Whether you are a webmaster or website owner, you have probably tried to generate meaningful traffic for your website. And if you budget is thin, it has probably been difficult to find inexpensive ways to make this happen. Fortunately, if you can optimize your site, you can generate free traffic by taking advantage of organic search.
What is Organic Search?
As defined in Wikipedia, Organic Search is "a process by which World Wide Web users find web sites having unpaid search engine listings, as opposed to using the pay per click (PPC) advertisement listings displayed among the search results." In other words, organic search is free traffic that you receive from search engines.
Webmasters and online marketers generally prefer organic search traffic because it is free, conveys trust among visitors and potential buyers/shoppers, and generally results in greater conversions.
So, How Can You Take Advantage of Organic Search?
Well, meaningful organic search traffic can be achieved by attaining high placement in search engine results pages (SERPs). And with many easy ways to improve your placement, you should start doing so today. Below are some easy tips to help you take advantage of organic search.
Choose Relevant and Highly Specialized Keywords
The internet is a large place, with millions of sites built for every type of audience and marketing every type of product. As a result, if you want your site to be found, it is in your best interests to use very descriptive keywords. For example, if your website sells shoes, it is probably not a good idea to list shoes as one of your keywords. Instead, it might be better to use adjectives that you think web surfers might use to find you, such as low-priced shoes, black stiletto heels, soft leather sandals, etc…
Next, optimize each page of your website for your chosen keywords. You can do this by including your keywords in both headings as well as body content. Also, be sure to include all of the relevant meta tags, such as keywords, title, and description.
Include Keywords in Your URLs
Another easy way to highlight your keywords is to use them in your urls. Simply name each page using descriptive keywords. To use the shoe example, it would be helpful to name your pages in this manner:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/low-priced-shoes.html
- http://www.yourdomain.com/black-stilletto-heels.php
- http://www.yourdomain.com/soft-leather-sandals/
Even better, when choosing a domain name, choose a name which contains an important keyword.
While receiving traffic via organic search can give you high quality traffic at no cost, organic search traffic is not guaranteed. And it often takes time and diligence to achieve great rankings in search engines. So if you need to get traffic overnight, it might be necessary to invest in a pay-per-click marketing campaign. And your best solution might be to launch two side-by-side campaigns, a PPC and an SEO campaign.