If you have been poking around the Internet trying to figure out how to rank higher in the major search engines like Google and Bing, you may have seen the term “Organic Search Results.” Sounds like something good to eat, right?
Well, not quite.
Organic Search Results Defined
Here is the scoop: Search engines have a sole purpose of bringing the most relevant results to searchers. That’s not always easy to do. For example, if a user searches on “paper,” is she looking for printer paper or research papers or newspapers? It’s not clear. (Btw, there are close to 25,000,000 searches for “paper” each month!)
Search engines have developed methodologies (“algorithms”) for displaying the most relevant results based on multiple, ever-changing factors. The results that are displayed based on these algorithms are called organic search results. These are the pure, unbiased results and the search engine’s best guess at what the user is looking for.
On Google, the organic search results appear in the middle of the page.
Improving Your Ranking in Organic Search Results
So is there anything you can do to make your site rank higher in the organic search results? Yes, indeed! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a field focused on optimizing websites to rank higher (or maintain good rankings) in organic search results on search engines like Google and Bing. By following SEO best practices, you can improve your rankings and (hopefully!) outrank your competition.
Kicking off an SEO campaign can seem daunting. However, you can start small and expand your approach as you learn more. We recommend starting with an SEO Audit to make sure you know all the areas for improvement and then it’s up to you which areas you want to tackle in your first SEO campaign.
Contrast: Paid Search Results
The opposite of organic search results are “paid search results” or “sponsored search results.” These are advertisements that a website owner has paid Google (or another search engine) to display when a user searches for a particular keyword or phrase.
In Summary
Organic search results are completely determined by the relevance of your website to the keyword or phrase for which a user is searching. SEO is a set of best practices which, if implemented, can increase your chances of getting closer to the top. Consider getting started with an SEO Audit to determine areas for improvement. We’d be delighted to help you out!