Digital marketing is a key part of the work we do for many of our clients, and for certain clients – like those in tourism, real estate and recruitment – the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) is a regular point of discussion.
In the past, SEO was one of the few ways to rocket your website to the top of search engines like Google. With the addition of social media, blogging, and content creation, many companies have made the mistake of abandoning their SEO efforts with the thought that these new mediums or paid advertising makes search engine optimization irrelevant.
Google says it best “Keep in mind that the Google search results page includes organic search results and often paid advertisement (denoted as “Ads” or “Sponsored”) as well. Advertising with Google won’t have any effect on your site’s presence in our search results. Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results.”
The two points Google is making is that organic optimization is STILL important to its ranking results and that paying for keywords buys a place in search engines under an AD/SPONSORED spot, but does not buy a certain ranking.
Here are three important truths about organic SEO and why it should matter to you:
- Building the Foundation and Walls – Organic SEO is not a short term process because it creates a foundation for long term success. Once something is in a search engine, it takes some heavy lifting to change or correct it. Using important keywords in all of your marketing efforts – including your website, content, and social media – allows search engines to rank your site according to terms that are important and relevant to your brand and business. Look at it this way….you have created your logo, business plan, and message. Why would you let a search engine decide what words will draw traffic to your website? Organic SEO allows you to put a stick in the ground to claim your place in search engines according to the keywords that are important to your business success. The epiphany in this statement for most business owners is if you do not design your search engine optimization to include organic SEO, then you are giving Google the power to place your business in search engines where they see fit. With millions – perhaps billions – of websites indexed into Google, do you really want to take the chance that they will get it right?
- Providing the Windows and Doors – By identifying the right mixture of keywords for your business that takes into account the words people are using to search for products / services, you are giving your business a head start for success because you are drawing warm traffic to your website. Good for both branding and traffic, when people come to your website and find content that meet their needs, they are more likely to engage with your services. The heart of any search engine optimization effort should always be keyword research. The difference between a certain set of keywords might be one hundred people searching or one thousand people searching. For example, the difference in “non-profit,” “not for profit,” “non profit,” and “nonprofit” are thousands of searchers each month in Google. Further, owning the right keyword is vital not only because one yields more than the rest, but because of those words is not being use by competitors. So, the low-hanging fruit would be to use the proper word that few competitors are using without paying for the advertising. This is the key to owning your online space.
- Make It Appealing and Useful – In truth, many companies spend lots of money every year to buy sponsored ads; however, without a solid place to start including SEO keyword research and five point organic optimization, millions of dollars can be wasted in advertising money every year because paid optimization goes away the moment that someone outbids for a keyword or the company stops paying for a keyword. Although it is true that paid advertising is a quicker path to the top, it is easy to compare paid advertising to sky writing. It is there and people will see it – but, it does not last in the sky and you can’t measure what action was taken from the views. Most SEO experts agree that the long term process of SEO builds stronger relevance, links, and page ranking. Therefore, the traffic is better and the results last longer.
Overall, strong organic SEO is just like building a house. It takes time to build a foundation, but with patience and good strategic practices, you will build a place within search engines that will provide traffic growth and increase brand exposure.
