You may have the best product on the market, the best brand in your industry, or the best service in your area, but if you are not highly visible online, no one will ever know. Having a strong web presence isn’t just important; it is essential to the success of a business in our digital age. The only way to guarantee that your company is being seen is through search engine marketing.

The Internet is an infinite universe of websites containing more information than you could ever imagine. With this in mind, how do you expect potential customers to find your specific website? Do you suppose they will just stumble upon it like a space traveler searching for human life out in the vast universe beyond our galaxy? That is highly unlikely if your website is not designed to be promoted by search engines.

As many as 93% of Internet experiences begin with a search engine. Google and other search engines use a complex algorithm to determine which websites are featured first, which are ranked highest, and which will be easily found based on they keywords you input. This is where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) gets really complicated. Ultimately, an SEO marketing team is your best (if not only) chance at online visibility, and thus, success overall.

Here’s another metaphor. Think about celebrities. Celebrities are normal people who are discovered and promoted. This doesn’t usually just happen randomly. Celebrities hire agents who understand how the media, or a particular industry, works. Agents will highlight the celebrity’s traits that are most likely to get her noticed based on predetermined parameters. SEO services are like agents. They can’t guarantee to make you famous, but they are experts at how to get your business noticed based on what they know about the algorithm.

The truth is, leads that come from search engine marketing have a 14.6% close rate. In contrast, leads generated through mail or print advertising have a 1.7% close rate. Furthermore, inbound leads (those generated through SEO) cost 61% less than outbound leads such as those you would get from a cold call.

You don’t want your website to get lost among the billions of other sites floating around the online universe. SEO can make sure that doesn’t happen.