SEO is the central strategy of any business that wants to succeed with online marketing. Although there are a number of tools and methods out there that you can use to build your brand visibility online, nothing else will deliver results like search engine optimization.
Not only that, but the rest of your efforts will be pretty useless if you haven’t bothered with SEO yet.
You haven’t bothered with SEO yet?? What are you waiting for??
It’s the 21st century. Everything is online. Everyone is online. Sure, this is a generalization and there are probably still people and things that aren’t on the Internet. But the point is, most people are. If you haven’t even “bothered” to consider SEO as part of an effective marketing strategy, you’re already way behind.
More specifically, you need to consider organic SEO and its role in your business branding and online presence. In this guide, we’ll discuss the basics and dig into the details of organic optimization, including what it is, why it matters, and what professional organic SEO services can do to help.
If building an online presence were like building a house, organic SEO would be the foundation that all of the other elements are built from. Unless you want your house to crumble, the foundation needs to be solid.
Let’s get started.
What is organic SEO?
Organic SEO is a bit of a misleading term, if we’re being honest. The term “organic” is thrown in to differentiate this process from paid search engine optimization, but it’s really just basic SEO. Organic refers to the fact that traffic comes from “organic” or natural sources, such as keyword searches on Google.
Essentially, any method or tool that you use for SEO that is non-paid is considered an organic optimization effort. This can include a lot of different things beyond keyword usage, of course, which is why everyone talks about creating a solid organic SEO strategy. The goal, of course, is to increase the search ranking through various optimization efforts, and that can only happen if you are using organic SEO correctly.
The important thing to remember about organic SEO services is that they’re needed by every business in every industry. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a local clothing shop you’re trying to bring online or if you are branding your law firm that specializes in teleservices for clients around the country.
The majority of people who need something will perform an Internet search to find it. In fact, there are billions of searches performed every single day for products and services of all kinds. If your business isn’t properly optimized, you’re missing out on billions of potential customers.
Logically, you’re probably not going to get into the billions, but again we’re making a point here. Think about how people use search engines. Think about how much people use search engines. If your business isn’t in the results they find, how else are they going to find you?
Even in the physical world today, you can’t build a brick-and-mortar business and expect people to just show up. Some might, by chance or because they’re dedicated enough to find out for themselves. But still, you market. You advertise. You let people know that you exist, and in the process, you give them reasons to choose you as their solution.
That’s exactly what you’re doing with organic SEO efforts. Up next, we’ll discuss what that means to search engines like Google (Spoiler alert: they LOVE it).
How does Google respond to organic SEO?
Of all of the optimization tools and efforts out there, Google probably responds best to organic SEO and the companies that utilize it effectively. After all, Google is all about leveling the playing field and giving everyone the chance to get more visibility the right way.
According to them, organic SEO is the right way.
Now, that doesn’t mean that paid search efforts don’t have their place. But that’s a topic for another day. Right now, let’s keep on with the current discussion as to why organic efforts are so important.
Google has algorithms in place to affect the outcome of searches performed on search engines. Although no one knows the specifics of those algorithms, Google does well to provide some tips, best practices, and of course actual rules that help everyone create a solid, reputable, and “fair” SEO strategy.
In fact, Google is so against favoritism and “black hat” marketing tactics, that it’s actually penalizing websites and brands that even so much as think about using anything other than organic SEO and other reputable marketing efforts. Even accidental issues, like broken links, can cost a site dearly in the rankings.
This, again, brings us back to the value of a solid organic SEO strategy. This strategy will include everything from keyword optimization to link building, auditing for errors, and more. When done correctly, it will razzle and dazzle Google enough to get you that coveted ranking that you’ve been working so hard to achieve.
Organic SEO vs. paid SEO
Let’s go back to the topic of paid SEO for a few minutes. We don’t want to spend too much time here since paid search optimization is a topic all its own, but it needs to be discussed briefly. Every search optimization strategy needs to have an organic foundation. That’s the most important part.
Whether or not paid SEO efforts are valuable– that all depends on how you use them. Every business has the potential to benefit from paid SEO if they incorporate it correctly. However, the biggest thing to focus on here is what differentiates organic from paid SEO.
Organic SEO includes things like:
- Keyword optimization
- Content optimization
- Website optimization
- Improving off-page content
- Backlinking and directory listings
Even if you hire professional services to do the work, these things are still considered “organic” optimization efforts because they are working to enhance the natural discovery of your website and online presence.
