SEO ranking determines your SERP (search engine results pages). The algorithm examines your domain and decides that when someone uses a keyword closely related to your industry, you’ll appear as a first result, second result, seventh result, or just on the second page (the best place to hide a dead body).
Ranking high in search engine result pages can determine the success of your business in more ways than one. This is why people spend so much money on SEO, however, for a lot of people, the understanding of why this matters doesn’t go past the surface level.
People know intuitively that ranking well is good and that it can translate into higher traffic and revenue. What they don’t understand is why exactly.
So, to help you set your priorities straight, here’s a brief breakdown of why ranking high in search engine result pages is even more important than you originally thought. This will help you justify a much higher SEO budget and explain why prioritizing search engine optimization is so important for the future of your enterprise.
Most visitors pick one of the first few results
The simplest answer to why high Google rankings matter so much is that unless you’re in the top SERPs, most of your audience won’t even give you a chance.
The majority of people are not willing to invest much effort into research. Unless they’re looking for something incredibly niche and are unable to find it, they’ll never look past the first few results.
In the past, the vast majority of people only looked at the first result, but today, the statistics are ridiculous. According to one estimate, roughly 99% of all searchers only look at the first page of Google results. The first link receives 27.6% of this traffic. To put it in gaming terms, in 2024, SEO is ridiculously overpowered.
The reasons behind this are numerous.
First, Google is much better at understanding the meaning behind people’s searches, which means that they’re much more accurate when it comes to presenting SERPs. In other words, you get exactly what you’re looking for, even if you didn’t use the best possible KW, since AI-powered Google now understands the intent behind the search much better.
Second, even if you don’t end up buying from the first result, you’ll still take a look at it. Then, you may proceed to the following several results for comparison, but that’s it; it doesn’t go much further.
Ranking high in search engine results affects your authority
When you rank high on search engine result pages, people trust you more.
Why?
Well, people aren’t exactly sure how search engines work. Some SEO specialists even have a surface-level understanding of all the processes that help assign a page’s position in SERPs. What they do know is that a set of criteria is used to determine the trustworthiness of your pages.
In other words, they don’t have the time or the interest to spend hours trying to verify the credibility of your sources. However, they trust that Google has already done that and is now giving them results based on this.
They believe that the No.1 result is better than the No.2, that the second one is better than the third, and so on.
While this is not always the case, they’re not that much off either.
A higher ranking on Google requires a lot of effort. The sources have to be verified, the writing needs to be extraordinary, and the overall formatting of the page has to be user-friendly (and crawler-friendly).
Now, what they see on your site is what they assume about your entire business. If they see that your page is great and ranks great, they’ll automatically assume that you’re a significant force in your industry and this reputation helps you grow.
When people ask why Google is the best, the simplest answer is that they have the best algorithm. It’s the most user-friendly and delivers the user with the answer they’re looking for with the greatest accuracy. Now, a large part of this lies in its ability to present credible, verified information as top results. This is the company that you want to keep.
A lot of people just read a snippet
According to some of the latest statistics, roughly 65% of all searches end without a user clicking on a single result.
Why?
Well, because Google Rich Answers has drastically improved over the past few years, users can just read what they want to know from the snippet.
You cannot appear as a featured answer without high Google rankings. If you don’t believe us, just google something, starting with “how,” “how much,” or “why.” Then, read an answer and consider whether you need to look any further (whether the answer was complete). Once you’re done, look at the URL and try to see if the answer featured in the snippet comes from the No.1 answer.
If it’s not No.1, it’s definitely No.2 or No.3, which tells you all you need to know about qualifying here.
Now, some may dismiss the value of these snippets. After all, they don’t seem to contribute directly to revenue increase or traffic. Moreover, even if they don’t click, they interact with your brand. This means that they’re pushed further down their customer lifecycle than they were before.
The explanation is simple, whether you call it the rule of seven or anything else. According to this principle, in order to become a paying customer, a person first has to interact with your business at least seven times. Reading a snippet on your blog post can be one such instance. It increases your odds of reaching brand recognition status, even if they don’t come to your page or make an immediate purchase.
It gives you a massive PR boost
People living in the 21st century sometimes have a hard time telling apart between the real and the digital world. In their minds, a business that’s bigger online is bigger in real life, as well. This is why ranking high on search engine result pages can give you such an incredible PR boost.
Just think about it: without seeing actual sales reports, what can a customer just looking you up online tell about your business? Without seeing independent research by a third party or picking up various stats, there’s really not that much they can do to tell how your business runs.
However, SEO is as much psychology as digital marketing. Humans, being humans, cannot avoid making conclusions (even if they are based on nothing other than optics and guesswork).
If they can only see your site and your Google rank, that’s what they’ll base their opinion on. So, if you rank better than your competitors, they’ll automatically assume that you’re doing better than them.
With the higher search engine rankings, you can easily represent your business as doing much better than it actually is. If you rank third or fourth, you’ll easily be seen as a business with a much larger share of the market.
Obtaining this share of the market would take years of hard labor, but ranking high in search engine result pages can be done with a several-month SEO campaign.
Life has a habit of imitating art, so this perceived strength generates more strength, which means that this share of the market will be yours sooner than you expect. This is the classic – fake it until you make it a strategy that works in every other industry. When you think about it, it’s what digital marketing is all about.
It’s a cost-effective marketing
The last thing you need to understand is that the ROI of your SEO is really easy to track.
One of the myths about how hard it is to determine the ROI of your SEO originates from the early days of this digital marketing format. In reality, you can observe your increase in traffic, conversion rate, and revenue.
Most importantly, unlike PPC (which increases your traffic while you’re paying for it), SEO has lasting effects. Sure, the bump in traffic is not as big initially, but once your DA grows and your high Google rankings kick in, they’re there to stay.
Even with frequent algorithm changes, when done right, there’s nothing to fear. The only people who fear algorithm changes are those who employ black-hat techniques or try to find shortcuts for growth. You see, it’s not just about ranking high in search engine result pages; it’s about doing so consistently, year after year.
For instance, when earning links instead of just buying them, you don’t have to worry about any future changes. When your entire content is high-quality, and all your partnerships are fair and based on mutual exchange of value, your presence will scale great.
While ads are important, SEO eventually starts living a life of its own. Once your site is positioned well enough, the traffic will come organically; people will stay longer, and they’ll interact more with your content. Coincidentally, these are all ranking factors that will further facilitate this snowball effect.
Better rank leads to more favorable outcomes in the business world
At the end of the day, ranking high in search engine result pages is an incredible opportunity for small businesses to become far more competitive. It’s a great way to get noticed, be seen as credible, and benefit from one of the biggest PR boosts that digital marketing can afford. This is why, for a business of any size (and especially a smaller business), SEO investments are a must.
