You might know what SEO is, but have you considered its benefits to your online presence? Here are five reasons SEO is critical to your website’s visibility and rankings—and your ability to connect with potential customers.

Better ranking = More Traffic. When searchers gotta search, the majority of them won’t look past the first three organic listings. As with the Olympics, the top three finishers receive medals and the lion’s share of the recognition. So it should come as no surprise that when your website holds a high position on the search engine result pages (SERPs), you can expect to see more traffic to your site.

But how do you go about securing a high position? Well, search rankings are determined by a complex algorithm that takes into account two things: 1) search popularity, i.e., how often people search for a certain thing; and 2) relevancy, i.e., how relevant that certain thing is to what’s on your site.

By meticulously selecting relevant keywords and incorporating them into page title tags, URLs and meta descriptions, you can optimize your site to align with the most relevant popular searches—which will help boost your search ranking and therefore generate more exposure and more traffic.

It’s important that your keywords are integrated throughout your site. Here’s why:

If someone is searching for an 8×10-foot green wool area rug and you have one to sell, you want to make sure they know the rug you’re selling isn’t just any rug, it’s the exact rug they’re searching for—an area rug that measures 8×10, is green and is made of wool.

Selecting keywords is about getting as specific as possible while keeping in mind what the user might try to search for.

More Leads and Conversions. Speaking of specificity, there is a definite intention behind every organic search, e.g., the user is seeking something and your website content is what offers Google and other search engines clues as to whether you offer that certain something.

When you put in the work to design your website with SEO in mind to increase your search rankings, you are increasing your chances of capturing quality leads, and by extension, increasing the chances of conversion.

And whenever users discover your site via organic search, their clicks boost the credibility of your page for a specific keyword or set of keywords—ultimately improving your standings with the algorithm, which in turn works to further improve your ranking. It’s a beautiful search cycle.

Tracking For Better ROI. In addition to making it worthwhile to invest in SEO, ROI can also be used as a measurement tool that guides your keyword selection—given the goal is always to generate more leads and convert more customers. By tracking your keywords (which ones work, which ones don’t) in analytics, you can then optimize your keyword list to best align with what people are searching for and what people are buying on your site—ultimately fueling the sales cycle.

Then, when your SEO strategy is driving an abundance of conversions, you’ll want to consider how to further your success, including the integration of long-tail keywords.

Cost-Effectiveness. Although you may achieve better ROI through paid advertising or social media marketing, your organic SEO is still one of the most cost effective marketing methods.

While banner ads can generate awareness among your target audience, they may not necessarily drive an immediate purchase. By contrast, keywords align with your customer’s intention (e.g., hiring a marketing agency or buying an area rug)—which helps to produce more qualified leads. In other words, a banner ad is like a cold call (that aligns with customer data), while SEO is like a warm lead (that aligns with a customer’s online intention).

Competition.  As search engines roll out new algorithms, SEO evolves, which means your SEO strategy must evolve too.

Chances are your competitors have an SEO strategy in place, but that isn’t to say they are keeping pace with the changes and updating their strategies—or that they’re even targeting the correct keywords in the first place.  To stay ahead of your competition, keep an eye out for upcoming changes to algorithms and watch your search engine rankings. Always know what keywords you are trying to target and benchmark who you are competing against in the SERPs to figure out how to enhance your content and boost your rankings.

At the end of the day, the most important thing to remember is that your SEO strategy is critical to your business. Since SEO can’t be set to autopilot, it’s critical to re-evaluate keywords and tactics on a quarterly basis (at minimum) and review your website content to make sure it aligns right with the user’s search intent—ultimately communicating to the users and the search engines that you have what they’re looking to find.