Whether you own an eCommerce or non-eCommerce website, a strong online presence is essential today. Some of the motivating factors for a strong online presence are to build visibility, credibility, brand awareness, marketing opportunities, customer engagement, and last but not the least is to gain competitive advantage. Frankly speaking, not even one of the factors can be ignored today. Even the businesses that are primarily offline, can hardly ignore any one of these.
When a website secures a robust online presence, it becomes essential, attracting traffic from a multitude of channels. Each channel holds its significance, and it’s the strategic priorities of your business that will guide which ones to focus more for an increased influx of visitors. But before we delve deeper into strategies, let’s first quickly touch upon the channels through which you can get traffic to your website.
Traffic visiting your website through search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo by keying in relevant keywords or phrases. So, optimising your website for search engines (SEO) can help enhance your organic search traffic.
Traffic who type your website’s URL directly into their browser or access it through bookmarks. These visitors typically include returning visitors or those who have been referred to your site offline and who know your website URL already.
Visitors who come to your website by clicking on a link from another website. This could be from social media platforms, other websites, blogs, online directories, or online articles.
Traffic generated from social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others. This includes visitors who click on links shared in social media posts, ads, or profiles.
Visitors who click on links in emails sent by your business. This could include newsletters, promotional emails, transactional emails, or other email campaigns.
Traffic generated from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns on search engines like Google Ads or Bing Ads. Visitors click on ads displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs) or other websites and are directed to your website.
Traffic generated from display ads placed on websites, blogs, or apps. Visitors click on banner ads or other visual ads and are directed to your website.
Traffic generated through affiliate marketing partnerships with other websites or individuals. Affiliates promote your products or services on their platforms and earn a commission for each visitor or customer they refer to your website.
Traffic generated from traditional offline marketing efforts such as print advertisements, radio ads, TV commercials, direct mail, events, or word-of-mouth referrals.
Why the Craze for Organic Traffic?
Organic traffic is considered the most favored among all the channels of traffic for several compelling reasons:
- Cost-Effectiveness: It’s free, meaning you can get traffic to your website without paying a dime, making it a highly cost-effective channel.
- High Intent Audience: Organic traffic comes to your website always with a specific intent, translating to higher conversion rates as these users are actively looking for what you offer
- Credibility and Trust: People tend to trust organic results more than paid ads, which obviously can enhance the credibility and authority of your brand.
- Sustainable Growth: Unlike paid traffic that stops with the pause of your ads, organic channel offers a stable and consistent stream of traffic over time.
- Global Reach: With a well-implemented SEO strategy, it is possible to elevate your local business to a global brand reaching potential clients worldwide.
So, Paid or Organic Traffic?
Organic traffic is considered the most valuable. While paid campaigns offer a swift kick-off, building a sustainable SEO strategy is not just important—it’s critical for the sustained growth of your business. Neglecting SEO is no longer an option if you seek to sustain and scale your business up. While paid channels may offer a quick source of traffic, they lack the staying power and the high-quality leads that organic search provides. Over time, your goal should be to build a robust organic presence, making it the primary source of traffic—driven by users who are already seeking what you have to offer.
A significant portion of the budget is allocated to web presence, which includes SEO services. For instance, in the Australian SEO industry, a whopping 53% of the industry’s budget is spent on web presence, highlighting the importance businesses place on SEO.
While you understand the pivotal role SEO plays in the growth and sustainability of your business, as an owner of a small or medium business, you are faced with a strategic decision: should I build an in-house SEO team, outsource these services, or adopt a hybrid approach? Moreover, the choice between local and offshore SEO agencies adds another layer of consideration, especially when factoring in the cost of high-quality services.
In-house, Outsourced or mixed model, what is the best to go?
This is quite a common dilemma for many small and medium size businesses. There is no single correct answer to it. You need to take a call based on your situation. However, let me help with some pros and cons for the different scenarios:
In-House SEO Team
Having an in-house SEO team has its own advantages, however there are some negatives as well. Let me list them out below:
PROs:
- Control and Alignment: Having an in-house team ensures better alignment with the company’s culture and goals, and allows for full control over SEO strategies
- Communication: Easier communication and collaboration within the company is a significant advantage of an in-house team.
CONs:
- Cost: Higher costs associated with salaries, training, and SEO tools are a common concern.
- Scalability: Limitations due to the size and skill set of the in-house team can affect scalability
Outsourcing SEO Work
Outsourcing the SEO work for your websites to external experts or agency could be great option for you to focus on things that you do best for your business.
PROs:
- Expertise: Access to specialized knowledge and experience is a key benefit of outsourcing
- Cost-Effectiveness: Outsourcing can be more cost-effective than maintaining an in-house team.
- Scalability: The ability to scale efforts up or down based on needs is facilitated by outsourcing
CONs:
- Less Control: There may be less control over strategy and execution when outsourcing.
- Communication: Potential challenges with communication and time zones can arise.
Hybrid Approach
The hybrid approach could be the best alternative for small and medium businesses with limited in-house technical know-how. It can help you leverage the strength of both in-house and outsourced solutions. While it allows for strategic internal focus; it does ensure the priority that the website SEO demands.
Numerous companies have realized significant benefits by delegating tasks to a suitable SEO agency. The effectiveness of this approach hinges on the clarity of the partnership’s structure and the meticulous monitoring of the project’s progress and outcomes.
How Hybrid Approach can be the best?
The hybrid approach considers responsibility sharing. All the technical aspects i.e. developing the SEO strategy and its implementation primarily rest with the SEO agency partner. The rather more important part, that is constant and close tracking and monitoring should rest with you or a project manager from your side. While cost consciousness is essential, that is not the primary objective. The idea is rather to get the best of both – getting the best result within the budget.