Search engine optimization (SEO) is a favorite strategy for online businesses worldwide. With the help of content and offsite links, you can increase any business’s rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). But is this a worthwhile marketing strategy for food and beverage brands, specifically?
The Value of SEO
SEO itself tends to be valuable for several reasons, including:
· Specific audience targeting. You will be in charge of choosing the target keywords for your campaign. In other words, you’ll choose what types of SERPs you want to dominate. It allows you to practice specific audience targeting since you’ll be able to effectively list your website at or near the top of results for the most valuable keywords for your brand. You can also target customers based on where they are in the buying cycle by making slight adjustments to your keyword and phrase targeting.
· long-term growth potential. Most brands love SEO because it has fantastic long-term growth potential. Most of the assets you generate throughout your optimization strategy will be permanent or semi-permanent, meaning they provide value indefinitely. You’ll also build more and more authority over time, increasing the power of each strategic move you make late in the development of your campaign. In other words, your results will get better and better over time.
· Inexpensiveness. Considering the massive return on investment (ROI) you can milk out of an SEO strategy, SEO is inexpensive. You might be paying thousands of dollars monthly to hire an SEO agency to help you, but you’ll be making all that back and more from your increased traffic.
· Cohesiveness with other strategies. People also love search optimization because of its cohesiveness with other strategies. SEO works hugely well with PPC advertising, content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing. You can use many of the same assets and tap into the same pools of prospects.
Drawbacks of SEO
There are, however, some drawbacks associated with search optimization, including:
· Outreach channel limitations. If you are only optimizing for search, you’re only going to reach people actively searching for keywords related to your brand. If no one is searching for the types of food you offer, or if there are specific market segments that don’t use search engines for this purpose, you will be left with untapped potential.
· Competition. Thousands of food brands have already been practicing SEO for many years. If you’re entering the game for the first time, you will face unprecedented competition. It can make your strategy artificially more difficult and expensive.
· Barriers to initial growth. You probably won’t see results for your first few months of strategic development. If you’re practicing the strategy on your own, without an agency’s help, you will also face a steep learning curve.
Managing SEO for Food and Beverage Brands
As a food and beverage brand, there are several things you can do to make SEO even more valuable for your business:
· Work with an agency. It’s possible to learn the basics of SEO in the span of an afternoon, but it could take you a lifetime to learn all the nuances and complexities of this strategy. Accordingly, it’s usually best to work with a professional marketing agency if you want to pursue this strategy. An agency will provide you with direction, guidance, and many specialists who can help you execute the work. Even better, they will be dedicated to providing you with the best possible results.
· Invest consistently (and remain patient). Unfortunately, many foods and beverage brands ultimately stop investing in SEO simply because they grow impatient after seeing little to no results after the first few months. If you’re serious about making this strategy work, you need to be prepared for months of investment before you start seeing a measurable impact.
· Use keyword targeting to your advantage. Keyword targeting can make or break the average SEO campaign. Choosing the right keywords can help you reach the right audience, guide their behavior, and avoid competition simultaneously. Conversely, wrong keywords can kill your strategy prematurely, causing you to spend too much money while seeing inferior results.
Conclusion:
Is SEO a worthwhile strategy for most food and beverage brands? The short answer is yes. Some significant obstacles to overcome include rampant competition, high initial costs, and slow momentum at the beginning. But if you can get past those, SEO is a valuable addition to your marketing strategy portfolio that can complement and enhance your other strategies. More than that, it’s one of the best long-term marketing strategies available, allowing you to grow almost infinitely as you invest more time and effort.
