Is SEO the Best Strategy for Generating Long-Term Revenue? Yes (And Here’s Why)

Search engine optimization (SEO) drives long-term revenue because the visibility it earns keeps working after the work is done. Pages that show up in Google’s organic results, the local pack, and AI Overviews bring in calls, store visits, and online sales without a cost per click. The trade-off is time: SEO takes months to build, then keeps paying off.

Google also never closes. It doesn’t take weekends or holidays, so your site can earn leads on Thanksgiving when no one at your business is working. Jump to a section:

• Why SEO generates long-term revenue
• Why SEO requires a long-term commitment
• Why SEO is worth the long-term commitment
• How to measure SEO revenue when AI answers shape the sale

Why does SEO generate long-term revenue?

We have a video on the long-term impact of SEO if you’d prefer that format.

Long-term revenue is the main advantage of an SEO campaign. By its nature, SEO is a slow and deliberate process, and it doesn’t pay off right away. When it does pay off, though, it pays off big for a long, long time. SEO can generate long-term revenue for your business for a few reasons, including:

Search is a 24/7 business

No matter the day or hour, people are on search engines. Whether they’re researching a topic, comparing products, or looking for a supplier, people use search 24/7 to find what they need. In fact, the average person conducts three to four searches per day, which translates to search engines like Google processing more than 5.8 billion searches every day.

“If you have a presence in search results, thanks to SEO, your business can do business every day.”

If you have a presence in search results, thanks to SEO, your business can do business every day. Even if you’re closed for the day, your website can capture quote requests, contact forms, and online sales. It can even direct calls to your company, which you can follow-up with later. Your business doesn’t pay for these leads or sales, either.

If you’re familiar with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, that strategy works extremely well for driving immediate revenue — and even long-term revenue if you keep PPC advertising active. The downside, however, is that you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. That means you’re paying for those leads and sales, which isn’t the case with SEO.

Search is a part of the buyer’s journey

Google and the rest of the world search engines have become ingrained in the buyer’s journey. Just check out these findings:

• 93% of online experiences start with a search engine
• 80% of shoppers do product research online
• 71% of business buyers start product research with a search engine
• 70% of people research a company online before buying from that company

Think about how you or your family go about purchasing something. You probably go to Google, right?

Whether you’re looking for a list that compiles the best coffee makers or a guide on when to replace car tires, you use the Internet (and search engines) for answers. Even if someone recommends a brand, company, or product to you, you will usually find yourself searching online or asking an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Gemini to learn more.

The best part is that search engines can help you at every step of your journey. Whether you’re researching, comparing, or buying, Google is there. It can always provide an answer to your question, often in an AI Overview above the organic results, which makes SEO such a competitive and successful long-term strategy.

You can target every part of the funnel or buyer’s journey with SEO, which helps your company reach more of its target market and claim more of its market’s sales. Making search engine optimization a part of your digital marketing strategy makes your business a part of the buyer’s journey.

SEO makes it possible for your company to reach a tremendous amount of your target audience, which makes it possible for you to generate long-term revenue. If you skip SEO, you miss out on one of the most profitable marketing channels.

Search is a leading revenue driver

Did you know that organic traffic, or traffic driven by search, captures over 40% of revenue? That’s a remarkable amount, especially when you think of all the online channels available. You have email, for example, as well as social and paid. Search, however, claims more than 40%. It’s a powerhouse when it comes to generating long-term revenue.

“Organic traffic, or traffic driven by search, captures over 40% of revenue.”

Search revenue now includes AI assistants, too. In WebFX’s analysis of 2.3 billion sessions, visitors from generative AI platforms converted about 1.2x higher than organic search visitors, even though generative AI accounted for just 0.18% of total website sessions. That makes AI referrals a small but high-value lead source, and the same SEO work that earns rankings helps your pages get cited in those answers.

SEO is so successful at helping businesses like yours benefit from search because it optimizes your website for not only search engines but also users. Yes, you’re using keywords within content, but you’re also creating this helpful experience that makes people remember your company. That first impression is lasting, and it often results in leads, sales, and of course, long-term revenue.

Why does SEO require a long-term commitment (and take so long)?

The more you read about SEO, the more you’ll hear how SEO takes time. It doesn’t start driving traffic, leads, or sales right away. For most businesses, SEO requires three to six months before showing results, which is why SEO demands a long-term commitment. You have to start optimizing your site and continue to optimize your website, even when you don’t see results immediately. Why does SEO take so long, though? A few reasons, including:

SEO takes time to set up

SEO takes time. The reason is simple: There’s a lot to do. You have to create content, optimize it with HTML code, post it to your website, troubleshoot it for errors, and promote it all afterward. That’s easily a full-time job — but that’s not even 50% of what goes into quality SEO plans!

You also have tons of other strategies that synergize with SEO, and taking advantage of each one is essential to its long-term success. The most common additional strategies are:

• Content marketing
• PPC advertising
• Social media marketing
• Reputation management
• Web design
• User experience design
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
• And more

All of that is required for a comprehensive SEO strategy, and anyone can do it. But it still takes time. The most common solution to this is to set up a PPC campaign that drives paid traffic to your site while you wait for SEO to “kick in.” That’ll help alleviate the “growing pains” of a new website and make you competitive in your industry while you build SEO credibility. This is especially helpful because of our second point.

