Is SEO Worth It? 63% of Businesses Think So — Here’s Why

Whether you’re worried about artificial intelligence in search engine optimization (SEO) or meeting SEO benchmarks, you’re not alone in asking this question: Is SEO worth it?

To 63% of businesses that invest in it, it is.

From our decades of experience, we can say that search engine optimization is worth it for most businesses (we’ll share the exceptions below).

• Is SEO Worth It?
• How Do I Know if SEO is Worth It for My Business?
• Why is SEO Really Worth It?
• Examples of SEO’s Worth
• 4 Reasons Companies Question SEO’s Worth
• Is an SEO Company Worth It?
• Make SEO Worth It for Your Business with SEO Experts
• FAQs About SEO’s Value

Is SEO worth it?

Yes, SEO is worth it. As long as potential customers search for your product or services online or solutions to problems you solve, then SEO is a valuable marketing strategy that can drive a continuous web traffic, leads, and sales for your business.

How do I know if SEO is worth it for my business?

Find out if SEO is worth it for your small business or growing company:

1. Does your target market use search engines to research problems your business solves?
2. Does your target market use search engines to purchase products your business sells?

If you answered “Yes” to either of the above questions, search engine optimization is worth it. That’s because SEO meets your market in search engine results pages (SERPs), which helps your company connect with new potential customers. Finding a reputable SEO consultancy may be a worthy investment for you!

If you answered “No” to both questions above, then SEO probably isn’t worth it!

Why is SEO really worth it?

Why is SEO really worth it for businesses and webmasters, though? A few reasons including:

SEO helps build brand awareness

With search engine optimization, companies can grow awareness for their:

• Brand
• Products
• Services

Businesses have used SEO throughout the decades to build brand awareness by:

• Producing content that targets top-of-the-funnel queries, like “espresso machine advantages”
• Attracting backlinks from reputable sites, like blogs, in their industry
• Optimizing content for on-the-go voice searches, like “kid-friendly restaurants near me”

Today, many businesses also pair SEO with digital PR services to amplify these efforts. Digital PR helps brands secure media mentions, online features, and authoritative backlinks that complement SEO strategies and expand reach beyond search alone.

What’s great about using SEO for this purpose is you don’t have to pay for the clicks to your site. In comparison, when you use paid advertising to build brand awareness, you pay every time someone visits your website.

SEO helps attract qualified traffic

Search engine optimization is also worth it because SEO attracts qualified traffic to your site by:

• Focusing on long-tail keywords vs. short-tail keywords
• Targeting search queries relevant to your audience vs. the general market
• Producing content related to your audience’s niche needs vs. the broad market

Digital marketing success is based on quality vs. quantity, which is why SEO is so effective. With SEO, you can get as niche (or as broad) as you like without the cost of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on places like Google Ads or Facebook Advertising.

SEO helps nurture consumers

With SEO, your business can also nurture consumers through the buying stages:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision
• Purchase
• Post-purchase

Creating SEO-friendly content allows your company to meet users where they’re at, whether they’re researching solutions to a problem or putting your product or service to use, and then nurture them to the next stage in the sales funnel.

For example, if someone starts searching for espresso machines and their benefits, they’ll likely have questions about espresso machine maintenance, costs, and more. If you have SEO content on your site, you can answer these questions and increase your chances of them becoming customers.

SEO helps drive leads and sales

Companies wouldn’t invest in search engine optimization if it didn’t improve the bottom line.

The value of SEO has been known for decades by generating qualified leads and sales for businesses. All the earlier benefits of SEO (like building brand awareness, attracting qualified traffic, and nurturing users) lead to this point. For example, SEO for recreation and entertainment can help locals and tourists discover businesses like museums, arcades, and campgrounds.

Similarly, a specialized strategy for dental SEO ensures that high-value local patients find a specific practice exactly when they are searching for a new provider.

SEO achieves this goal by blending search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

For example, your SEO content for a product page will include optimized CRO elements, like the page design, call-to-action, and visuals that make purchasing your product more compelling and easier for shoppers.

Proving the value of SEO: Businesses that prove SEO worth

Skeptical as whether SEO is worth it for you? Here are some real businesses who got value from SEO:

Driving more revenue through organic search

KOA came to us because, despite have a big, national, physical presence, their online presence didn’t match it. They knew that having a strong online presence would help get more campers to their campgrounds, but they didn’t know where to start.

We created a custom built organic SEO strategy for them that focused on capturing organic search demand and outranking competing campgrounds.

Their investment led to:

• 260% increase in organic revenue
• 198% increase in organic transactions
• 15% increase in organic conversion rate

See how KOA did it

Growing practice operations because of SEO

Merrimack Valley Psychological Associates is a great example of the value of SEO because it shows the real-world impact of investing in SEO. They came to us because they had limited online visibility and wanted to change that, so they could reach and help more patients.

