Organic search is the process of getting a website to appear in the non-paid section of a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. There are millions of websites on the internet, and good organic search practices ensure that your website stands out in that abyss.

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“Okay… but why bother?​”

Well, without SEO, your website will practically be invisible.

Search engines like Google display sites higher up in search results when it thinks the site is ​relevant​ and ​authoritative​. 94% of people stop looking at their results after the first page of search results. If you are ranking on the second page, you’ve lost a major chunk of your potential audience.

Often overwhelmed with all the options that exist, clients do not know exactly what they want. Take Mary, for example. She knows that she wants to purchase a compact car. She knows she would prefer a specific model. She puts that into Google, and hundreds of thousands of options come up.

Mary is overwhelmed, but clicks on the first couple of links. If you are in those top three links, you have just given yourself a good chance of winning over Mary’s business. Now Mary is considering that you may have the capability to help her decide on what car she needs, and she may be your next customer.

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I want Mary’s business, so how do I build this site relevance and authority?​

There are two main types of SEO, on page and off page. On page SEO is exactly what it sounds like. It is how you create authority and relevance on the pages of your website. It includes maintaining up-to-date content, using keywords, and having consistent information across all platforms.

Off page SEO also helps you build authority. It includes links to other sites, and having other authoritative and relevant sites linking back to you. Strong social media, reviews, and advertising helps develop off page SEO as well.

Of course, this is a dramatic simplification of the process. In reality, there are hundreds of moving parts to both on page and off page SEO.

​”That sounds easy, could I do this myself?” ​

You could, but with major search engines like Google changing their policies and fields on a whim, having somebody up to date and Google certified can make the process easier. There are over 200 ranking factors, and Google changes them several times a year. Maintaining good rankings takes a lot of time, time that you could be using somewhere else.

SEO can’t be rushed, and a common misconception is that once you set up and get your website ranked high, that you can just leave it and walk away. Theoretically, you could, but when you came back you would find you have slipped in the rankings.

Optimizing for organic search is an ongoing process that needs to be implemented the entire time your company is online.

​How do I know it’s working? ​

You will know it’s working when you can see movement in the rankings over time. The lower down you are, the more movement you will see in the early days. It slows as you get closer to the top, because you are competing with those who also have good SEO practices.

SEO turns the spotlight on your website – the one thing working for your business that is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Why wouldn’t you want to invest in it?

​”But I have paid search​”.

Yes, and the makers of the Titanic thought they had a plan if it should sink.

Paid search provides approximately 25% of traffic to most websites. That’s the tip of the iceberg (see what I did there?). It’s an important tip, as it can drive traffic in specific ways, to specific products or landing pages that are important to your business.

But what about the other 75%? Think about the rewards from your paid traffic. Now think about tripling or even quadrupling that by investing in organic search.

It shouldn’t be about paid search versus organic search. It should be about how much you can get by having them work together. Your competitors are using SEO to climb the rankings every day, so why aren’t you?

“Cause I don’t have the time to figure this all out”.

​That’s okay, because we do. We have an entire team dedicated to developing client organic search progress every day. We know that SEO is all about being where your customers are, when they are looking for what it is you have to offer, and as Google partners, we stay up to date on all policy changes. We’re dedicated to your success.