What is Organic SEO, and what can you do to improve it?

Organic SEO is an important concept to consider when designing your marketing plan. Organic search engine results are determined by algorithms that consider content relevance, popularity, and more. 

The goal of Organic SEO is to create better relationships with Google's algorithm so that you rank higher for specific keywords or phrases on the SERPs (search engine results pages).

You want to make sure that all your web pages have relevant content on them, are up-to-date with current events, and are easily accessible from other social media profiles. If you're interested in learning more about how Organic SEO can help grow your business, read this blog post!

Using the right tactics, you can rank higher in organic search results for your business.

The most important thing to remember about all SEO including Organic SEO is that it's all about quality over quantity! 

Focus on providing helpful information and content while staying away from spammy or unethical practices such as keyword stuffing - this will help ensure users find what they're looking for when browsing Google (and therefore increase their chances of converting). 

The best way we have found at Sumwot to improve organic ranking is using some of the following tactics:

Creating new blogs and updating your online content

We are assuming that you already have a blog on your website, which you update with your latest news, stories, or products on a regular basis.

If you don't and want to succeed in the world of organic SEO, we strongly recommend that you start creating content as this is one of the easier organic Google ranking factors. The more relevant web pages you have the more search engines like Google have the potential to give you a higher ranking in their search.

All forms of social media is becoming a lot more "pay to play" for businesses that want to use their platforms. A business can post on these platforms but its brand message is dictated by the algorithms of the social platforms. Thus if you pay these companies your ‘followers” or customers have a better chance of seeing your content.

It is not to say that they are not very good at getting your product/services in front of potential customers it is just expensive. So why not take the low hanging fruit in the first place (Organic SEO), and then once you have this fully optimised, why social media and Google advertising in addition?

A side note.

"Brick and mortar business" and online businesses both benefit from search ranking and google's search results by having blogs/content on a website.

Organic and paid search both offer unique benefits, including:

There are many advantages and disadvantages of organic search engine optimization worth considering when trying to determine the best route for your business.

Organic search results are less expensive than paid, which can be an advantage if you're running on a small marketing budget.

You'll find it easier to measure organic search with Analytics than Adwords since there's no money involved in doing so - you can see how many visits to your site are coming from search engines, which keywords they used, and more.

You can update your content faster through organic search than you can with paid - if you're using Adwords or another paid advertising platform, you'll need to wait until the next time that specific ad is scheduled for display.

If customers trust your brand already, they may be more likely to click through to your site from organic search results than they would if you were advertising.

Below we have listed the main advantages and disadvantages as we see it building on what was said above.

Advantages of Organic Search

  • It's free

  • Provides an impressive return on investment

  • Benefits from compounding

  • Enhances credibility

  • Engages relevant users

  • Delivers actionable data

  • It provides support for other marketing channels

Advantages of Paid Search

  • It can generate instant results

  • Provides an impressive return on investment

  • Keyword data for SEO

  • Suitable for every budget

  • Attracts users who are ready to buy

  • Delivers actionable data

  • It provides support for other marketing channels

Updating your old blogs

Updating your old blog posts shows Google's algorithm that your website and your blog is active.

Regularly updating your blogs shows the readers you know what is happening in your niche. The search engine algorithms are always changing, and if you want your website or blog to rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to keep up with the latest changes.

So regularly updating your old blog posts is a very good idea for local SEO. (Plus it doesn't take much time as all the hard work of writing the original piece is already done)

It really doesn't mean you have to re-write everything on your blog.

Editing previously published posts is a great way to keep search engines crawling your site and keep page rank high.

Search engines also pay attention to keywords, so it's important to be mindful of using the same keywords over and over again. You don't want to make your blog post sound like a robot wrote it!

Some very quick wins for updating your blog post could be:

  • Change the date at the top of the post

  • Update any statistics that are now out of date

  • Check for broken links and update them if necessary

  • Add new images, infographics or videos (remember to make sure they have the correct file name and alt tags)

  • Replace any outdated information with more recent data around the subject in question

  • Rewrite any sections that you no longer feel are relevant

Make sure product and business images appear correctly across various platforms.

Product images are essential for giving users a clear and concise idea of the product when delivered. 

If you're selling an outfit, having photos that show how well-fitted each piece fits can help buyers decide if they want to purchase this particular clothing set or not! 

When working with our design team, we inspected every inch on image quality so everything would deliver screen resolutions up to 1080p, which is necessary these days given consumers' high expectations and increased mobile usage rates across all demographics.

A few quick things to keep in mind in relation to images and your SEO strategy

Make sure the file name of your images describes the image and not the default standard file name format like 3456.jpg - instead, it should be something like YellowJug.jpg.

Alt tags

Alt tags are a way for search engines to understand the content of your website. The primary purpose is so people can easily find it when they're looking up something on Google. Still, alt text also has other uses, such as identifying images or telling those with visual impairments what button does which function. So make sure you use them!

##The size of the image. You don't want to add large files to your blog, as this will slow down the download speed and create a bad experience for the user. One way to make sure you get the right size of the file loaded onto your site is to use a free app called Optimizilla. This will compress the size of your images without sacrificing their quality.

Quick fixes for organic local SEO by Updating your Google Business Profile 

Claiming your Google Business profile in easy steps

For small businesses, Google Maps can be a great search engine marketing strategy. In fact, 90% of local searches on Google are from the search box and not from maps.

By ensuring that your business is listed correctly on Google Maps you will hopefully gain more targeted organic traffic to your website. The first step is to search for your business on Google Maps. If you are not listed, you can add your business by following these simple steps

1. Go to maps.google.com and search for your business by name and location

2. Once you have found your business listing, click on "edit"

3 . Claim your business by verifying your ownership either by phone or postcard

4. Once verified, you can add all the relevant details about your business such as opening hours, website, contact information and even photos

5. If you have multiple locations, make sure to list them all!

You can also improve your local SEO ranking by updating your Google Business Profile regularly. This includes adding new photos, changing your business hours and updating your contact information.

Business Info or "from" section in Google Business Profile

Create an engaging and informative "From" section on your Google Business Profile. The first 250 words are significant for SEO organic ranking, so include your business's keywords. Although, as always, stuffing keywords is a terrible thing to do and will be penalised by Google.

Update images

Adding new images of products or services for the business is always beneficial to your organic SEO strategy, plus it keeps your profile fresh. Make sure you follow what was said above, clearly labelling all photos and adding the alt text.

Always remember when you are uploading images you need to bear in mind page speed. This can be determined by the size of the image you are uploading.

Conclusion

Organic SEO is a process that involves creating better relationships with Google's algorithm to rank higher on the SERPs (search engine results pages) for specific keywords or phrases. You want your web pages to be up-to-date and relevant, as well as easily accessible from other social media profiles like Facebook and Twitter, among others. 

Please get in contact if you would like help implementing these tactics into your marketing strategy. We know how hard it can be to stay on top of all this! Let us do some of the heavy lifting, so you have more time for what matters - building those meaningful customer connections through quality content creation.

Previous
Previous

Why online reviews are so important for your business?

Next
Next

The Inside Scoop on Online Reviews: Why They Matter and How to Make Most of Them