Thursday, 7 May 2009

Organic SEO?

Organic SEO is a term used for natural content that lends itself to ranking well in search listings under a specific subject matter or topic. No tricks, keyword stuffing, or other techniques that are considered unnatural. The idea is that if you provide useful content that is of value to the visitor, the search engines will not only give you good rankings now but in the future too.

People spend a lot of time trying to figure out the latest and greatest trick or method to achieve good search engines rankings. There are some important basics to adhere to but in the long run, it's pretty simple to get good rankings. Provide unique content of value in the given subject area.

Organic or natural search engine optimization is following the guidelines of the major search engines and providing useful information. So how can you do that when there are already 5 or 6 million other resources that do the same thing?

One way is to do it better, provide a unique twist, and the detail necessary to separate you from the crowd. Some of the one-word popular search terms get up to 2 billion results displayed on a typical search. That's right my friend, you may have billions of competitors for a popular search term.

Dig down a little deeper, just like most searchers will do eventually, and the competition will thin out. Get down to a very specific aspect of the search query, and two things happen. First, you are in a less competitive area and second, you are better targeting your potential visitor.

You don't want just any visitor, you want someone is has an interest in your particular area of the base search term or subject. It doesn't matter if you are trying to sell something, provide information, or promote your opinion to influence others. You should always drill down and be specific in your content to reach your intended audience.

Another important part of Organic SEO is following the known guidelines of the search engines. Naming conventions (page, title, even domain) have an impact on rankings. Creating well-designed layouts for both the reader and the search engine bots (bots are software programs that go out and visit the websites) helps too.

Areas on each web page such as navigation menus and internal links need to be in proper format and easy to find. Descriptive phrases or information about the link should be clear and concise. Providing complementary or associated information gives your reader more options to spend more time on your website.

It's easy to get lost in the weeds when working with search engine optimization. There are few rules, but many guidelines. Too many times people look for an absolute, when there are none to be found. And always remember that the search engines constantly re-evaluate their ranking methods to both eliminate the cheaters and improve the quality of results.

While I can't use a picture in this article, I can give you an example that may be helpful in better understanding organic SEO. For our example lets use gardening as the subject matter. In our example the website will sell items that gardeners might be interested in buying. There are lots of subcategories in gardening to choose from, so lets go with house plants. And maybe drill down a little further in this area to succulents (plants that thrive with very little water).

Providing information on any and every aspect of our subject of succulents will provide a lot of content to attract the visitors interested in that type of information. You could have sections on growing, identifying, indigenous, and flowering for starters. Each page would have very specific information on each area, presented in a unique method around house plant applications.

The layout and design should have the page names, titles, and links that use descriptive terms to identify the subject matter. Unique content could be personal experience, recommendations in specific placements, etc. Each web page could display items for sale that apply to that subject matter. Or you could also display affiliate links to other websites that pay you a commission on sales.

So you can see from this example that the information provided is the key to attracting visitors with an interest in the subject matter. Search engines will see that too, and serve up your web page when someone searches for your topics. The goal of the search engines it to provide the best possible results to the query. If your information provides that information, you get listed.

There are many parts to the puzzle in search engine optimization. Organic SEO is just one part but if you do it well, you can get some good results in search engine traffic. Providing valuable and unique information on your website will attract visitors via their queries on the popular search engines.

John Dow

John Dow owns www.jdWebWorks.com, a web site design and SEO firm. If you want to learn more about search engine optimization and how to get more traffic, click here Professional SEO Services.


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