Organic search engine optimization, or SEO, is quite a common topic nowadays. Sadly, many people are still struggling to get their head around it.
SEO is typically a process of optimizing and improving your website to get high placements in SERPs. The higher the placement, the more likely you’ll get high web traffic.
The placements on SERPs are usually organic, meaning you don’t need to pay anything. Search engines use an algorithm that identifies and returns the best possible results to a particular query performed by a searcher.
Well, with that in mind, it helps to understand how organic search optimization works, and this post is going to explore just that.
Read on to learn more.
Keyword Research
The first step for an effect SEO campaign is usually keyword research. This involves finding terms or phrases that people use to search the internet. So, you want to identify terms that have a reasonable search volume and low competition.
Google Keyword Planner and KeywordTool.io are some of the ideal tools to use for research. You can use these tools to find high-performing keywords in your target market. Ensure the keywords you pick are proven to contribute to your business goals.
If you have installed Google Webmaster Tools on your site, you can use it to find keywords that your site is already ranking for. This will give you keywords to use to improve your rankings. Bear in mind that you need to focus on keywords that best describe your product, service, or business.
In organic search optimization, the best keywords are likely to generate more hits for you. You can also target long tail keywords to improve your site’s chances for showing up in SERPs.
Keyword Placement
Now you have the keywords. What should you do next?
Well, you need to insert them in various locations on your site to optimize it for that particular keyword. For example, let’s say your target search phrase is “Boston internet marketing.” This simply means you’re targeting customers that are looking for internet marketing services in Boston.
Ensure your keyword is available in our site’s title and meta description. When search engines discover the keywords in this places, they’re likely to pick up your page and serve to a user. It simply shows that your page offers the possible solution to the search query.
If you’re creating a service page or blog post, you also need to ensure the keyword is placed in the URL. It should also be included moderately within your page copy without stuffing as that will lead to low rankings. Having the keyword in one of your headings (H tags) also helps.
Content Creation
Let’s face it. Content is king in organic search optimization, and forever it shall reign.
Google is continually pushing for quality content in a bid to improve the web experience for users. It has search quality guidelines that all site owners must follow. As a webmaster, this is something that you just can’t give the cold shoulder to.
You should be able to take the time to create useful, accurate, and original content for your readers. Keep in mind that people are naturally inclined to share something that’s good. So, the more shares your content earns, the more SEO value it accumulates.
Theoretically, good content leads to higher SERP rankings. This simply means a steady flow of organic traffic to your site. Search engine bots crawl your website to determine the value of your copies. So, you should try as much as possible to apply the best practices of quality content creation.
Additionally, ensure your content is optimized for SEO using your target keywords and LSI terms.
Internal Linking
While getting quality backlinks offers immense SEO importance, many marketers tend to overlook the value of internal linking. This is basically the technique of placing another page’s link on a particular page within the same domain.
Good examples of internal links are the items on the navigation menu of any site you visit. If you click the items, they direct you to another page within that particular site. When creating content, you need to add links to other pages within the copy.
This is where you start thinking about anchor text. Make sure your anchor texts have about two to five words when creating internal links. The text should provide a slight idea of what the linked page is about.
Internal linking helps to give readers further reading for more information. It’s also useful in improving the ranking for certain keywords. Links also make it easier for search engine bots to crawl your site.
Backlinks
Well, at thing point, we’ve covered most of the on-page SEO essentials.
When talking about backlinks, you should generally think about it as an off-page SEO technique. Typically, it’s the practice of other sites linking back to yours.
Like other organic search optimizing techniques, there are good and bad ways of getting backlinks. For example, Google is against the practice of buying backlinks, which is, of course, not an organic way of getting them.
Instead, you should strive to acquire the links naturally. But how? One of the effective ways of doing that is just creating quality, shareworthy content that resonates with readers.
Other webmasters will likely link back to your site if they find your content useful and accurate. Newsworthy posts, guides, press releases, and market or industry reports are the types of contents that are likely to be linked and shared.
You can also earn links by writing guest posts or becoming a contributor to well-known publications, such as Forbes and Entrepreneur.
Organic Search Optimization – The Takeaway
SEO is an essential practice for anyone with a goal of attracting customers to their website. Like other forms of marketing, it takes time, resources, and efforts to make your site SEO-ready. In most cases, you may need professional help to complete some components of SEO.
When done well, organic search optimization has the potential to take your business to a whole new level. With more and more customers using the internet to find local businesses and services, it’s necessary to make your business findable online.
Do you have any question regarding SEO? Feel free to reach out to us, and we’ll be glad to help.