Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Organic Search Engine Optimization are words you’re probably hearing quite often these days. We receive a lot questions about SEO and natural (or organic) versus paid options. So we decided it would be great to clarify these two different and complementary methods of SEO to help you better understand what it all means.
Natural SEO and Organic SEO are two ways to describe the same thing. At BigforkWEB, we use the phrase “Natural Search Engine Optimization”. Basically it is defined as the art of increasing your ranking in the Search Engine Results Page without paying for web-based advertising such as Google AdWords. This paid advertising is commonly referred to as Pay-Per-Click. These are the ads you see on the right side of the search engine.
Natural Search Engine Optimization and Paid Optimization live under the umbrella of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Search Engine Marketing encompasses all aspects of marketing to help increase your search engine rankings.
Natural Search Engine Optimization is referred to as natural or organic because they are steps added to either your new website or while refreshing an existing site. It can be integrated as part of your website creation or revisions. Think of a website as a garden where you have your developer (or master gardener) plant herbs and vegetables. Natural SEO is having your developer plant a border of flowers around your vegetable garden. Planting these flowers will assist in making your garden more noticeable because these flowers attract honey bees and butterflies which are like the search engines.
Example of Organic and Paid Results on Google
Paid SEO is where you pay the bees and butterflies to visit your garden, whether or not it has natural or organic optimization. If you’re a user looking up information about gardening, you may visit Google and type in “Gardening in Montana”. You notice on the right side a list of links with small descriptions underneath the heading “Sponsored Links”. One of them reads, “Your Montana Gardening Resource” – so you click on the link and it takes you to a blog created by a Montana nursery. When you clicked on that link, the nursery was charged by Google. Each time you click on this site from the paid listings on the right, Google charges the nursery and this is called Pay-Per-Click.
The listings in a search engine’s results page in the main content area are the natural or organic listings. The websites listed at the top have a thriving flower bed planted around their vegetable and herb garden and may even have paid a few bees along the way.
Both Natural and Paid SEO work well together. If your goal is to climb the natural rankings, paid advertising can help you achieve this goal. It gives you another legitimate link, can increase the number of visitors to your site, and gives you the opportunity to utilize the keywords you optimized from your website through Natural SEO.
You want to attract honey bees and butterflies to your garden and at Bigfork Web we have master gardeners to create your appealing flower bed around your vegetable and herb garden. Our developers / gardeners can also provide a paid campaign to help you climb the natural or organic rankings. Whether you need a brand new garden or are looking to spruce up an existing garden, Bigfork Web is here to help.