Examples of paid SEO tools and efforts include:
- Sponsored Results Listings
- Banner Ads on Websites
- Google Adwords
As we mentioned earlier, both of these efforts have their place. However, while you can have a solid organic SEO strategy without paid SEO, you cannot expect paid search campaigns to be effective unless they are an extension of an existing, well-implemented organic optimization strategy.
The benefits of organic SEO services
Now that we’ve dug a little deeper into the value of having an organic SEO strategy, you know we’re going to tell you that there’s also value in hiring professional organic SEO services to handle things for you.
After all, we’d be out of business if we didn’t.
It’s not just about that, though– it’s about providing you with the best resources for creating a winning SEO strategy that’s going to garner the rankings that you deserve. Industry experts and professional SEO agencies know all about Google’s intentions, demands, and expectations. They understand how it all works, and it’s their entire job to make it work in your favor.
Some of the biggest benefits of organic SEO services, in a little more detail:
Insider Insights and Industry Expertise
By and large, the single-biggest advantage of hiring someone to do your organic SEO is the expertise and insight that you gain as a result. You can read guides, articles, and tips for days and still not gain the experience that these professionals have from working in the world of SEO day in and day out.
You might be surprised at just how much they have to offer and how many unique things you can learn along the way. Plus, the results will speak for themselves.
Better Results with Less Effort
Speaking of results, if you want the best search rankings, you have to rely on professional services. There’s just no real way to do it on your own unless you are able to become an SEO expert yourself. Most business owners and marketing managers don’t have the time or energy to commit to that.
You’ll be able to discuss your needs, strategize and brainstorm, and then let the pros execute the strategies for maximum results with minimum effort on your part.
Targeted Traffic
When you enlist the help of organic SEO services, you’ll be able to curate keyword-specific queries and optimization efforts for your audiences. The pros know how to target super-specific audiences and home in on those markets that might not be getting as much exposure.
Rather than putting all of the emphasis in one area, you can diversify and create multiple streams of SEO campaigns to target multiple audiences at once.
Credibility
When you incorporate the assistance of professional SEO services for your organic SEO efforts, you’re increasing your reputation and credibility significantly without even realizing it.
That’s because you are working with people who understand the best practices of organic optimization and will work to use that process to give your business the best image possible in the online world. That includes on your website and off, and it’s an invaluable asset.
Cost-Effectiveness
Everyone has a marketing budget. Even though we don’t like to spend a lot of time talking about money (because this is an investment in your business, after all), it still has a place. Especially when it comes to cost-effectiveness because you don’t get much more cost-effective than organic SEO services.
Even when you pay someone to do the work for you, you’re still getting one of the biggest returns on your investment that marketing has ever seen. It’s really a no-brainer. You get big results with a small investment– what more could you ask for?
We could spend days talking about the benefits of organic SEO and using professional services to get it done, but these are some of the biggest ones to keep in mind.
How to get started with organic SEO
Everyone has a slightly different idea about where to begin with organic SEO. The good news is that if you’re here, you’ve already started. That’s right– educate yourself before you get in over your head.
Even if you’re hiring someone else to do the actual campaign, you still can benefit from understanding the process so that you can follow along with its progress over time. Read up on the process and work with a team of experts that will also help educate you every step of the way.
Now, the actual first step to planning and executing a solid organic SEO strategy is an audit. You’ll want to perform a full audit of your website, including all navigational elements, pages, images, links, titles, and so forth.
There are tools that professional SEO services use that allow them to virtually “audit” your existing website for its SEO-readiness and to identify areas of improvement– this isn’t something you have to do by hand.
After all, you can’t build a solid strategy unless you know where you’re starting from. During the audit, it’s also going to be important to go over your off-page content. Anywhere that you have an online presence, it can probably be optimized in some fashion.
Everything from your social media accounts to your business directory listings and even the way your backlinks are shared– all of these elements will impact the effectiveness of your SEO campaign.
The right experts will dig into every detail and bring you a complete audit that shows you every single way that you can improve your organic SEO, both on the website and elsewhere online.
From there, you can begin building your strategy.
5 tips for effective organic SEO
Although there are a lot of best practices and valuable tips out there to help with the SEO process, there are some that are more effective than others. Again, even when you’re hiring someone to do the work, you should know what work they’re doing.
