According to HubSpot, 69% of marketers actively invest in SEO. But is SEO worth the time and money in your case? If you’re looking for a quick, straightforward answer to this question, just use this flowchart:
Flowchart to help determine if SEO is worth it
Here’s how it works: If the answer to both questions is “yes,” then SEO is probably worth it for you. This is because SEO increases your chance to rank high for relevant search queries and get consistent, qualified traffic that you don’t need to pay for.
But if the answer to all of them is “no,” then you may be better off with a different type of marketing.
Not sure how to answer those questions? Read on to learn more.
Question 1. Are potential customers searching for what you sell or do?
If you run a local business, then the answer to this question is almost certainly “yes”—at least statistically:
4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information (Google).
76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day (Google).
28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase (Google).
In short, if you’re not showing up for relevant local queries, then you’re leaving money on the table. Local SEO helps with this, and we have a full guide on that.
But if you have an e-commerce, SaaS, or small online business, this may not be the case, especially if you’re doing something completely new or really niche.
Search for "smart bathing system" in Ahrefs' free keyword generator turns up no results
Companies producing smart bathing systems (or smart baths) like Kohler probably need to invest in other types of marketing before people really catch up with their technology. Right now, everyone is just taking a normal bath. Data via Ahrefs’ free keyword generator.
So the first step is to plug what you do or sell into a keyword research tool and see if there’s any search volume.
For example, if we plug “commissary kitchen” into Ahrefs’ free keyword generator, we see that it has an estimated monthly search volume of 5,900 in the U.S. alone. This answers our question: People are searching for what we do.
Keyword ideas found by Ahrefs' free keyword generator for "commissary kitchen"
But even if this isn’t the case, people may be searching for individual products or services you offer. So it’s worth plugging some of these into a keyword tool as well to see if people are searching for them. If that’s not the case, don’t worry. SEO may still be worthwhile—and that brings us to question #2.
recommended name is what makes affiliate marketing such a powerful pillar of digital marketing.
Question 2. Are potential customers searching for solutions to problems your business helps to solve?
Even if people aren’t searching directly for what you do or sell, they may be searching for problems to solutions you can help with. And whatsapp number list there’s quite a high chance for this given that:
68% of online experiences begin with a search engine (BrightEdge).
71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search instead of queries containing a brand name or product (Google).
53% of shoppers say they always do research before a purchase to ensure they are making the best possible choice (Google).
For example, we have a tool called Content Explorer that’s basically a searchable database of billions of webpages. Virtually nobody is searching for it on Google. However, they’re searching for problems the tool helps to solve, such as link prospecting or finding content ideas.
Content Explorer search results for "fitness"
Topics with high traffic potential and low competition. Results are in English and show sites that a new site can compete with. Go.
SEO is often worthwhile in this case because you can create content that teaches searchers how to solve their problems with the help of your product or service. This is precisely what we do at Ahrefs.