Marketing is one industry that has been transformed by the growth of the consumer’s digital world. While marketers are still responsible for clever ad campaigns and catchy tag lines, longer-term planning for a brand’s digital presence is more crucial than ever. The portion of the average annual marketing spend being allotted to digital resources is bigger than ever, and companies that want to enjoy continued growth will put investment in SEO high up their list of priorities.

Below we’ll show some of the biggest reasons why SEO is such an important part of your marketing budget.

Organic Results Are More Credible

The average consumer is more likely to trust the top organic search results than an ad that’s popped up. The very nature of search results builds credibility in the mind of the consumer. Good organic search placement is at least as valuable as great online reviews and testimonials. They all build your image as a trustworthy provider of the service or product the user is looking for.

Mobile Marketing Demands It

The number of searches being performed on mobile devices is now greater than those performed on any other type of device. How our society accesses and interacts with the Internet is changing and evolving along with the consumers is crucial for those brands that want to enjoy continued growth. There is a lot of buzz about mobile-first and it can be easy to dismiss it because it’s being thrown around so readily, but there’s a good reason so many people were talking about it.

Brand Awareness and Visibility

A small percentage of search engine users bother to go past the first page of search results. This means that those companies that can organically appear on the first page get far greater visibility. It translates into more users seeing your name, more website clicks, and greater brand awareness. However, getting to the first page can require a lot of effort and usually requires using the best SEO services.

Qualified Traffic Increases Through Good SEO

Most visitors to your site that come to it through an organic search will have been looking for what your company offers. Your analytics system will classify these visitors as organic search users, and you will generally have more success with those committing time to seek you out than people that have clicked an ad on a whim.

Long-term Commitment, Long-term Payoff

The strategy required to rank well on a search engine like Google means that your site will be so complete it’s likely to maintain a high position in Google’s search results for a long time, sometimes even years, as long as you maintain your efforts. SEO can be frustrating and requires patience to take full advantage of the efforts made.

Every brand, business, and company out there can benefit from a solid SEO strategy and earmarking a bigger portion of your marketing budget will pay dividends in the long run.