Google is slow

Even though Google delivers search results in the blink of an eye, it’s still slow to discover new websites. That’s because Google wants to read and categorize the entire Internet, which is a huge job. Your website is just one of billions that Google wants to read.

Plus, Google has a built-in bias against newer websites. You have to earn credibility before Google starts recommending you in search results, and there’s always another competitor to overcome. But even that’s not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is just getting Google to discover you in the first place. Google can only move so quickly. It can deliver search results in a flash, but it has to find those search results first.

“Even when you tell Google directly that you exist, you could still wait anywhere from one to four weeks before your site actually shows up in search results”

The solution to this is to create accounts on GA4, Google Search Console, and Google Business Profile. These properties let you send information about your company and website directly to Google. That lets Google find you, categorize you, and show you in search results — even if you’re not on the first page.

But even when you tell Google directly that you exist, you could still wait anywhere from one to four weeks before your site actually shows up in search results, and you might wait longer to get a half-decent ranking. That’s because of our third issue.

Competitors use SEO

Your competitors are also using SEO. The more they work, the harder they make it for your SEO strategy to succeed. That means you have to stay ahead of the curve — but that’s difficult when you have multiple competitors coming at you from all sides. After all, if you’re all targeting the same high-value keywords, only one of you can be #1 in search results.

“Think of your keywords like an investment portfolio. The more diverse it is, the safer it is.”

The solution to this is diversifying the keywords, questions, and topics you cover. By expanding your website to target different keywords and questions, you can reach customers with content that your competitors haven’t thought of yet.

Think of your keywords like an investment portfolio. The more diverse it is, the safer it is. You can bet your competitors are doing the same thing, too. If you want to jam a stick in their spokes, another solution is to research the keywords they’re targeting and target them as well. That way, you make it harder for your competitors to surpass you when getting new customers.

In that regard, SEO sometimes requires you to play a little offense when it comes to your competitors. By targeting lots of keywords, including competitor keywords, you can throw your hat into the ring and duke it out for high-value customers.

Why is SEO worth the long-term commitment?

Even though SEO takes time to get going, it’s still worthwhile for a lot of big reasons:

1. SEO maintains an impressive close rate

First, SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate. That means 14.6% of all your leads (about 1/8) turn into customers. That’s a huge improvement over traditional marketing leads, which have a close rate of 1.7% (or 1/100). That makes SEO 8.5 times more effective than traditional marketing at getting sales — but only after you put in the time.

2.  SEO gets support from users

Second, a whopping 85% of retailers agree that SEO and PPC are most effective at acquiring new customers. Remember when we said PPC can help alleviate the growing pains of an SEO strategy? Eighty-five percent of retailers agree! The retail industry is one of the biggest in the country, and all of them almost unanimously agree that SEO works. That’s quite the endorsement.

3. SEO leverages Google’s reach

Third, Google handles more than 2 trillion searches every year. I literally can’t picture that number because it’s so large, but this is a fact. With that in mind, you can be sure that your business has potential customers on Google. You just have to reach out to them with SEO.

4. SEO captures local searches

Fourth, 80% of all local searches on Google convert into new leads or customers.

Remember when we talked about Google Business Profile earlier? That’s a local SEO outlet that helps you show up for local searches. Wouldn’t it be great if 75% of people who looked you up online became new leads?

5. SEO takes advantage of content marketing’s benefits

Last, content marketing generates 3x more leads than traditional marketing. That means every time you create content for your site, you have the chance to drive 3x more leads and sales to your business than billboards, radio ads, and even TV commercials. That’s a ton of potential customers for practically no investment compared to traditional advertising.

How do you measure SEO revenue when AI answers shape the sale?

SEO revenue shows up in your CRM, not just your traffic reports. Buyers research in Google’s organic results, AI Overviews, and AI assistants like ChatGPT, and many get their answer without clicking. Organic sessions alone undercount what search earns, so track the leads, pipeline, and closed revenue that SEO influences.

Marketers today need to stop relying on traffic alone and start judging search through the lens of business outcomes, like revenue. These steps make that possible:

1. Separate AI referrals from organic traffic. Create a custom channel group in GA4 for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot. Otherwise, those visits get buried in your referral or organic totals.
2. Connect leads to closed revenue. Tie form fills and phone calls to your CRM so you can see which searches turned into customers. Teams use RevenueCloudFX, WebFX’s platform for measuring how marketing drives revenue, to connect the CRM and see revenue by channel. Then you can put more effort into the pages and topics that bring in buyers.
3. Credit assisted conversions. A buyer might read your blog post, see your brand in an AI answer, and convert through a branded search weeks later. Report the organic touches that assisted a sale, not just the last click.
4. Read trends monthly, not daily. Use weekly or monthly views in Google Search Console to smooth out daily swings. Then report organic-influenced pipeline next to sessions so leadership sees the long-term picture.

Prepare your company for long-term success today

If you want to get started with SEO, but need professional help, WebFX is here. We have a huge team of SEO specialists who have helped our clients collectively earn more than $10 billion in revenue in the last 5 years.

Just check out our more than 1,100 client testimonials to learn why WebFX is a trusted partner to companies from a range of industries. We’ve worked wonders in just about every industry, and now it’s your turn. Contact us online today or browse our SEO plans to learn more!