Do not underestimate the importance of Search Engine Optimization for a website. SEO gives a site the opportunity to have higher rankings and increase traffic.  The following takes a look at SEO facts and stats.

SEO is an online marketing strategy that improves the ranking of a website in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), which in turn increases online user traffic. Research shows that users are influenced by search engine results. If your site does not rank as high as possible in search engine results, the chances are online users will not visit your site. Therefore, without good SEO your site will miss out user traffic and revenue.   

Online Users

Think about the way users search for content online. After typing a keyword into a search engine search box they are most likely to use the first 10 links of the first page of results. What if the most valuable site (your site) was on page three, but, they missed it because it did not have good SEO?

SEO Facts and Stats

Some SEO facts and stats include:

• Online visitors make frequent use of search engines to find products and content.
• Users believe that the website links at the top of a search engine are the most credible or relevant.
• Bad SEOed sites will not rank well in search engines.
• Sites without SEO will not rank well in search engines.
• Top ranking sites make more profit from increased online traffic.
• Users have a tendency to use another search engine, rather than stay on a search engine that has insufficient results on the first page.
• Users have the tendency to change their keyword searches, rather than search other pages in a search engine.
• Less than 25% of users search the second page of search engines.
• Less than 10% of users click the second ranking link on search engines.
• Almost 100% of users change their keyword search after their initial search is unsuccessful.
• Over 40% of users click the first ranking site on search engines.
• Over 40% of users change their keyword search if they cannot find what they are looking for on the first page of search engines.
• Over 50% of online buyers purchase products from websites found via search engines.
• Over 60% of users search sites on the first page of search engines.
• Over 70% of users find a website via a search engine.
• Over 70% of users do not search through search engines after the fourth results page.
• Over 70% of users like to use the web to find out about new products.
• Over 80% of users use search engines to find a website.

Optimise Your Site for SEO

Most online users use search engines to:

• Find content
• Find websites
• Find Products

If your site is not well ranked in search engines the chances are that users will not find your site. This will result in the loss of traffic and profit. On the other hand, if your site ranks well in search engines then it increases it's chances of success. Without SEO your site will be missed by search engine "spiders" and online visitors. If your site is not easily found in search engine results then online users will not go the extra mile to find it. They will rather use another site listed in the results.

Conclusion

SEO facts and stats show that online users frequently use search engines to find content, websites or products. Search engines rank sites that are SEO friendly. If your site is not indexed and ranked by search engines users will simply go to another site. Pay attention to the above SEO facts and stats when deciding on the importance of SEO. 

Further Articles

• What is SEO?
• Why is SEO Important?
• Why Use an SEO Consultant?
• SEO and Search Engine Rankings
• SEO Evaluations