The Basics of Organic SEO: What It Means and Why It Matters

SEO is the process of improving your website’s ranking on a particular search query by providing informative and factual information about a topic. SEO involves implementing long-term strategies geared towards showing the search engine that your content offers a better experience for the reader, is well-researched, and factual enough for other sites to link back to it as a reference. Therefore, organic SEO is the process of achieving a high ranking in search results without paying for it.

Even though organic SEO can be a difficult, continuously involving process, it is one of the best and most sustainable ways to get traffic and maintain a business. Organic SEO brings in quality leads because, most of the time, the people who land on your page are searching for a specific thing. And it is always easier to sell something to someone who comes to you, inbound marketing, than if you go to them, outbound marketing.

If done correctly, organic SEO can help you keep your marketing budget low, build trust with your audience, and in the process, become a thought leader in the niche. It is not always easy to carry out a proper organic SEO strategy. You can work with an SEO agency that has the proper framework and personnel to help you. Check out Web20 ranker client experience here to understand what to look for when looking for an SEO agency to work with.

As you can see, there are many reasons why webmasters fight for the number one spots on Google.

All You Need To Know About Keywords And Serps

Keywords or phrases are the words that you type into the search bar when looking for something. These are the words that create the results of pages that appear after. This list of results is what is referred to as SERPs (search engine page results.) In a nutshell, the keywords you use are what Google will use to generate the SERPs.

The mission of every website is to appear in the top results of the SERPs. The higher your ranking for a particular key phrase or word, the higher the probability you will get more visitors and, inevitably, more leads and sales.

Think about it, anytime you Google something, you often click on the first few results. You trust these top results more and are likely to purchase something if they recommend it.

Ranking Factors

You need patience and expertise to appear higher on the SERPs as a website owner. Google has over 200 ranking factors that affect your page’s position in one way or another. Let us discuss two of the most important ranking factors.

Relevance Of Page Content

The entire mission of a search engine is to ensure its visitors have their questions answered. Therefore, it is only natural for Google to ensure that the top pages are most relevant to the search query. Google will also look at the amount of content you are offering. This relevant content also has to be quality; it should be well-researched and accurate with no spelling mistakes or grammar issues. Short snippets like content will often not rank, as google will assume that the write-up is insufficient to answer the question.

But as a webmaster, it is important to look at other pages ranking for that search query and try to match your page’s word count to those already ranking higher- sometimes the longest content isn’t the solution.

Google will also look at the freshness of the content. Creating evergreen content that will stand the test of time is always recommended. This way, your content will rank higher for longer. However, to ensure the freshness of the content, ensure you update it often to keep up with new information and keep it fresh. Now the question is, how do you ensure your content is relevant?

• Keyword research: Using Keyword research tools, find terms that have a high search volume and a lower competition.
• Create content around the search terms: create content around it after identifying the best search terms. Look at other websites and what they offer, and create better, more relevant content.

Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are a way to tell Google you are an authority in the niche. The more backlinks you have, the more Google perceives you as a leader in the space. But it is not just about having many backlinks; it is about having quality.

Think of backlinks as a vote of confidence. Now imagine conversing with a friend on a topic, and they don’t believe you. By referencing someone else, say Tom, who is known to understand the topic more, your friend will be more confident that your information is accurate. The mission is to be Tom; the more people reference Tom, the more he becomes an authority in space. The more people reference Tom, the more votes of confidence he gets.

Now flip it further; imagine Tom having a conversation with someone else, and the person does not believe Tom. Tom refers the person to an even bigger authority, say, Mark. Mark now becomes a better reference than Tom. Imagine Mark is a website, and Tom offers a backlink(a reference). The weight of this reference would be much stronger and more reliable, hence why the quality of backlinks matters so much.

The better your content quality and relevance, the more likely someone else will link back to it. Therefore, any ranking exercise’s first mission is to ensure your content is good. Once this is achieved, the next step is to make sure that good quality sites use your content as a reference, hence backlinks.