Organic Search for Beginners | Everything You Need to Know for 2023

If you’re a beginner in the world of digital marketing, you must understand the basics. You can use many tools for marketing your brand or service, such as social media, email marketing, and paid advertising. One of the many concepts you should orient yourself with is search engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO.

While search engines are always evolving, some underlying elements remain unchanged to this day. This article will go through the fundamentals of search engines and how you can use organic search to your business’s advantage.

The Basics on Search Engines

Basically, SEO is the practice of increasing both the quantity and quality of your website traffic. It also refers to the non-paid or organic exposure you get through search results. Therefore, SEO is not just about the search engine but also the search engine users.

You need to understand what people are searching for online, the certain keywords they’re using, and the type of content they’re looking for. This will help connect your service with its target market through organic searches.

Think of search engines like Bing, Google, and Yahoo as answer machines. They’re referring to channels that help services connect with users naturally. They go through billions of content and websites to find relevant answers to a certain user’s question.

Search engines do this by cataloging all available content on the web through a process called ‘crawling and indexing.’ Through this, they search the net for free and related information available on the internet. Then, they sort all the results to match the query.

Many people search for information daily, and your business can benefit tremendously through strategic practices. For example, your business or brand can leverage search engines to optimize your website. This can also boost the ranking of your website. In turn, you will see a rise in your site’s visitor count and can even potentially increase your customer base. With a wider customer base, you can potentially increase your revenue.

The end goal of SEO is to produce natural search results or get what is also called organic search traffic. It is also optimized to boost one’s rankings based on organic search.

What are Organic Search Results?

When you type in a question on Google, you usually get paid ads and organic results. What’s the difference? A typical search engine results page or SERP is filled with more paid search ads and more dynamic organic results formats.

For example, if you search for ‘Los Angeles weather,’ you’ll see a weather forecast for Los Angeles directly as opposed to a link to a site that might have that forecast. If you look for ‘Los Angeles burger,’ you’ll get a list of Los Angeles burger joints.

Organic search results are ‘natural’ web page listings that most closely match the user’s search query based on its relevance. Ranking high on organic results is the end goal of SEO. On the other hand, paid results are fundamentally advertisements. Website owners pay to have their web pages display when certain keywords are used.

So how do you determine which results are organic? Search engines set apart a paid advertisement by putting them above organic results. They usually have a shaded background or borderlines.

Getting Organic Search Traffic

Google’s algorithm is extremely complex, but basically, here are some things to bear in mind so you can come up with strategies to boost your ranking organically:

• Google looks for sites that have high-quality, relevant information that can answer a user’s specific query.
• The keywords you use on the content of your website help Google determine your relevance. Basically, they read your content and evaluate whether they’re relevant to what the searcher is looking for.
• Different factors determine the ‘quality of your website. One is the number and quality of other websites that link to your page and site. It’s recommended to link frequently to trusted places such as CNN.com so your site will be assumed to be high-quality.

To add to these factors, Google weighs other elements to determine your website’s rank. These includes:

• How people engage with your website. Do they obtain the information they need by staying on your site? Do they go back to the search engine result to look for better answers?
• Your website’s loading speed and ‘mobile-friendliness.’ If it takes a long time for the images on your website to load when accessed via mobile, many people get discouraged from staying on the site. Similarly, if your website isn’t compatible with the mobile format, it might drive away people. Most people search the internet on their smartphones, after all.
• How much unique content do you have on the website? If your website contains much duplicate content, Google might perceive your site as ‘low-quality.’

These factors help give your brand or business ideas on how to increase your rankings on search engines for free. Through good SEO practices, you can create relevant traffic on your website.

Tips for Acing the Search Engine Game

Aside from having a basic understanding of what a search engine looks for to determine your site’s quality, here are some organic SEO tips to get more organic traffic on your website:

1. Check your current search ranking. To get an idea of how to boost your ranking, you need to know where you stand. Google Analytics is a free tool you can use to see your website traffic and ranking.
2. Develop a keyword list. Identify a keyword list based on your website’s content. If you target the right keywords for each page of your site based on what you’re selling or what services you’re offering, you have the opportunity to send out the right message. This is especially helpful when you’re trying to market a certain new product or service.
3. Optimize pages with your audience in mind. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. What would they find insightful, educational, and useful? When working on the copy on your site, consider if it’s easily digestible. Avoid using difficult jargon or terms. Your content should be conversational and suitable for a human audience.
4. Invest in quality content. Good copy appeals to the right target audience. In turn, you have a better chance of ranking high in a search engine. Basically, your site must be filled with unique information and well-written content to entice people to know more about your brand.
5. Partner with SEO experts. Navigating through the world of paid search and organic search traffic can be challenging. That’s why it’s best to tap the expertise of professionals that can increase your site’s organic traffic.

These are some of the ways you can get attract more organic traffic to your site. With the plethora of information and sites on the internet, ranking high in organic searches can be challenging. However, with the right strategies, it’s not impossible to boost your site organically. While there are different ways to maximize your digital presence, it’s always better when it’s organic.