In today’s digital age, when you want to find something online, you turn to Google – the world’s favorite search engine. But have you ever wondered how it decides what to show you and in what order? That’s where “organic search” comes into play.
So what is organic search? In this expert guide, we’ll dig out the mysteries behind organic search, how it operates on Google, and strategies to improve your organic search rankings.
What Is Organic Search?
Organic Search Definition
Organic search means finding information or products on search engines like Google without paying to advertise. The unpaid list of results on a search engine results page is considered organic search results.
Organic search hinges on a search engine’s algorithm to deliver pertinent results, considering elements like content quality and relevance. As the lifeblood of online discovery, organic search is vital for several reasons:
- Reliability: Websites featured in organic search results are more credible sources of information or products.
- Cost-effectiveness: Unlike paid advertising, organic search doesn’t cost any expenditures. Once you secure a high ranking, traffic comes at no cost.
- Sustainable Growth: Well-optimized websites can sustain or enhance organic search engine rankings over time, ensuring a steady and dependable traffic source.
- User Alignment: Organic search closely aligns with the intentions of users. When individuals search for specific information, they generally prefer results that precisely match their queries.
The Different Between Organic Search And Paid Traffic
Organic search and paid traffic are two primary methods for generating website visitors. They differ in source, cost, ranking, longevity, trust, and CTR. Here’s an overview of the key differences between organic search and paid traffic.
| Features | Organic Search | Paid Traffic |
| Source | Free clicks from search engine results | Paid clicks from ads |
| Cost | Requires SEO organic efforts but is essentially free | It involves paying for each click on ads |
| Ranking | Based on SEO content quality and relevance | Determined by bidding and ad quality |
| Longevity | Can generate traffic over time | Stops when you stop paying |
| Trust | Often earn more confidence as a result | Some users may be skeptical of ads |
| Click Through Rate (CTR) | Lower CTR due to lower position | Higher CTR due to prominent ad placement |
Organic search depends on optimizing your website for search engines. It can provide sustainable, cost-effective traffic in the long term, while paid traffic relies on advertising and offers more immediate control and results but comes at a direct cost.
Many businesses use a combination of both strategies to maximize their organic search engine optimization online presence and reach their target audience.
How Does Organic Search Work On Google?
To determine which content is most pertinent to display to a user, search engines will examine content using a complex algorithm. It follows SEO practices to provide users with the most relevant and trustworthy results for their search queries.
The search engine knows what to look for based on the keywords you enter.
For a business’ content to appear in these search results, it needs to employ long-tail keywords in its content that are similar to the ones the target audience uses. Unlike sponsored search, organic search solely considers the content and metadata.
We can describe how organic search works on Google in some simple steps. However, Google’s algorithm is quite a complex system to understand.
- Crawling and Indexing: Google uses automated crawlers to browse and collect information from web pages. These crawlers follow links and analyze the content on each page they visit. Google’s massive index will store the data collected.
- User Query: When a user makes a search query in Google, the search engine’s algorithm processes the query to understand its intent. Google aims to provide results that match the user’s intent.
- Ranking: Google’s algorithm then evaluates the indexed web pages and ranks them based on various factors, including content relevance, website quality, keyword use, and more. The top of the search results will show the most relevant and trustworthy pages for the user’s query.
- Displaying Results: Google displays the search results in order of relevance, with the most relevant web pages at the top and less relevant ones further down. Users can click these organic search results to access the respective web pages.
9 Strategies To Improve Your Organic Search
Below, we can suggest nine strategies in 3 main categories to help you build a solid organic search presence and drive more organic traffic to your website.
Strategy #1: On-Page Execution
Find Relevant Keywords
Choosing suitable topics to write about is essential for increasing organic traffic. If you skip the research phase, you may waste resources and get nothing in return.
Conduct in-depth keyword research to identify search terms and phrases relevant to your business or content. Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs keyword research, or Google Keyword Planner to discover valuable keywords with search volume and lower competition.
Build Useful And Fresh Content
The next option is to make sure the content is created in a way that targets the most relevant keywords and has a helpful structure.
