, a page 1 ranking on Google is so important. However, getting our content noticed requires us to consider a lot of different steps. Upon examining each step, we can see if SEO is worth using for our website.
The process of SEO
The goal of SEO is to rank higher on Google, but we need to attract organic traffic to our website. One of the ways we do this is through keyword research. Ideally, we plan out our keyword research before writing our content. That’s how you maximize results.
When it comes to writing exciting content, it’s easy to write what we are passionate about. For example, let’s say you run a film blog and all you want to do is write about your favourite films. This is good, but we need to see what keywords and topics people are searching for to create our content based on the searcher’s intent.
This tells Google the kind of content we are writing and what audience we are trying to target. However, Google uses a lot of different factors that indicate if the content is seen and ranked. Take a look at the image below.
Some of the key points from this graph are:
- Prescribed domains
- Content
- Backlinks
- Site architecture
These points matter to SEO because it helps Google identify the website and rank the content accordingly. The other point is that you can’t excel in these areas without at least considering SEO and carrying SEO-related research out on Google.
Once an online website owner has identified their niche, they need to make sure their domain name is accurate and SEO-friendly. It is hard to create a good original domain name, so many choose to purchase one.
For SEO purposes, the URL name must be relevant to the kind of content you want to rank for. In better words, aiming for memorable and short domain names is the way forward for SEO.
Why SEO matters: writing SEO friendly content
The next point is content. Most online websites need to include SEO-friendly content. If you have many academic-focused articles, that’s when focusing on academic SEO should be considered. For this case, I will be focusing on web content, not academic content.
Every content writer needs to do their pre-research before they write. This includes looking at trending topics on Google, and from that, you can extract relevant keywords and use them in your work. Other pre-analysis tools could be to search your desired topic on Google and look at what keywords your competitors are using. Using POP (page optimizer pro) is one of the best tools for this.
Once you have everything you need, you now need to write. But, we still need to write under a few conditions. Standard SEO writing techniques include the following:
- Short sentences and paragraphs
- Use of images
- Bullet point lists
- Avoiding formal or academic sentences
Using these SEO trends as a framework when we write gives us an excellent place to build on. However, you still need to be able to write well with these suggested points. This just comes down to practice, practice, practice.
SEO still matters for content, but practicing this form of writing is going to make a difference.
What are backlinks?
It’s when one website links back to you. In this case, we need to look at the quality of the website that is linking to yours. The higher established the website is on the web, the better it’s going to look on your website.
The cost of SEO
The problem with SEO is that it’s usually never free. Many SEO services offer a free audit of your website, but that’s not enough. An SEO service offers a solution to the problems that turn up on the audit.
Good SEO services cost above £1000 and can rise to £9000 a month. Anything below £1000 is considered poor quality.
Alternatively, if SEO is not your main interest, there is PPC. PPC stands for pay per click. It’s a way of guaranteeing visitors to your website through purchase. The cost varies from industry and demand, but you can expect to pay between £1 to £2 per click on average.
To wrap up
Is SEO still worth it in 2021? It is 100% worth it. Even if you don’t buy into an SEO service, you can still research your website. You can research the web and change your URL, meta titles and descriptions, tags, and much more for free on your website. All of these factors are included in the SEO process.
SEO still matters because every website needs to rank on page 1 on Google. The second part is getting organic traffic to the website. Using SEO allows you to understand your target audience better and deliver a more tailored strategy to your audience.
The concluding point is that SEO matters because it helps our content reach a wider audience while increasing our Google brand visibility. But, the process works better with independent research. SEO factors point you in the right direction to work on.
As long as we keep our SEO research up with online trends, it will always be worth it. To read more about SEO, click here.
About The Author
Sam Edwards is a content writer at Serpwizz. He recently wrote an article on the advantages of an SEO audit. He graduated with a degree in Film Studies in 2019 and loves writing film reviews. For more on Sam, please visit his LinkedIn profile. , where you will be able to read some more awesome articles!
