What are Organic Search Results and Why are They Important?
Organic search results are all the rage these days, and if you’re trying to get your website to show up on the first page of Google, organic results are definitely what you’re after. But what exactly are organic results? And why are they so important for your website? Learn the fundamentals of organic search results in our blog.
Organic Search Results 101
Let’s use a metaphor to explain the difference between organic search results and the paid results you see when you enter a search in Google.
Think of organic search results as, well, organic, and paid results as genetically modified.
Paid Results
Paid results are those results that are put on the page by advertisers. They’re “genetically modified” in the sense that the advertiser can guarantee the presence of the result on the page, because you’ve paid for it.
Lets say you run a bakery in Baltimore. You might pay Google Ads to display your website in the search results when someone searches for “bakery Baltimore.”
There are a number of ways to pay an advertiser for these search results. One of the most common Pay Per Click (PPC), where you pay the advertiser every time someone clicks on the result.
This sounds good in theory, right? Well, yes, but there’s one not-so-small problem.
Search engine users have demonstrated an overwhelming preference for organic search results.
There are a lot of statistics out there, but most put the percentage of clicks on organic vs. clicks on paid search results around 75-25. This means 3 out of 4 people who search for a phrase in Google won’t click on a paid result.
How can you tell the difference between an organic and paid result?
Paid results are those that appear in the margins and on top of a page. Organic results are those found in the main body of the page.
Why Do Searchers Prefer Organic Results?
Search engines determine the order in which organic search results appear based on a number of criteria, which together are used to determine what websites best fit the searcher’s request.
Basically, the search engine wants to serve you the results that are most relevant to your search query. So, searchers trust these organic search results because the search engine is essentially saying “Hey, you searched for ‘bakeries in Baltimore,’ and I think you’ll find what you’re looking for in these results.”
So let’s go back to the organic and genetically modified metaphor. Organic search results are like organic produce. Shoppers like organic produce because they know the farmer has grown and selected only the best produce to ship to market, in order to satisfy the customer’s desire for a healthier and better product. In the same way, ‘shoppers’ prefer organic search results because they know the search engine has ‘cultivated’ and is ‘sending to market’ only the results it thinks are the best fit for the search query.
This search engine is happy to bring you organic search results!
How Do I Generate More Organic Search Results?
One of the best ways to generate more organic search results for your website is to optimize the site to be picked up by the search engine. This is called search engine optimization, or SEO. There are many practices that can be employed to optimize your site to appear higher up in search engines. A search engine marketing company in Baltimore can help you optimize your website and improve its performance in search engine results.
Adventure Web Interactive: Your Baltimore Search Engine Marketing Company
Contact us today to grow those search results! Call us at 410-788-7007 or use our contact form! Adventure Web Interactive will develop and maintain a custom social media campaign for you that includes Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more. Our campaigns also include a custom-skinned blog and weekly blog posts, all in an effort to increase brand awareness and, most importantly, SEO.
