Using search engine optimization you can literally position yourself (and your brand)
in front of millions of people with the only investment being your time. Brand exposure alone is worth the time it takes to do proper SEO to increase your search engine ranking.
From the perspective of an entrepreneur, the search engine sites are essentially a cheap method of advertising. It takes no money to get started and as I mentioned earlier, the ROI can be insane. It's not uncommon for a business to go from $0 to $1 million after getting their SEO right.
Also, when someone is actively searching for something (ie: a specific product, some sort of solution), they're much more likely to buy. This is basically the definition of targeted traffic. The more targeted the traffic is, the higher the conversion rate you have the higher the conversion rate you have, the more sales you make all from SEO marketing.
The other advantage you have when someone is searching for something is that you're not interrupting them. Typical advertising methods (such as commercials or infomercials) literally interrupt what potential prospects are doing to increase brand awareness.
These prospects are not only untargeted but a lot of them will find it annoying and painful. If you've ever studied basic psychology or personal development stuff, you'll know that this can cause the prospect to link pain/annoyance to your brand and product. This will drastically reduce (or completely eliminate) the chances of them buying said product. Not exactly the result you want
You can also change your pitch/message depending on which keyword(s) the visitor used to arrive on your website. The power of this (in some markets) is unbelievable. You literally have the ability to tailor the message to what they want rather than what you think they might want.
And one final note about the benefits of Search engine optimization techniques to increase your website ranking probably the most important: it's said that over 50% of visitors originate from a search engine over 50%... of the entire Internet! In closing...Search Engine Optimization is smart internet marketing and is FREE. Secret SEO Code