There are 4.9 billion active internet users in the world, and half of those people use Google Search.If you want your business to appear when people search for things you sell, you need three little letters: SEO. Short for Search Engine Optimization, SEO sums up all the strategies that will help your website rank higher in Google search results.
One of the biggest misconceptions about SEO is that it is paid for, but it’s not—at least not if you do everything yourself. There are two types of search results: paid and organic. Organic results, which are the focus of SEO, are free. In this video, I’ll explain organic search, what it is, how it works, and how it can benefit you and your business. At the end, I’ll also share one truth that most SEO and marketing experts fail to reveal.
Understanding Organic vs. Paid Search Results
When you use Google to search for something—let’s say “buy garden furniture”—the results page you see is called the SERP, or search engine results page. At the top of the SERP, you’ll often find results labeled as “Sponsored.” These are paid search results from businesses that pay Google for these prime spots. Below the paid results are the organic search results. These links have earned their place on the first page of Google through effective SEO, not through direct payment. Websites that are optimized well rank higher in search results. The goal of SEO is to get to the top of the organic results because only the first three search results truly matter. In fact, the top result is 10 times more likely to get clicked than the result in position 10. The top three organic results account for over 50% of all clicks on the SERP. Better rankings lead to more traffic, more sales, and ultimately, more success.
The Importance of Ranking Higher
To climb to the top of the SERP, you must understand how search engines work. Imagine the internet as a vast and overwhelming hardware store with everything you can think of, but no clear organization. Google acts like the information desk, helping you find the best items based on your query. When you search, Google doesn’t rely on humans to sort through billions of web pages.
Instead, it uses technology in three steps: crawling, indexing, and ranking.
First, Google’s bots crawl your site, moving from one page to another and reading the content. Second, it indexes your site by storing information about your pages in a massive database called the Google Index. Finally, it ranks your pages based on criteria to determine whether they are relevant to the search query.
Key Ranking Factors
What exactly influences a page’s ranking? While Google’s algorithm remains a well-kept secret, several confirmed factors play a critical role:
- Content Relevance: Your content must directly answer the user’s query. For example, if someone searches for “buy garden furniture,” they should find a page where they can actually make a purchase, not a general blog post about gardening.
- Content Quality: Google assesses the quality of your content using human feedback and machine learning to ensure it’s informative, accurate, and trustworthy.
- Backlinks: Links from reputable websites act as votes of confidence for your site, signaling to Google that your content is valuable.
- Physical Proximity: For local searches, Google considers how close your business is to the searcher’s location.
- Mobile-Friendliness: Pages optimized for mobile devices tend to rank higher in mobile search results.
- Page Performance: Google evaluates your site’s speed, responsiveness, and visual stability using metrics like Core Web Vitals.
- HTTPS: Secure, encrypted connections give your site a slight edge in rankings.
Negative Ranking Factors
However, certain factors can negatively affect your rankings, such as intrusive pop-ups, keyword stuffing, and unnatural links, which can result in penalties from Google.
Adapting to Google’s Algorithm
SEO is an ever-changing landscape because Google regularly updates its algorithm, which can alter ranking priorities. This is why SEO professionals continually adapt their strategies to keep up. Optimization generally falls into three categories:
On-Page SEO : Optimizing your content, keywords, and site structure.
Off-Page SEO: Building your site’s reputation through backlinks and external signals.
Technical SEO: Ensuring your site performs well, loads quickly, and functions smoothly.
The Long-Term Nature of SEO
Here’s the truth that many marketing experts fail to mention: SEO is a long-term game. Results don’t appear overnight, and while fixing a serious issue might yield quick wins, meaningful results usually take months. Beware of anyone promising instant success, as it’s rarely true. However, if you commit to SEO and play the long game, the rewards can be immense, creating a competitive moat around your business that others will find hard to overcome.
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