The short answer: it’s how people find you online

The more complex, nuanced answer: because major search engines (like Google, Yahoo and Bing) are the gateway to paying customers finding you online.

Aside from the glaring fact that 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine and there are over two billion people online (that’s roughly 40% of the world’s population). The reality is, a majority of your customer base is hanging out online.

Not convinced? Here’s a few more SEO statistics (circa 2023):

• Currently, over 60% of the global population has access to the internet, and therefore, uses search engines to find information.
• As of June 2021, just under 93% of all searches worldwide are conducted on Google
• 16-20% of keywords searched on Google in any given day have never been searched before.
• Google alone processes more than 40,000 keyword searches every single second. That’s over 3.5 billion searches in a single day and 1.2 trillion per year!

Not to mention the revenue potential for businesses investing in SEO:

• 40% of business revenue on average is generated by organic search.
• On a given Google search, users are 20x more likely to click the organic search result over a paid ad.
• 57% of surveyed marketers said that search engine optimization generates more leads and customers for their business than any other marketing tactic.
• Brands that post more blog posts each month generate 4.5x more leads.

The impact of local SEO for a business:

• 76% of users on Google who search for something in their local area will visit that business within one day. 28% of them will purchase something.
• 30% of all mobile searches on Google are location-based.
• In the last year alone, there has been a 1.3x increase in searches for “where to buy/find/get.”

On being found

Have you ever gotten lost in the woods?

Now, if you haven’t, consider yourself lucky. But if you have, you know the only thing in the world you want (aside from a cheeseburger) is to be found.

Picture yourself alone in the woods. Completely alone and lost. When it happens, you start doing everything in your power to make sure someone finds you.

You put on any bright clothing you have.

You waive your arms and shout at anything that even remotely resembles a human being.

You start trying to build a fire to make smoke signals.

You pull out something reflective from your bag to flash at airplanes.

You start building large man-made structures (AKA ducks) to attract attention.

You locate the highest point possible or try to find open space so you can be spotted.

The point is, you fight to be found.

You fight because your very life depends on it.

But it’s only when you’re in that kind of extreme situation that you fight. You’re trying to get someone—anyone’s—attention.

Attention is currency; especially for online search engines

Now, instead of you alone in the woods, it’s your business or your blog that’s trying to be found online. Your one job as a listing on the first page is to grab someone’s attention, hook them on your story, and “sell them” on the fact that your business is the solution to their need.

The search engine results page (SERP) is your wilderness.

The simple fact is that search engines process questions entered into a search box by real people (who have real money too!). Google processes over 3.5 billion searches every day.

It’s time to realize what it takes to be found online. And the fight is already at your doorstep. Between Google’s Mobile First index initiative and smart, connected devices everywhere, getting found is only the beginning of surviving in the digital age.