6 reasons why you should invest in SEO for your business

By Abby Fields for WebFX Stacker

Updated May 13, 2026 11:30 AM

Traffic is declining. Generative search is rising. Why invest in SEO again? WebFX explains.

Investing in SEO improves website visibility in traditional and generative search experiences, providing a long-term and cost-effective growth strategy that builds brand visibility and revenue.

Organic search traffic does not require a per-click fee.

Why invest in SEO?

Investing in SEO matters because search visibility directly impacts market share, customer acquisition, and long-term revenue growth.

Here's the market reality:

Search drives buying decisions: If your business doesn't appear when potential customers are searching, competitors will capture that demand.
Organic rankings can't be bought: Aside from pay-per-click (PPC), you can't pay your way into long-term organic visibility. SEO is what allows you to earn and sustain rankings over time.
Consumers expect answers instantly: Modern buyers research, compare, and validate businesses online before making decisions. Companies that consistently satisfy search intent build authority and trust - those that don't lose credibility.

In competitive markets, businesses that invest in SEO strengthen their visibility over time, while those that ignore it gradually lose digital presence.

If you want to compete effectively online, SEO is foundational.

What are the benefits of investing in SEO?

Investing in SEO can bring several benefits to businesses, including boosting their long-term success and growth. Here are six reasons why businesses invest in SEO:

1. Capture high-intent, revenue-driving traffic

Quality traffic is essential for ensuring that your target audience, or the consumers most interested in your products, finds your brand online. SEO can help you ensure that the users searching for keywords related to your business find your products and services online.

Because SEO will help you rank higher on results pages, more potential customers interested in your products will find your brand, resulting in increased quality traffic to your website for your business.

2. Build brand awareness and credibility

Building your brand recognition, awareness, and credibility is essential for establishing a loyal customer base that will keep coming back to your business and attracting new potential customers in the process.

With many SEO strategies focusing on your content marketing, SEO can help you create informational and helpful content that will resonate with consumers.

When consumers find that your content and website help them by answering their questions or providing a solution to their problems, they are likely to view your business as an expert in your industry, improving your brand authority and credibility.

And as a bonus, SEO increases your visibility online, so more consumers will find your business and interact with your brand, increasing your brand awareness.

3. Deliver a competitive user experience

Because consumers often shop with a competitor after a poor experience on a website, creating a seamless user experience is essential for keeping consumers on your website and browsing your products until they are ready to make a purchase.

Search engines often consider user experience when deciding which websites and content to rank highest on the results page.

SEO improves user experience by optimizing site structure, speed, and content clarity. As a result, users find what they need faster, and search engines reward your site with stronger rankings.

4. Improve digital marketing's return on investment (ROI)

Your ultimate goal for a digital marketing strategy is most likely to achieve the best return on investment (ROI) for your marketing efforts.

Fortunately, SEO can help.

SEO works hand-in-hand with other digital marketing strategies, including content marketing and online advertising. Using SEO strategies can help ensure that users find your marketing campaigns online, such as your newly created content.

SEO works together with other digital marketing strategies to boost their success and attract more consumers through online channels. As a result, you'll enjoy increased sales and revenue, meaning you can ultimately improve your digital marketing ROI.

5. Generate long-term business growth

A primary benefit of SEO is that it can boost the long-term success of your business. Unlike many other traditional marketing campaigns, SEO is a long-term and ongoing strategy.

SEO helps you continuously stay updated with search engines and optimize your website and content to continually attract customers online.

You can continue to see the results from your SEO strategy years after you invested in it.

This means when you decide to invest in SEO, your business can expand and reach your target audience and boost sales and revenue, allowing your business to grow and reach new heights.

6. Appear in generative search experiences

From Google's AI Overviews to ChatGPT conversations, businesses and consumers are using generative search to solve problems and purchase solutions.

How companies appear in these generative search experiences starts with SEO, which helps power generative search responses (platforms like ChatGPT, for example, use search engine results pages when browsing the web).

That's why companies that have been investing in SEO have seen immediate results as generative search grows (it's currently growing 165 times faster than organic search) through:

Improved traffic quality
Increased referral traffic
Higher conversion rates for referral traffic from generative AI platforms

Who should invest in SEO?

Companies of all sizes, audiences, and business models should consider investing in SEO because:

SEO budgets can scale to all business sizes, whether spending $500 per month as a small business or $5,000 per month as an enterprise
SEO performance compounds, allowing businesses to benefit from SEO content created last quarter, last month, and today (though SEO requires ongoing maintenance)
SEO returns take time (typically three to six months), so investing sooner rather than later is the smarter business strategy

It's worth mentioning that SEO investments will look different across organizations. If you're looking for guidance on what investing in SEO should look like, though, consider these foundational items:

Set up a robots.txt and XML sitemap (SEO plugins can assist with these technical requirements)
Map relevant search terms (or keywords) to existing service or product pages
Optimize these existing pages, using the target terms in the title tag, meta description, headings, and body copy, while respecting readability and the user experience
Link to these existing pages from your navigation (if possible and within reason) and from other relevant pages on your website to help users and crawlers discover the page

Is now the right time to invest in SEO?

The evolution of search suggests that SEO remains a relevant strategy for digital visibility.

Whether searching using Google, conversing with ChatGPT, or browsing Perplexity, search engine optimization is the avenue for businesses looking to appear in these experiences, whether as a link or brand mention.

This story was produced by WebFX and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 7:00 AM.