Organic search is the natural searching that your readers do in search engines. Your readers enter one or more search terms in Google, or another search engine and a list of search engine results are returned.
The search engine results page (SERP) typically contains a mix of organic and paid search results. Your goal is to rank at the top or close to the top of the SERP.
To generate organic search traffic, you need to really get to know your readers and give them the answers to their organic search queries. This translates to content that is so useful, that your readers feel compelled to share it on social media.
Content sharing drives more traffic to your website and improves your organic social media reach.
Why Does Organic Search Matter?
Organic search matters because recent data tells us that the traffic companies were getting from organic social media reach is dropping.
Consider this research from Christopher Penn on organic social media reach:
“When I ran the numbers – sure enough, Instagram engagement started declining rather sharply beginning in May and hasn’t let up since. The most recent glimpse showed about a 20% month-over-month decline for brand pages/business profiles since early May with no sign of letting up.
…. I’ve run a dozen digital customer journey maps for Trust Insights clients in the last week and search is topping the charts for nearly all of them, from the smallest sole-proprietor brick and mortar shop to the largest publishing websites with millions of visitors per month. Search, search, search is bringing humans to the yard – and organic search at that.
…while organic search’s contribution to conversions ranged from 30% to 85%, organic social media never cracked 3% for any given client out of the dozen I analyzed.”
One theory on why organic social media reach is dropping comes down to the combination of over-saturation and boredom. Every company, person, dog, toddler, and brand is on social media. This makes it very hard to stand out and connect with your readers.
As well, many people are shifting their perspectives on how they use social media. Think of how many people you know who are talking about quitting Facebook, have stopped checking Twitter, or have decided that Instagram has become too crowded with influencers and noise.
You need to rise above the shifting tides in social media usage and keep up with fluctuating social media algorithms. The best way to do this is by putting your readers first.
Do You Know Your Readers?
At Know Agency, we tell our clients to put their readers first.
When you know what your readers want and how to give it to them – you can make organic search work for you.
Your readers are asking Google questions and looking for answers. This is organic search. This is what you need to think about. How can you give your readers the answers to their questions?
How Do I Make Organic Search Work?
To get organic search working for you, you need to remember the basics of SEO. And this all starts with your readers.
What do your readers want? What are the organic search terms your readers are using? What do your readers need from you? How can you give back to your readers? Who are your readers?
Think of it like this:
Do your SEO research -> Get to know your readers -> Create high-quality content -> Establish Expertise, Authority, Trust -> Remember the SEO basics -> Make organic search work for you
To make organic search work for you, start with the basics of SEO:
- Quality Links. Google and other search engines are judging you based on who you know. So, make sure you’re linking to quality websites, recent research, and that you don’t have any broken inbound or outbound links.
- High-quality Content. Content is where it’s at. The better your content is researched, formatted, written, and delivered – the happier everyone is – your readers, the search engines, and the ranking signals.
- Headlines and Meta Descriptions. A well-written headline grabs attention and is easy to share on social media. A succinct and clean meta description tells your readers and search engines what they’ll get from your content.
- Answers to Questions. Your readers are asking questions and looking for answers. When you know the questions your readers are asking, you can deliver content that answers these questions. Take a look at how this blog post is formatted – each heading is a question and the first sentence answers the question.
- Clean Website Design. Make it easy for your readers, search engines, and Google Search Quality Raters to navigate and read your website. Think of the menus, about page, search functionality, overall design, internal links, and please – no blinking unicorns or dancing emojis.
- Keywords. These are the words and terms that your readers are searching for and that your competitors are ranking for and using. Every niche within every industry has its own keywords. The content you provide, including the headlines, URLs, social media posts, meta descriptions, etc. must be keyword-forward. Delivering keyword-forward high-quality content requires skill – contact me to find out how you can work with our chief content wizard.
- Mobile. Your website must be mobile-ready and mobile-friendly. If it isn’t, please dedicate some serious time and attention to your mobile presence. Your readers are mobile, and they expect you to be mobile (so do Google and the other search engines).
What is the Best Organic Search Strategy?
The best organic search strategy is customized to meet your exact needs. Think about why you have a website and what you need it to do for you.
Do you want your website to drive eBook and whitepaper downloads? Do you want your website to drive traffic to your online store? Do you want your website to connect your readers with your sales team?
The answer to: what does my website need to do for me – allows SEO strategy experts like me to develop a customized organic search strategy that gets your website working for you.
I know you’ve read articles titled “Top 5 SEO Hacks” or “The Best Organic Search Strategy” or “Do This to Rank First in Google”. Well, the truth is – these articles are written expressly to get clicks – there is no SEO hack or universal organic search strategy that will work for you and every other company out there.
And this is what the Know Agency team does – we tell you the truth about your website. Why it is and isn’t working for you.
We do the research. We get to know your readers. And then we give you the website, SEO, content, digital marketing, and social media presence that delivers results.
To drive traffic to your website, you need to contact me before your competitor does.
About the author
Jane Phelps is the CEO/Partner at Know Agency. Jane is the main point of contact for our clients and handles all aspects of in-house SEO demands. This includes providing SEO training, competitive analysis, keyword research, algorithm analysis, and the review of all new content to ensure SEO best-practices are followed. Jane holds a Master’s Certificate in Online Marketing from the University of San Francisco, is BrightEdge Certified and is the head of the BrightEdge User Group in Atlanta, GA.
