What is Organic Search and Why Is It Important for Business?
Organic search results are the non-paid results that show up on your search engine results page (SERP) when you enter a particular word or phrase. These results are typically located at the left of the page, while paid results or sponsored links will be highlighted at the top and in the column to the right. Organic search results will be slightly different depending on the search engine you use and whether or not you are signed in to a profile connected to that engine.
On the screenshot below, there aren’t any paid links at the top of the page, but you’ll see one of Calvert Creative’s paid search ads showing up on the right. (That link leads to one of our landing pages, rather than our actual website. You can read more about building good landing pages here.)
When people talk about getting good organic SERPs, they mean that a particular result is easily found by a person typing that word or phrase into a search engine. Typically this means that the desired results show on the first page, the higher the better.
Organic results happen because of the way a search engine robot reads and indexes your web pages, and organic search engine marketing is about making sure you do what is needed to make your content show up as the natural result of a person’s search query.
Take a moment to Google your own name. What shows up on your search engine results page? Is it your Facebook profile? Your LinkedIn profile? A resume website, or a popular article you authored?
What do you see when you Google your business? Do you have to click through several pages before you find your company’s website? What about if you Google your products? If you don’t see your company coming up in a favorable way, you need to do some organic search marketing.
You have a lot of control in your organic search results.
If your business is online, you should know what marketing tasks you can do to influence your online “findability.” In today’s business world, if your product and target market are online, not doing any online search optimization simply isn’t an option.
Here’s a brief overview of what you can do:
1. The first and most important part of improving your organic SERPs is good keyword research. If your site is using keywords well and people want the content that you are offering, you’ll see your ranking on a particular search term rise.
2. The second thing to do is make sure your business website is optimized for search. This goes for your landing pages and other web presences as well.
3. Now you need to set up your marketing outposts and secure your brand online. The best way to be sure of being found online is to actually be online, in lots of relevant places.
4. Now, find a willing third party, and test your pages for visitor usability. Give your friends a task to accomplish (like purchasing one of your products) and let them start with a blank search page. Can your friends find you online? Can they easily navigate to the product they want? How many questions do they have as they go through the process? What mistakes did they make? Did the whole thing go like you expected, or are there ways you could make your site more user-friendly? Content may be king, but usability is queen. Search engine bots know when people leave your site in frustration, and downgrade your organic results accordingly.
5. Finally, publish, publish, publish. That means you need to get the word out as many ways as you can. There are ways to get other people to spread the word about your business, and you can start generating good, relevant content to use in article marketing, social media, video, email campaigns, polls and surveys, and other free and low-cost marketing tactics to be seen on the web.
Getting good organic search results for your business and product is the result of lots of small and patient efforts over time. And once you begin to see good results, don’t stop the process! As other competitors enter the field, you’ll need to maintain your great marketing work in order to keep showing up in a positive manner.
Want help setting up, implementing, or maintaining your organic search marketing plan? Give Calvert Creative a call toll-free at 877-495-6851. Calvert Creative helps companies develop leads and sales through online marketing, all while working within your budget and timeline. From designing logos and building brands to driving traffic to your website, we can help you get started!
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