We were talking last week about the value of search engine optimization. There are a few basic things you can focus on to help improve your website’s rankings in organic search.

“But, wait!” you say.”What is organic search?” Put simply, when SEO specialists use the word “organic,” we aren’t referring to produce. We are talking about any traffic your site gets outside of directories and paid advertisements. You know, the real Google results. So, without further ado, here are the 3 keys to improving your organic results!

Key Number 1: Know Your Audience

I suppose you could say the real key to SEO is simply research. The first step in all we do is research who we are producing content for. From age to gender to buying habits to preferred apps, it’s impossible to improve your ranking if you don’t know who’s looking for you!

Understanding who your target audience is will help you understand what sort of tone to use, how to layout your website, and even what time to promote new products or material. An experienced marketing agency can help you determine exactly who your target audience is and how to market directly to them!

Key Number 2 is Keywords!

We’ve mentioned them here, here, and here. But there’s a lot more to keywords than just picking a word you want to rank for and stuffing a page with it.

In fact, this is called “keyword stuffing,” and Google and other search engines look down on that sort of behavior, referred to as “black hat SEO.” In order to avoid keyword stuffing, it’s important to include not only the basic keywords you are hoping to rank for, but also keyword phrases and “semantically related keywords.”

My goodness, this is getting jargon heavy. The best way to understand is to think of your website as a magazine about your industry. The more important industry related information you have, the more people will turn to your site for answers. All that information will be full of keywords and semantically related words. This proves to search engines and your potential clients that you are the best source for particular services, products, or information.

Key Number 1: Know Your Audience

I suppose you could say the real key to SEO is simply research. The first step in all we do is research who we are producing content for. From age to gender to buying habits to preferred apps, it’s impossible to improve your ranking if you don’t know who’s looking for you!

Understanding who your target audience is will help you understand what sort of tone to use, how to layout your website, and even what time to promote new products or material. An experienced marketing agency can help you determine exactly who your target audience is and how to market directly to them!

Google on Crawl Budget

According to the good folks at Google:

“Crawl Budget is the number of URLs Googlebot can and wants to crawl.”

The crawl capacity limit can go up and down based on a few factors:

• Crawl health: If the site responds quickly for a while, the limit goes up, meaning more connections can be used to crawl. If the site slows down or responds with server errors, the limit goes down and Googlebot crawls less.
• Limit set by site owner in Search Console: Website owners can optionally reduce Googlebot's crawling of their site. Note that setting higher limits won't automatically increase crawling.
• Google's crawling limits: Google has a lot of machines, but not infinite machines. We still need to make choices with the resources that we have."

Key Number 3: Content is still KING!

Sure, it’s important to have a well built site that will run smoothly for your clients whether they are on their phone, laptop, or tablet. But the king of SEO is still content. The information you put on your website will always be the greatest contributing factor to your rankings.

All of your content should be informative, pertinent to the industry you are serving, and well produced. You’ll notice I said “produced” and not written. Content isn’t just words. These days, it is just as important to put out videos, images, and words that will help engage your audience and lead them to choose your site again and again.

Is Organic Ranking Important?

After reading all about SEO and organic ranking, it can seem overwhelming. You may be wondering if it’s worth it. To find out, just pay attention to the link you click on the next time you search Google. The majority of users select a link from the first page of Google’s search results. Those pages are all optimized for organic ranking.

There is great value in paid ranking and directory/local SEO, and we will discuss those more in the next two weeks. But when your customers need answers, they will likely end up browsing through the organic results.

Ready for more?

It is critical to work with an agency with experience in SEO. At UP Market Media, we’ve been focusing on optimization since the days of “Wild West SEO.” We have nearly two decades of experience helping our clients rank on the first page of search results, and we want to help you, too.

If you have read through “What Is SEO?” and are ready to partner with a proven Search Engine Optimization company, you’re in the right place. Our SEO specialists help our clients claim valuable real estate in organic search results every day. Just request a consultation to get started!