With that said, here are five big tips that will guarantee more effective organic SEO efforts:
Keyword Research
Do keyword research. You can’t just assume that you know the keywords for your industry. Find out which ones are actually being searched, how frequently they’re searched, and so forth. Without the research, you’re basically taking shots in the dark.
Listen to Google
Follow all of Google’s best practices and guidelines. It may be tedious, but these rules and guidelines exist for a reason. Make sure that your organic SEO efforts are within their guidelines and take advantage of the information and resources that they offer to help you get the most out of your organic optimization.
Optimize for People, Then Search
Optimize for personas first. This means think about people– not just search engines– in your optimization efforts. If you optimize your organic campaigns around searchers, you’ll get far better results by creating an insightful, personal solution for people.
Don’t Forget Titles and Tags
Optimize titles and meta tags. These snippets are designed specifically for the purpose of optimizing. From page titles to meta tags and even image tags, every detail should be optimized as much as possible.
Make Sure Your Site is Indexable
Perhaps this should be among the first of the tips, but it’s one that you can’t overlook. Your website isn’t just going to be indexed by search engines just because it exists.
You have to make sure that you have a sitemap in place and that everything is set up so that Google and other search engines know to index the site and add it to the search rankings.
Building an organic SEO strategy
Now that you’ve got the audit, the insight, and the best tips, it’s time to get to work on building your successful organic SEO strategy. This is where the experts can step in to assist you in coming up with the best plan of attack.
However, it typically begins with deciding which keywords to focus on and what content to optimize and then creating a schedule or hierarchy of pages and content to optimize first.
Although there are many elements to a solid SEO strategy, you should be focused on the efforts that will generate the best results for your business. Your SEO strategy should have a few major components:
Content Optimization Strategy
You’ll want to create a structured approach to optimizing the content that is on your website as much as the content that you have elsewhere on the Internet. Make sure that you’re adding keywords, enhancing the authority of the content, and increasing length as needed.
(Did you know that Google considers articles of around 1000 words to be the most authoritative? Skip the short content where you can.)
Keyword Integration Plan
In addition to the list of keywords that you’ve cultivated, you need a plan for integrating them into various aspects of your website. If you have a marketing company, for example, you might have different optimization efforts for your pages on local search marketing for small business and enterprise-level marketing, since you’ll have different audiences.
Ultimately, this is where you want to make sure that your keywords match your targets and that you can reach them all accordingly.
Optimization Check-Up
This might sound fairly generic, but it’s actually an integral part of any SEO strategy. This is the part where you’ll handle all of the logistics of SEO, including things like page load speeds and mobile optimization.
These are far more valuable to your rankings than any keyword, after all. Google counts how well you show up, not just that you show up at all.
Authority Strategy
This is where you’re going to build your brand authority using various SEO efforts. Typically, this will involve more off-page efforts, such as getting listed in business directories and generating backlinks.
The more off-page content you have that is optimized, reputable, and searchable, the higher you will rank as an authority in your industry.
Analytics
Much like the audit that gets you started with your organic SEO efforts, analytics are critical to your success with search engine optimization. After all, how can you know which strategies are working or what efforts are most successful if you can’t monitor them?
Using tools like Google Analytics and custom analytics dashboards will allow you to keep an eye on your campaigns and make sure that everything is working as it should.
Plus, if there are issues, it will be easy to make tweaks and change the strategy in real-time, saving you the hassle of playing catch-up by waiting weeks to find out that a plan isn’t working.
Your organic SEO strategy, above all else, should be completely customized for the needs of your business. When you work with professionals, that’s exactly what you get.
Use organic SEO services
We don’t expect you to remember all of this information. In fact, we’d prefer it if you referenced this guide regularly, along with the other resources that we offer, to help you get more out of your SEO. Of course, when you’re ready to really take things to the next level, that’s where we come in.
You’ve got enough on your plate. You have a business to run that needs your attention. Not only that, but even the smallest oversight can have serious negative consequences when it comes to SEO. Don’t risk it by going it alone.
Our professional boutique SEO services have been providing solutions for brands that care about their online image for years. Our team of experts knows what it takes to create an effective organic SEO strategy that helps get your brand at the top of the rankings and stay ahead of the competition for good.
Plus, we know the value of looking at organic SEO as an ongoing process and not a one-time effort. We’ll make sure that now and in the future, your business has the best strategies in place to outrank the competition in every way possible.
Call us now to discuss your needs and get started.