Before we go any further, lets just remind ourselves what we actually mean by the term ‘organic search’.
Google says organic search are:
A free listing in Google Search that appears because it’s relevant to someone’s search terms. Non-organic search results are paid advertisements.
So what can you do to appear higher on Google’s free listings?
Pay attention to your content
As you will, see there are a lot of technical ‘things’ you can do to boost your organic search ratings but if you don’t have quality, well written, original content you will fighting a losing battle. Google is very sophisticated these days and it can recognise content that is written poorly (and copied) and content that is of a good standard. This actually makes a difference in how they choose who appears in the organic search and in which order.
Help Google read your website
Did you know that it’s not just your visitors who will be reading your website? Google will also be reading, or indexing, your website roughly every 6-8 weeks. It’s important your website is professionally designed and built so that it is simple and easy for Google to learn what you do so the search engine can decide if you are relevant to a search enquiry. To understand more about how this works you can read another of our recent blogs here.
Look after your website health
Google assesses each website on their relevance (eg what they do, which is why your content needs to be good) and their trustworthiness. To be trustworthy, Google is looking for websites that are well maintained so that they are (a) efficient – eg; pages load quickly, there are no broken links etc, and (b) secure – eg; plugins are up to date and your SSL certificate is current. If you can’t tick both of these boxes, you will be penalised on the organic search.
Make your website mobile friendly
We know we go on about this alot, but by not having a website that is built to be responsive (eg adapting to all different screen sizes) you are not just missing out on potential customers you are also preventing Google from increasing your organic search because your website is not easily accessible to all internet users. Our ‘Why Is It Important To Have a Mobile Responsive Website’ blog explains this is more detail.
Create a blog and post regularly
As we’ve mentioned, Google reads/index’s website. This means they can call on your information when someone searches for your services or product. It is reported that businesses that have blogs are more likely to attract the bots that read and index web pages so you are more likely to be included in the organic search results. Blogs also enable you to include fresh, regular content that will help Google assess your relevance.
Pay attention to content
I know, I know we’ve already mentioned this but when it comes to organic searches we cannot emphaise enough how crucial your content is. Keywords within your content are also crucial. Have you thought about what your keywords would be? Word of warning though, you do need to be careful how you use keywords. Google can identify spamming now and they don’t look it on fondly. Speak to your web designer or copywriter for more advice.
Rethink how you spend
For some reason, businesses seem much more willing to spend money on Adwords than to consider investing in organic listings. One of the reasons we wanted to be a Nettl partner was to be able to provide our clients with SEO that valued the organic search. When you pull the plug on Adwords, you will disappear from the listing unless you’re organic search rankings is strong. Investing in your organic search results has longevity and impact.
