Search engine optimization means on-page and off-page modifications and activities to achieve better rankings in search engines. Of course, higher rankings are only possible for specific keywords. For those keywords you have to optimize the website, preferable each page for one keyword. There are many benefits of having an optimized website. They are all related but each reason has its own benefits.

More visitors
If you run a website then you would like that people will visit it and learn about your offers or ideas. Having a website without visitors simply makes no sense. Nobody will visit your superb website if its web address will not be present on right places. And the best place to put web address is top position in search engine results.

Brand recognition
Having a website on top position for specific keyword will automatically associate it with the search phrase or keyword and solutions, products or services the website offers. The more people will visit your site, the more people will know about you and your website. This will raise awareness and brand recognition. This is also a free promotion of your brand.

Free organic traffic
If you are an internet marketer then you are selling products or services. To get traffic you use pay-per-click programs like AdWords. This is not free. You have to pay for each click. Depending on the market niche this can be a very targeted but costly source of traffic. Why paying for something you can get for free? Organic traffic from search engines is also targeted but it doesn't cost a cent. All you need to cut cost for advertising is to have optimized website to reach top positions.

Stay ahead of the competition
In most cases you will not be the only in the niche offering solution for some problem. Competition in internet marketing is always present. In general, there are two types of competitive pages: "normal" and optimized. Optimized websites rank higher. This means that people looking for something find such websites sooner and stop searching as soon as they find a solution for their problem. If your competitor ranks higher than you this automatically means that he is taking away customers that would otherwise come to your website.

Get more business
The higher your website is positioned in search results the more visitors you will get and consequently more opportunities to sell whatever your are offering. And if you are offering good products, satisfied buyers will recommend your website which means more visitors.

More profit
This is the ultimate goal of every business. To have more profit you need to sell more. To sell more you need to have more visitors. The cheapest way to get more visitors is to rank higher in search results. As simple as that.