When you implement an organic search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, you are employing strategies in order to secure a high ranking on a major search engine results page. These placements are not obtained by paying Google, Yahoo! or Bing. They are obtained by utilizing certain techniques that adhere to the search engine’s algorithm.

Organic SEO techniques include pursuing specific keywords related to your business, adding quality content to your site and obtaining backlinks from authoritative websites.

Websites that devote resources to organic SEO have a much better chance of securing a high placement for given search queries. For example, if your company or organization provides IT services and you utilize organic SEO strategies, you have a strong chance of appearing above your competition when a Google user searches for “IT Services.”

What Are The Benefits Of Organic SEO?

The benefits of organic SEO include:

• Organic SEO = more clicks / more traffic to your website.
• Organic SEO results in longer – even permanent – placement on a given search engine’s top listings.
• Organic SEO strengthens your brand’s reputation.
• Organic SEO is very cost-efficient when compared to paid advertising.

Performing organic SEO can be a very tedious and long process. It is not a one-time endeavor. It requires consistent and endless work. When you stop implementing SEO, your online visibility will diminish. However, you get from it what you put into it and if it is done correctly, you can experience permanent benefits.

Properly-applied organic SEO will lead to higher placements on the major search engines and increased traffic to your website. By using SEO, you have the chance to avoid spending your money on expensive advertising campaigns. Securing first-page placement on Google means that Google will continuously advertise your site on your behalf.

What Are The Strategies Used To Improve Organic SEO?

The results that a search engine presents to its user reflects its ability to deliver quality content. For example, if you are searching for IT services, Google will show you what it perceives as the best IT services-related websites. If Google consistently showed low-quality websites in its results, its users would begin using a different search engine. SEO is the practice of convincing Google that your website is trustworthy and offers useful, high-quality content.

Search engines use several key factors when they consider a website’s placement. The primary factor is how relevant a website’s content is to the subject matter it claims to focus on. If the home page header on your website says “Landscaping” but you provide IT services, it is unlikely that Google will promote your brand.

To perform organic SEO correctly, your site’s content must be relevant for what a user is searching for. Organic SEO is accomplished by:

• Featuring well-written, high quality and informative copy on your site.
• Writing abundant copy on your site (the more copy you feature, the more search queries you will rank for).
• Having a good link structure.
• Applying technical SEO tactics, such as meta tag placement and increasing your site load speed.
• Obtaining quality backlinks to your site.

If you study organic SEO, you will no doubt run into the term black hat SEO. Black hat SEO refers to aggressive and sometimes dishonest tactics that webmasters use to boost their website’s ranking. By using black hat SEO strategies, you are concentrating solely on satisfying the search engine and not your human visitors.

Examples of black hat SEO techniques include:

• Overusing the keyword you wish to rank for (otherwise known as keyword stuffing).
• Using hidden links.
• Duplicating or even stealing content from another user (or from your own website).
• Buying links from low-quality websites.

Although black hat SEO techniques can increase a website’s search engine placement for a short period of time, they usually result in an eventual drop in rankings. In fact, the overuse of black hat SEO can result in your website being banned from a search engine altogether. In addition, a website that uses black hat SEO techniques will usually not appeal to its visitors and will have a harder time converting potential clients.

If you would like to learn more about how organic SEO can benefit your website, please contact the SEO professionals at DigitalParc by calling 612-845-5590 or by emailing hello@digitalparc.com.