The Gift of SEO: Why Investing in SEO This Christmas Pays Off Year-Round

Getting your web SEO right could positively affect your sales and productivity, not just at Christmas but throughout other seasons, too. Yes, it might be time-consuming and may mean dealing with constantly changing algorithms, but chasing SEO perfection still has the power to transform your business. 

 

That’s because your website is not just another marketing tool; it is a powerful sales platform, bringing income into the business. And every investment you make into driving customers into your online sales funnel will generally be repaid. So, how can good SEO practice drive better business, not just this Christmas but the other 11 months of the year, too? 

Having a strong online presence works for your business on multiple levels. Firstly, it can give you a national and even international standing, allowing you to reach into markets that other more physical forms of marketing can’t reach. However, a strong website also establishes you as a market leader in the local area. It’s the best of both worlds. And by adopting good SEO practices, you can help boost visibility and drive people towards your website and into your sales funnel. Search engine optimisation is the best way of doing just that. 

 

The benefits of SEO for your website include a much-needed boost to your business credibility and trustworthiness while increasing visibility and online presence. It will help you rank higher in searches and present your business to a wider audience. SEO can also help to boost the user experience and engagement, which, as we move into 2025, is a fundamental principle of good web design. Done well, SEO can also help to increase conversions, sales and revenue. 

You might be wondering how to go about improving your SEO. The days of keyword stuffing are over. Search engines are far too sophisticated to fall for poorly written content crammed with badly scanned search terms. It’s all about creating engaging, relevant and interesting content. When people search the internet, the engines look for content that will give them what they want. If your content is well-directed and interesting your site will rank well and stand a good chance of being seen, especially with the advent of Google’s AI Overviews. These innovative search features use generative AI to provide quick answers as part of search results. They appear above the traditional search results, sometimes as mini-articles, lists or tables. The overview includes clickable links to the websites used to generate this content. Google’s tool is designed to understand and prioritise good content, so it’s worth investing in your SEO game to ensure you hit the mark with AI overviews. 

 

However, it’s not just about the search engines. It’s also about the user experience. Almost three-quarters of users say that their online experience is a key factor in making a purchase. Interestingly, around 86% of users say they are happy to pay for a better customer experience. 

 

We pointed out above that the days of keyword stuffing are gone, but they still have a role to play. Only now you need to use them strategically and naturally. This is still effective at bringing users to your site. With so much competition online, short-tail keywords can be tricky to crack, but longer-tail keywords can still be very effective, so think about what makes your business special. 

 

Perhaps most importantly of all, you need to adopt a mobile-first approach. About nine in 10 people now access websites through their smartphones, and if your site is not optimised for mobiles you might be driving a lot of traffic away. 

Of course, all of the above takes time to implement. And, if you don’t have time, it will take a financial investment. You need to remember that, unlike some more traditional forms of marketing, the results of SEO won’t be immediate. So don’t think that just because you have written a few blog posts the sales will start rolling in. SEO takes time and dedication to be effective, but when it starts to work you should see the business start to steadily grow. It’s usually reckoned to take between four months and a year to start seeing the results of good SEO. Try to set realistic goals, such as increasing traffic by 50% over six months or improving brand awareness. In terms of financial outlay, most small businesses spend between £400 and £1000 a month, but you can achieve great results on even smaller budgets if you target your SEO correctly. Ultimately, what you spend should reflect what you expect to get back from your SEO efforts. 

 

So, even though you might not see the results of your SEO investment this Christmas, start implementing good practices now and within a few months, and for the rest of the year, you might begin to reap the rewards. Get into good habits now, and you could establish an SEO routine that really puts your business on the map in 2025.