What are the benefits of SEO, and is it worth it?
Published July 24, 2025
I’ve noticed a lot of negative talk about SEO over the past few years, and I get it. It’s like every six months, there’s a new thinkpiece about how SEO is “dead” because of the ever-changing algorithm and technology behind it. But I’m here to tell you that there are still countless benefits of SEO, and it’s still something you should invest in for your business.
The SEO landscape now is more different than it’s ever been, and I think businesses need to pair SEO with Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) to make sure they’re showing up in AI results. But the strategy behind showing up in AI results still requires the same best practices we’ve always used for SEO.
So yes, SEO is worth it and has been for quite some time. It’s a unique channel that will continue to evolve, just like social media, but I do think it’s here to stay. Here are some of the benefits you can expect when you focus on building an SEO strategy for your business.
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Brand awareness
Especially these days, with more zero-click searches and AI results, the biggest benefit of SEO is actually brand awareness. That doesn’t mean you won’t get any traffic anymore–more on that below–but even more then social media, SEO is a way to make sure your business shows up when people are searching. When your business is the result for solutions they need or advice, it helps build trust and ensures your brand is top-of-mind for when they’re ready to make a purchase.
2. More qualified traffic
SEO helps you bring in more qualified traffic, which means they’re people who are more likely to work with you. They’re actively searching for the exact products and services you offer, or the topics related to your business, so they’re already showing interest.
There is one significant caveat: this isn’t true if you don’t have a strong SEO strategy in place. Through my career, I’ve noticed a lot of companies aren’t focused enough, and they end up ranking for keywords that don’t have a lot to do with their offerings. If that’s the case, then you can’t count on as much traffic from your target audience.
3. Long-term growth
SEO is a long game, but that’s great for consistent growth over time. Whenever you publish SEO content, search engines take time to crawl and index it before it can even surface on a search results page. From there, you can continue to update content over time to make sure it stays relevant and continues to rank and pull in traffic.
Over time, you’ll have more keywords ranking, higher rankings, and consistent traffic.
4. Greater cost efficiency
SEO isn’t exactly free, because you’ll likely need to invest in tools and support at some time, but it’s definitely more cost efficient than SEM (search engine marketing). In fact, you can still see great results without spending a dime.
Take me, for example. I’m working on my SEO without outsourcing anything, and I just pay $29/month for the ahrefs starter plan. As a low-cost content marketing tool, it gives me everything I need to conduct keyword research, look at my search competitors, and identify search terms that are realistic and relevant to my business.
Though time is a big factor in generating consistent results, the clients I do get are worth easily 100 times that cost, making it a huge ROI.
The challenges with SEO
Though SEO has great benefits, I wouldn’t call it easy. There are always challenges you should be aware of if you’re trying to build a solid strategy for your business. But the good news is that understanding these already gives you a leg up.
Competition
Because of the great benefits of SEO, so many other businesses are vying for the same business keywords you are. They’re writing similar content and going after that number one spot, meaning that it’s crucial to understand what’s realistic and invest in content that differentiates you from the rest.
Many variables
A big SEO misconception is that you just need to write content that meets a certain word count and incorporates the target keyword you’re going after. That might have been the case in the early years of the internet, but it hasn’t been true for a while. The variables that impact SEO include backlinks, internal links, semantic keywords, authority, research, website health, design, and more.
Technical, design, and content needs
Speaking of variables, knowing what they are will help you make sure you’re better-resourced for SEO, which can be difficult for businesses of all sizes. But overcoming this challenge just comes down to what you want to invest in. Consistent, strategic, and long-term SEO requires content planning, strategy, writing, optimizing, design, development, and consistent reporting.
Changing algorithm
Like social media, with SEO you’re beholden to another platform. In this case, Google (and the others, but mostly Google). They’ve constantly changed their search algorithm over the years, without giving too much insight into what really works–there’s no “secret formula,” after all. These days with AI search results, even more has changed. But overcoming this challenge just means sticking to writing best practices, creating a more holistic content calendar, and writing for your audience above all.
Consistent content creation
Because there’s a ton of competition in SEO, that means so much content is being pushed out daily. In order to compete, you need to do the same. A page you rank number one for could easily be eclipsed by a new post within a few months. But don’t panic–that doesn’t mean you always need new content. Instead, focusing on optimizing and refreshing what you have can be key to maintaining your traffic.
Outsource to reap the benefits of SEO faster
Your content team is probably juggling a million different tasks and barely thinking of SEO as a unique strategy. Or, maybe you aren’t paying attention to it at all.
No matter what the case is, now is the time to invest in it. While other businesses are still stuck in the old way of doing SEO, there’s a clear opportunity for businesses to step up to the plate and get ahead in ways they couldn’t have done before.
If you’re ready to outsource, I’d be happy to help guide you to success. My content strategy package includes an overview of how you should be using SEO and AEO, and I can even help manage your monthly content calendar and content creation from there. Let’s make sure your business is the first thing your audience sees when they’re searching for help.