They had a challenge reaching their local community, so we helped them change that. With a search strategy built for their practice, we helped establish trust and credibility through content, optimize service pages for high-value conversion keywords, and improve their local SEO strategy to connect with their community.

That lead to Merrimack:

• Experiencing 2X growth in revenue in six months
• Hiring 6 additional team members to keep up with patient demand

See how Merrimack did it

4 reasons companies question SEO value

Are SEO services worth it? Absolutely – but there are always hestiancies. These are the most common ones clients share:

1. Investment/Cost

Like anything else, cost is the biggest initial objection we hear from prospective clients, and understandably so. SEO often feels like one of those things that it’s really hard to know if the investment is actually worth it. It leaves a lot of businesses hesitating to pull the trigger and commit to SEO.

Let me assuage your fears: Our clients see anywhere from $8 to $120+ ROI per dollar spent on SEO. The number fluctuates depending upon factors like industry, competition, etc., but at a baseline, our clients see good returns on their investment in SEO.

So even though SEO feels like this risky investment, it’s not — If you have the right team handling your SEO, you’re going to see good returns from your search strategy.

2. Time to ROI

Another common objection to SEO is time to ROI. Now, I can’t really blame anyone for this one since SEO takes a minimum of 3 months to deliver ROI. Moreso, most businesses typically see solid results closer to 6–12 months in.

So, it feels nervewracking to invest all that money into something that you can’t see the effects of until months later.

But, as I shared earlier, many businesses see really good results from investing in SEO. Does it take time? Yes. But it’s an investment worth waiting to see the results.

Once you have your SEO strategy launched and delivering results, it works 24/7 for you. It keeps giving you visibility and driving leads that turn into customers.

Plus, you can supplement your search strategy with PPC in the meantime, so you can get immediate visibility in search results while your SEO strategy is building momentum.

3. Previous bad companies

Interstingly enough, we actually get a lot of companies that are hesitant to invest in SEO because of a bad prior experience with an SEO company.

And honestly, who can blame them?

When you work with a bad SEO agency, it can put a sour taste in your mouth about SEO. Sometimes it even serves as confirmation bias for people — they were already hestitant about SEO, and now a bad agency is “confirming” those thoughts.

But in reality, the SEO isn’t bad — it’s just a bad SEO company doing it.

Choosing the right SEO agency is paramount because it can make or break your experience with SEO, especially if you’re already hestitant about investing.

That’s why it’s good to get recommendations from others businesses that can speak to the work of an agency. That, and third-party review sites like Clutch or G2 are a great way to get detailed reviews about businesses’ experiences with an agency.

4. Changing search landscape

In just the last year or so, the search landscape has shifted greatly. AI is taking center stage, impacting search as we know it. So, it’s left a lot of people saying, “Why should I bother investing in SEO if AI is taking over?”

Here’s a little secret I’m going to share with you: Good SEO actually matters in AI search.

Here’s a great example: A recent Ahrefs study found that adding schema to pages didn’t significantly influence a page’s ability to get in AI search results. But here’s the plot twist: AI was three times more likely to cite pages that had schema than those that didn’t.

Conflicting, huh?

But actually, this is a big indicator that doing SEO right (and having pages optimized for search engines) does have impact, even in an AI search world. Schema is a key component of SEO, so it’s likely those pages are doing more than just schema — they’re also following other SEO best practices.

So even though the search landscape is changing, SEO still has huge impact. Now, it’s just about combining AI search strategy with SEO best practices to master today’s search landscape.

Is an SEO company worth it?

It’s not just SEO business owners wonder about — it’s also SEO companies and how to tell if they’re working.

Businesses have varying experiences with SEO services providers, some good and some bad. These experiences can make business owners question if SEO consulting services are worth it, especially after a negative experience.

While SEO companies, including enterprise SEO companies, are often worth the investment, their worth depends on:

• Delivering results
• Practicing white-hat vs. black-hat SEO
• Understanding a customer’s needs
• Sharing progress, performance metrics, and other relevant updates

If you want to know how to these types of companies, consider our guide on hiring an SEO agency.

FAQs about SEO value

Learn more about SEO’s value with these FAQs:

Make SEO worth the investment for your business with SEO experts

SEO is worth it for small, midsized, and large companies, so don’t hesitate to use this digital marketing strategy to grow your brand awareness, website traffic, and revenue. If you’re looking for a partner that can help develop, implement, and manage your SEO, contact us today! Our team of SEO specialists can’t wait to help you achieve your business goals with SEO!

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