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Organic Search Engine Optimization Basics

Organic Optimization is a valuable asset to your web site. It not only improves your site's rank in natural searches, but effects the success and popularity of your business as well. Organic optimization is not a difficult process, but it can be involved. This article explains each facet of organic optimization, from analyzing the competition to over-hauling your own site.

Definition of Organic Optimization

Organic Optimization is a process designed to improve a site's rank in organic search engines. Optimizing a site makes it easier for spiders (Google's Spider Definition) and human visitors to find and read your site. The higher a site ranks in natural searches, the more successful that site will be.

Visitors associate a high ranking with quality. They assume that because a site has a high ranking, it must be the best. The truth behind rank is how well a site has been constructed or optimized to work with search engines; site credibility does not influence rank. It is important, however, to have a credible, professional site as this will help hook visitors into your site.

Organic Optimization — The Process

The process of search engine optimization is straightforward, and can be completed by an individual or a hired SEO/SEM company. While some sites are completely overhauled and re-designed to perform better in organic searches, some basic tweaks and minimal changes may be all it takes to improve your site's ranking.

When optimizing your site, focus on:

Keywords/Phrases

KeyWords/phrases are what visitors and spiders use to find your site. They are, literally, what people type into search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. They must be terms that potential customers would use to search for your site.

Keyword phrases should be scattered throughout your web pages. To be effective, they must be formatted to mimic the phrases that visitors will search for.

For example, if your web site sells green hats, and green hat/s is one of your keywords/phrases then you should have copy on your site that reads: 'We have a large selection of green hats'. This is effective because the phrase is intact.

You should NOT have something like this: 'We have lots of hats that are green'. While the message is the same, spiders will not read the copy on your site and parse phrases together.

Keyword terms should be relevant to your site and clearly reflect your overall theme. The key is to find terms that are popular but that have little competition; this will increase your rank.

All of the major search engines offer services and tools to aid in keyword/phrase selection, where you bid on the phrases that you want to use. The more popular a phrase is, the less effective it will be. Because of this, you must be creative and practical when choosing keywords/phrases. Many online services allow you to test the popularity of keywords/phrases and more importantly, allow you to test and change your keywords/phrases with as much frequency as you need.

Tips for creating keyword lists and phrases:

Copy/Content

Web site copy is the physical content of your web site, and must be clear, concise, and well-written, with an effective smattering of keywords and phrases. Less is more when it comes to images and graphics. The fewer images, the more quickly your site will load and be processed by search engine spiders. TIP: If you use images/graphics on your site, reference them with an 'alt' tag, and they will be read by spiders.

The content of your site should be clean and concise. Simpler sites are easy to read and comprehend, and hook visitors more effectively. A perfect example is Google's Web site. This site is simplistic in terms of design and content. It is easy to use and clearly comprehensible.

Having a simple site allows for additions and changes to be made easily. It is important to keep content fresh for return visitors; sites should be updated with consistent frequency — every week or month. Having a page devoted to new topics or elements will help keep your web site fresh.

Keep text copy to a minimum, especially on home/landing pages. Keeping copy to around 200 words will force it to be concise and focused on the theme of your site. The design of your site should reflect the overall purpose and message of your business. Copy should be easily read, and distracting design elements kept to a minimum.

Meta Tags

Meta Tags are information placed within the head tags of your web pages. There are different types of meta tags, all of which allow search engine spiders to more effectively read your site, and determine the relationship of your keywords and keyword phrases to your site's content.

Implementation

Now that you know the important elements of organic site optimization, you are probably wondering how to implement these elements in relation to your own site. Optimizing a site is relatively straightforward, but it does take time — typically between 1-3 months — depending on the size of the site and the level of optimization necessary. Some sites need to be completely re-designed, while others can be easily tweaked.

The first step of site optimization is evaluation. Look at your site's:

Determine whether or not these elements are coherent and related to your site's theme, and answer these questions:

Focus on the Competition. Analyze their sites, and adopt effective elements that they employ. Determine what keywords/phrases they use and how effective they are. This can impact your own keyword/phrase choices for the better. Determine how successful their businesses appear to be and look at the differences between your sites. It is important to know how your business/site compares to the competition, and how you can use their weaknesses to your advantage. Identify your niche in the market and reflect your unique aspects within your web site. Stress how your are better than the competition.

How to Analyze the Competition

After completing a thorough analysis of your competition and of your own web site, you can either hire a professional SEO/SEM organization to optimize your site for you, or you can do it yourself. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages.

Testing and Tracking

You must test and revise keyword/phrases in order to maintain their effectiveness. This will enable you to delete old and create new keywords/phrases that hold more relevance toward your site.

Tracking is important as well. Tracking your ROI will give you a clear picture of how successful your marketing campaigns are, and where they could be improved. For information on ROI tracking, check out Conversion Ruler.

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