The World Wide Web has most definitely had a significant impact on our lives. If there is any doubt left in your mind, then this article will certainly help change that. From the ways in which we communicate with each other to the way we travel, the way we do our everyday jobs and, of course, how we conduct business with each other.

If having a website was a luxury back in the early days of the 21^st century, it has now become a necessity of you want to keep a strong positioning in whatever market you may currently be involved in.

The Internet has become somewhat of a marketing battleground where businesses fight to outperform the competition in the last decade.

Now for those of you who haven’t yet googled it yet, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and this new Internet marketing strategy is drawing more and more attention from SME business owners every day. The logic is quite simple: owning a website these days simply isn’t enough to give your business the amount of notoriety it deserves; literally everyone now has a website and every business owner, including your closest competition, is fighting to come up on top in search engine results in your area.

Here are 4 reasons why SEO is vital for your business.

Google’s algorithm is more sophisticated than it was a couple years ago

With the advent of Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, gone are the days when you could just overstuff a webpage with keywords and have it magically appear on top of the Google search results. This is now commonly known as a black hat SEO practice which will result in your website receiving a Google penalty.

Google will now punish you for partaking in deceptive practices in order to cheat your website to the top of the search results. Some of these black hat practices include:

• Keyword stuffing
• Invisible and hidden text
• Bad links pointing to your site
• Duplicate content

Instead, Google now rewards websites that have high-quality content that is regularly updated and organic, natural links that point back to their webpages. This is also includes having a website optimized for mobile.

Reaching your audience

In a study done by Google, it was discovered that about 50 percent of mobile users are most likely to visit your business after doing a local search. This is why it is so important to have your website optimized for mobile devices and have good SEO practices so that users nearby can find you as easily as possible.

People use their smartphones for everything from finding restaurants close-by to deciding what events to attend on the weekend. With proper SEO techniques, you can propel yourself to the top of local search results and bring real people looking to spend money into your front door.

SEO is quite possibly the best way to increase traffic to your website, which in turn generates sales for your business. By practicing good SEO standards, you will be reaching your intended audience and allowing your company to reach new heights every day.

Responsive web design is now a “must”

If your website isn’t user-friendly when accessed from a mobile device or tablet, chances are the user will be leaving your site as quickly as they came in. Well over half of all users now conduct their product searches on a mobile device so it is absolutely crucial to have a responsive web design.

Companies that ignore being mobile-friendly will generally see weaker sales in comparison with their competitors who opt for good mobile designs. Using proper SEO techniques to enhance the value of the user experience alongside responsive design is a win-win for any business with a website.

User conversion and brand visibility

What makes SEO so vitally important to any business is the simple fact that users tend to put their faith in early search results. Most people rarely click any link past the first page of a Google search query.

If you want to convert users into customers and make your brand as visible as possible then optimizing for search engines is crucial. SEO will attract people that are already looking for something in your domain, which makes conversion a piece of cake if done the right way. You don’t need a splashy ad on a giant building anymore – you just need users to be able to find you on the first page of their search results.

Final thoughts

In the digital marketing age, properly optimizing your website is a key step in increasing your visibility online, enhancing your credibility and making your sales numbers grow exponentially. Having great content and a well-designed website that functions smoothly on mobile devices while using white hat SEO techniques to boost your ranking will have your business soaring high with the best of them.