Make your content frequent, fresh, and relevant. Add new information, refresh existing articles, and maintain a consistent publishing schedule to demonstrate to search engines that your website remains an active and trusted source of information.
Create Internal Links
Internal link building means creating links within your site that point to the page you want to rank higher. This task can improve authority and relevance to the receiving pages. It also aids search engines in better crawling and understanding your website.
Add a few internal links from your site’s top-ranking pages to your new posts on pages that want improvement. This task usually entails creating links between recently completed pages and older, high-performing ones.
Besides, you can use tools like Semrush site audit or Ahrefs to see your internal backlinks report. Then, you will find all internal link issues and try to fix them.
Strategy #2: Off-Page Implementation
Find Quality Backlinks
Google always considers backlinks from other websites to yours as “votes of confidence.” Your webpages will perform better in the search engine results if they have many credible backlinks pointing to them.
To increase the chances of ranking higher for your target keywords, you should concentrate on constructing high-quality backlinks.
One best way is to imitate your competitors’ link-building tactics using the Semrush Backlink analytics tool. Then, you can develop a link-building strategy to earn links through high-value content, outreach, and collaborations.
Reach Social Media Marketing
According to Hoosuite, 93% of digital users in this mobile-first era use social media monthly. Even though social shares have little impact on search rankings, you may still use social networks to interact with your audience.
Through social media, more and more people can reach your content. You will get more links and mentions when people pay greater attention to your content. As a result, your rankings directly benefit from these off-page SEO elements.
Run A Guest Posting Campaign
Guest posting is considerably more beneficial to your marketing plan than link building.
Writing a guest post on a highly credible website increases your visibility and establishes authority. Undoubtedly, the post or author profile provides you with a useful backlink. Furthermore, it drives relevant traffic to your website and presents your brand to a specific demographic.
Strategy #3: Technical SEO
Improve Page Speed
Website speed significantly impacts user experience and search rankings. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to measure the current loading speed of your website. Then, you will find out the issues and how to fix them.
In addition, you can compress images, leverage browser caching, and minimize unnecessary scripts and plugins to improve page load times.
Create User Experience (UX)
Google closely monitors user interaction with pages. Therefore, user experience (UX) always plays a significant role in raising search engine ranks.
Create an easy-to-navigate and visually appealing website. Prioritize user-friendly design, clear calls to action, and well-organized content. Given the increasing use of mobile devices, having a mobile-responsive website is crucial.
Ensure your website design and content adapt seamlessly to various screen sizes and load quickly on mobile devices.
Focus On Local SEO
According to Google’s data, the number of people searching for “shopping near me” on Google Maps has increased by more than 100% worldwide annually. In addition, in the course of the last two years, mobile searches for “store open near me” have increased by almost 250%, and the keywords “where to buy” + “near me” by over 200%.
This data proves that local SEO is becoming the best strategy to bring your website and products to the local people. Therefore, developing a local SEO strategy is necessary to increase your organic traffic.
When your business caters to a particular geographic region, start by taking ownership of your Google My Business listing, maintaining uniform NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) details online, and fostering customer reviews.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does Organic Search Mean?
Organic search is the process through which a search engine finds and ranks information on a website without using paid advertising.
What Are Organic Search Examples?
When you search for “How to plant roses” on Google, the list of web pages that appear without an “Ad” label next to them are examples of organic search results. These pages have earned their position based on relevance and quality without paid advertising.
What Is Organic And Non-organic Search?
Organic search refers to unpaid, natural search results in search engines. Non-organic search involves paid methods like ads and sponsored listings in search engine results. Organic results are based on relevance, while advertisers pay for non-organic results.
In general, this expert guide has given you comprehensive knowledge about “what is organic search?”, how it works, and ways to improve your organic traffic. In this digital world, the key to success lies in optimizing your web presence and consistently adapting to the ever-evolving algorithms. Besides developing an appropriate strategy to improve your organic search, it is essential to stay informed and relevant.
Co-Founder & General Manager @ ROI Digitally
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