1. What is organic traffic
Welcome back. In our previous video, we discussed paid search, where companies pay search engines to appear at the top of search results.
2. Organic traffic
But as you’ve probably noticed, not every result is paid; in fact, the vast majority are not. These results that appear without payment, in other words, “naturally”, are organic results. In this video, we’ll discuss the organic channel and why it is so important.
3. Organic and paid search differences
Organic and paid search are very related channels: both occur on search engines, with the only difference being whether the company paid for its spot (called rank) in the results or not.
However, on search engines, the difference is clearly identified.
There can also be a relationship between the two channels. As paid search is an awareness tactic, it can indirectly drive organic traffic by increasing brand familiarity. This is known as the traffic network effect.
4. Organic: pros and cons
Why pay to appear at the top of the search results if you can also get there for free? Well, ranking high organically is very difficult; millions of web pages can exist on the same topic. However, if the keywords of interest are expensive, a company could potentially save a significant sum of money ranking organically.
5. Ranking and SEO
So how do companies rank first? Search engines use algorithms to order all the possible results. Companies carefully design and build their web pages to maximize their chances of ranking highly for specific words. This process is called search engine optimization, or SEO.
The content on a page is very important for page rank. But other factors matter in addition to content. These include: page loading speed, URL reputability, mobile friendliness, website security, and inbound links (how many other pages link to your page).
6. Organic and digital strategy
How do companies plan and build web pages to rank highly? The overall approach is referred to as a company’s digital strategy. The way that web pages link to one another to enable that strategy is known as a sitemap.
In general, pages are classified based on the portion of the funnel they target.
7. Digital strategy: an example
Say a car company is building its blueprint for its website. They plan to sell SUVs, large vehicles.
To rank highly for searches with the keyword “SUV”, they might have a web page on what an SUV is, what distinguishes it from other cars, what typical features are included, and the pros and cons of buying versus leasing one.
8. Digital strategy: an example
As individuals continue to refine their search, moving further along their journey, they are likely to get more detailed in their keywords, such as “affordable SUVs with folding back seats and all-wheel drive to lease”.
The company will therefore build additional pages, potentially one for each car model, that provides the specifications to more closely match this search query.
9. Digital strategy: an example
As a final step, the company will typically link their overall “SUV” page to the model-specific pages via a call-to-action. This not only drives engagement rates for the first, general page, but also pushes individuals further along the journey, closer to conversion.
You may be wondering, “why bother optimizing model-specific pages for search engines if users will just click the link?” Well, we don’t know for a fact what users will do. Some may go back to a search engine and refine their search. Failing to optimize all pages means the car company could lose out on that traffic.
10. Let's practice!
Ok, now that we’ve learned about the organic channel, let’s move forward to some exercises!