Optimizing a website for search engines is a smart decision for any business — but do you really know all the benefits of a full-service, organic, search engine optimization campaign? If you are a seasoned veteran in the industry, you might, but most people in the industry still don’t understand all the benefits.

I’ll lay them out for you here.

Benefits of Organic Search Engine Optimization:

1. More Traffic: The first thing most people associate with search engine optimization is increased Web site traffic. For small- to medium-sized companies, this is usually the only focus, but larger companies tend to realize quickly that SEO can accomplish much more than just increases in site traffic.

2. Increased Branding: Does McDonald’s really need to buy all those banners to remind you that they still sell Big Macs? The answer is ‘no.’ They are capitalizing upon the branding their name — so next time you think of a tasty burger, you will think of those famous golden arches.

Most companies believe they are too small to even think about branding — but that is a mistake. Any company that is serious about optimizing its Web site needs to consider ways to brand the company name, even if the name is exclusive to a single city. Many companies have become established as industry leaders through little more than the power of the Web.

3.Build Creditability: Have you ever reviewed a product online before you purchased it — or decided not to purchase it? Well, you’re not alone; hundreds of thousands of searches are done every day on products and services, and much business is generated or lost because of search returns.

If you are optimizing ethically, you are probably using article submissions and/or press releases for back links. These should show up in search engine result pages, as well, and returns should be especially high if someone searches your company name. So, whether you know it or not, you are building creditability for your organization for those researching it.

Example:

Do a search for our company, “Eyeflow Internet Marketing” — and you will see thousands of results; however, most are educational articles that put our company in a positive light. So, any potential customers researching us are not going to find any bad reviews or negative articles. We control what the client sees,and we obviously show the information that helps us most.

4. Better Conversion Ratios: All the traffic in Google won’t help if you’re not converting traffic to sales, or at the very least, leads. With any SEO campaign, you should focus just as much on converting the traffic coming into your site as you focus on getting your traffic up.

5. Building an Asset: With an organic SEO campaign, you are building up an asset that has a tangible value; it’s a value that persists years after you stop optimizing a Web site. (I’d like to see that with any other advertising medium.) I have seen people build and optimize Web sites that have become so successful that they sell them to a competitor, earning more money than they could make using the site for their own company.

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