Why Use Organic SEO

(Hint: Because It Works, That’s Why.)


Organic SEO vs. PPC Ads: Search Engine Optimisation Basics

When people use Google or any other search engine on the web, they’re looking for one thing: information, whether it be in the form of a product solution to their needs, specific research data, or information about a particular service. In turn, businesses develop powerful SEO campaigns that are targeted towards such customer queries for a similar reason: to get found by these information-seeking potential customers quickly and easily, as well as more often.

While dominating Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) through a solid SEO campaign is often a priority for most organizations for this very reason, what many businesses don’t realise is that getting your name to the top of Google, Bing, and Yahoo isn’t easy; it requires an aggressive, highly diverse SEO platform that not only generates traffic, but effectively categorises your website’s content to encourage consistent, relevant, and paying traffic. However, choosing the best route to go with your new, money-making SEO campaign first means choosing between the two primary search engine marketing types – Organic SEO and PPC (Pay Per Click).

So what’s the difference between the two, and which one is right for your business?

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing

With Pay-Per-Click marketing, you literally pay every time a user clicks on your listing, regardless of whether or not they meant to do so. However, these “sponsored” listings are likewise first to appear in Google’s results pages, highly visible to potential customers, and will generate nearly instantaneous traffic volume to your site.

PPC ads are also completely customisable for a specific demographic, which makes them a powerful tool for targeting key audiences. This optimisation and visibility makes PPC ideal for new product launches, press releases, and quick, measurable results

Organic SEO

With Organic SEO, while measurable results take longer to achieve, they last infinitely longer than those generated by a PPC campaign, though an organic strategy does require some monthly maintenance to keep your site visible and your traffic steady.

There are varying definitions across the internet about what specifically terms an “organic” approach to SEO, but what the phrase really comes down to is helping your business move up the free listings on Google’s results page. And, since these free results listings are where over 80% of visitors choose to click, it’s prime real estate for any website owner – especially when your business is able to appear on the first page of those results.

Organic SEO works in several ways to get your name to the top of search results, including reworking the underlying structure of your site’s links and removing any dead links or error code pages that prevent search engines from properly “crawling” your site’s structure. It also utilises an underlying network of prominent, algorithm-based keywords that searchers tend to use when looking something up, allowing your site to appear higher up on listings for searchers who find it relevant (without all of the cheesy keyword-stuffing that Google hates).

Finally, Organic SEO strategies also check in with your content. Much like the phrase, “content is king” suggests, when it comes to SEO, your content matters – in fact, it’s a critical part of Google’s navigation.

Having relevant, authoritative, well-organised, non-spammy content is what search engine spiders look for when they crawl and categorise your site – flash sites, fancy homepages, and extra site blingage are all irrelevant to Google (and annoying for customers). Instead, the better and more diverse your content, the better your site will stack up against the competition, and the higher your results ratings and listings will be. An effective Organic SEO strategy will work with your existing content to optimise it for efficient Google categorization, as well as develop new content, tags, and meta data.

So Which is Better?

Though end result goal is the same (traffic to your site, higher search rankings, increased ROI, etc.), Organic SEO and PPC are two very different concepts that achieve two different long-term results, so the choice ultimately comes down to which method is more suitable for your unique business needs.

For the average business or website owner – anyone looking to develop their online presence and create a name for themselves that will ultimately become self-sustaining – Organic SEO is the way to go. As a budget-friendly option with long-lasting and often exponential results, an organic-based approach to your website marketing strategy is one that you really can’t go wrong with. No matter what the overall outcome in terms of specific traffic numbers, whether 100 new customers or 1000, an organic SEO platform will address all the bugs in your existing site that may prevent it from being as customer focused as it needs to be, as well as start to build an online presence that will make your site easier to find when being searched by name.

As an added bonus, while the results of an organic approach aren’t immediate, they’re consistent, which serves to create a flourishing, authoritative online presence for your business that can’t be bought via ads or link-spamming sites. Because of this, utilising an Organic SEO method also increases the value of your site directly, and in the event that you need or want to sell your website for its premium “real estate” price, as an already established site on the web, that SEO value is instant money in your pocket.

Final Considerations

The phrase “Search Engine Optimisation” is a bit of a buzzword lately, and as such, it has become a blanket-term for anything that increases rankings, jumps through search engine loopholes, or gets your name out there on the web for potential customers to see; but a true SEO strategy, regardless of its scope, budget, or definition is a necessary foundation to any website launch or redesign. It’s also a process that is constantly evolving as search engine algorithms and TOU clauses continue to update. With an Organic approach to SEO, however, your business marketing strategy can change right along with the web, while keeping more of your hard-earned money in your pocket.