The benefits of learning SEO are endless. This is not just a statement to motivate you but a fact that I've written about, at length, in my first book on search engine optimization, published this year. In addition, students learn about the benefits of learning SEO in community colleges, large universities, and other higher-learning institutions.
Digital marketing is now the norm, and it follows that anyone who wants to succeed in bringing a business to the internet should have the skills that would allow them to flourish.
SEO That Was and SEO That Will Be
Unlike twenty years ago, we now clearly see where SEO stands: it's not a "trick," nor is it some dark magic that people use to gain an advantage on the internet. Instead, it is both an art and a science, refined over years of study and countless case studies and interpretations of search data and marketing results.
Ironically, search engine optimization is never just about what search engines do; it's more about how people use search engines to get the information they need online. 2023 is just around the corner, and 2022 was an incredible year for SEO. We've seen the passing and going of some technologies for refining content as we saw the rise of centralized systems for discovering search trends, keywords, and new ways of structuring data and content for customers' ultimate comfort and benefit.
In the end, the benefits of learning SEO center on bringing people closer to your businesses, so people can engage your business in dialogue and stay loyal to the brand. This is an incredible time to be in digital marketing, and the benefits of learning SEO have just begun.
What Are the Benefits of Learning SEO?
It Gives Businesses Credibility
To say that the internet is full of unreliable websites is an understatement. We use less than 1% of what's available on the internet. We do so because we trust only a few brands, and we'd like to keep trusting them as long as they continue delivering. One of the benefits of learning SEO is it allows any website to become a credible and relevant resource online. Perform SEO on your content to bring it closer to people who will read and respond to them.
Learning SEO Can Be Free
You can learn almost anything for free on the internet now. How many people have learned how to change a tire by watching a YouTube video? Reading about SEO in your spare time is a good idea. Then, when you're ready to progress, you can work with an SEO consultant or SEO coach to further your knowledge and improve your grasp of the more practical applications of search engine optimization.
SEO Boosts Content Marketing Efforts
What is the internet without content? Whatever it turns out to be, it surely will not be as informative as it is now without content. One of the leading benefits of learning SEO is discovering neat systems that help you organize and structure your content marketing efforts.
Content marketing doesn't begin and end with just writing the content. Instead, writing content is downstream of many other steps, beginning with a vision for the brand on the internet, followed by competitor research, keyword research, cross-referencing ranking content on SERPs, and so much more.
An entirely separate family of steps and procedures run in the background, guided by SEO. Learn SEO, and you will discover how large agencies do it.
SEO Helps You Win During PPC Campaigns
Though PPC and things like Google Ads are against my religion as an SEO consultant, I understand that PPC campaigns can bring in clients and customers more quickly.
PPC is a sprint, while SEO is a marathon aimed at creating a long-lasting presence online. So if you need to do some PPC campaigns alongside your SEO efforts, why not use the principles of SEO in PPC?
There's barely any gap between PPC and SEO principles because both are aimed at attracting customers. You pay for PPC, and you can do SEO in your spare time to improve rankings.
There's also no charge when you post content on your website. While there are other expenses associated with SEO, these are often much lower than the expenses of a continuous PPC campaign.
SEO Gets You on Top Organically
You've probably read about "organic results" in SEO. Organic results mean you reached the top of Google listings as an 'organic' listing without paying for ads. While Google Ads get a prominent spot on Google, people tend to ignore them.
People like organic listings because they look more 'legit,' and most of the time, they are. A person searching for an impartial review of two brands of bread ovens, for example would naturally want to read something written by someone who wasn't paid or sponsored by one of the brands they're researching.
You get on top of Google SERPs by writing great content and aligning the structure and keywords of your content using your topical and keyword research. You match the voice and tone of others who are already doing a great job attracting and keeping readers. In short, you decode the program that makes people want to read content related to yours, and you keep publishing more content to get more people interested in what you have to say.
SEO Makes It Easier to Engage Your Audience
Audience engagement sounds like something pulled from a technical marketing book. And yet, it is a foundational activity that the best businesses do flawlessly because they know a lot about their audience, and when they need to, they do it.
If you feel that your business has been in flux and a vacuum for the longest time, and you also feel that it is invisible compared to your competitors, then SEO can help. First, SEO can help you understand what your customers think through search trends, and then you can figure out how to best reach them through blogs, articles, social media content, and even email marketing.
As I said earlier, SEO permeates all aspects of digital marketing, whether inbound or outbound. Therefore, it is the best inbound marketing channel you will ever have the pleasure of learning. And indeed, the benefits of learning SEO are endless.
