A frequent question from our clients and social media followers is: How do I know if I need to develop an SEO strategy or not? The answer to this question largely depends on the characteristics of the business and its objectives. However, in this article, experts Blas Giffuni and Camilo Ramírez seek to answer this question so that everyone, regardless of their situation and the size of their business, can know when an SEO strategy is necessary.
CHECKLIST TO VERIFY IF A BUSINESS NEEDS AN SEO STRATEGY:
Analyze the relevance of SEO from the BRAND perspective:
First, investigate what is currently appearing about the brand on search engines to know what information users find about a particular business on the internet. This is to determine if the main information found on the internet about a brand is really conveying the desired message, and if it is relevant, pertinent, and timely, and mainly, if it is beneficial or harmful to the brand's reputation. This initial audit will determine whether an SEO strategy and work are required from a branding perspective. There are two recommended ways to do this: the first is through incognito browsing, and the second is to browse through the computer of a friend, family member, or acquaintance to identify what results a real user different from oneself gets from the search.
And... What if my brand doesn't appear in search engines?:
After conducting the initial audit, it may happen that the brand does not appear in searches. In this case, we must question under what concepts, terms, and search phrases my website should appear, considering that each business is very different. For example, a mass consumption brand, an events company, and a local bakery are completely different businesses, and therefore, the search terms and user intentions will be different for each of them. In the case of a small local bakery or pastry shop, the strategy can be as simple as updating Google My Business. Meanwhile, if a global company or one that already has a lot of renown does not appear in search engines, this is already something more complex and requires starting to use a robust content strategy and reviewing very well what we are saying on the website because maybe we are not talking about what our business does.
Review data in Google Analytics and Google Search Console:
After conducting the initial audit or consultation, we must examine in Google Analytics what percentage of the web traffic is coming through search engines and in Google Search Console, we must filter the keywords that our brand has to know how well positioned our website is and also, what are the terms by which users mainly find us. If you do not have Google Analytics or Search Console, we invite you to do so, as they are tools that allow monitoring the performance of a website and making strategic decisions based on data. Additionally, they support and accompany businesses in their website positioning process.
Reflections on the value of good web positioning:
Let's imagine the hypothetical case that for a certain reason, we have to suspend digital advertising, either because the entire budget is gone, our card was cloned, etc. What would happen then to the business's sales? If we do not have a well-positioned website, pausing the advertising may generate an impact on sales and therefore on profitability and net income. Meanwhile, the business that has made efforts to position its website in search engines will not feel such a strong impact because people will find them easily. This perfectly justifies the importance of having an SEO strategy working permanently and not just thinking about how to benefit from search engines but also ensuring that, in case search engines stop working and social networks are down at some point, we have the certainty, security, and confidence that we have an optimized website populated with valuable content that our customers will want to reach regardless of the means they use to find it.
The balance between organic and paid:
Let's bet on growth strategies and not on cannibalization:
In terms of advertising, it is important to always have a balance between organic and paid, using a growth strategy and not cannibalization. That is, there are keywords for which we will not be able to have a good positioning either because we are just entering the market, we have never treated them, or simply there are bigger priorities, so let's use advertising for that. But, normally what happens is that the same keywords are used for positioning and for pay-per-click, so that's when cannibalization occurs.
What business or brand does not require an SEO strategy?
Anyone who does not believe or consider that they need a website for their business to work does not require an SEO strategy. That is, if there is no way my business can rely on a website and the brand does not require digital presence, then we can omit the SEO strategy.
Tips to start your SEO strategy:
Patience: ranking and positioning ourselves in what our business does takes time. Creativity: after a benchmarking process and researching what our competitors do well and also those benchmarks in our industry and other industries, we must find a way to do it better. But not simply by copying and pasting what works for others, but also giving it a personal touch and seeking differentiation and innovation thinking about the user experience.
We hope this checklist to validate whether your business requires the implementation of an SEO strategy has been useful to you, and we invite you to continue reading our blog to learn much more about search engine positioning!
