How to get to the top of natural search Results

There is a lot of arguing over the efficiency of paid search over natural search. Paid results are those that are displayed as “sponsored links” on search engine results and affiliate sites (usually on the top and right handside of results). Natural search results are those which are displayed thanks to organic search. These results are not paid for, and their position in search queries is determined exclusively by the search engine algorithms. SEO therefore deals with natural search results. PPC (pay-per-click) deals with advertised results.

Problem is though, which one is best? Some say internet users do not trust paid search, as they do not always reflect the quality of the website and service it provides. On the other hand, natural search is a very complex and impenetrable concept, as getting results on top of Google of Yahoo can prove to be a very tricky business. Although the process of SEO still contains many mysteries, we do seem to be moving into and age of enlightenment, where there are certain basic pieces of wisdom we can all hold to be true. This includes keeping your website and link strategy up-to-date and paying attention to social media advances. These two basic principles should set you on the right path.

Jony Kelt, managing director of DoubleClick (recently acquired by Google), which is one of the biggest digital marketing companies out there, says that “Natural Search has been demystified a lot. Paid Search has been taken up much more quickly becuase it’s easier to understand, but natural search is a growing story”. The great difference between paid search and natural search seems to be the immediate Return on Investment (ROI). While paid search allows customers to draw more traffic to their website immediately, it is often considered as a better way to increase profits. SEO is much less profitable in the short term as it takes time to provide effective results (a few weeks or even a couple of months). This is the reason why people concentrate on paid search rather than organic search, because wit paid seach, ou can sit down and say ‘Here is a budget, let’s go out and spend it’.

However, there are impressive numbers to support the case for organic search and SEO. According to JupiterResearch, 87% of clicks are derived from organic search. This suggests that the majority of traffic on the Internet is still from natural search. No wonder effective SEO tactics can highly benefit traffic to a website. Fresh an new SEO strategies include updating and adding new content to your website regularly, as Anthony House from Google explains: “We always say, build things for the people you want visiting your site, and that is what we try to reflect with our ranking. It is not about trying to trick your way into the highest results”. Google has also recently been endorsing the use for sitemaps and websites, as the most useful way to get your new content crawled and indexed by search spiders. Additionally, Google provides a service whereby you can submit your sitemap to its system, which will accelerate the indexing procedure for the new content on your website.

One of the most crucial principles for efficient SEO strategies, as Neil Jackson from Tamar reveals, is “to ensure your website is set up correctly, that the structure and designs are good, so that the site can be crawled and indexed by the search engines”. The web designer should ideally have some good knowledge of search, which is rarely the case. Barry Mills from Netstep argues that “it is unbelievable how many people build a website and then go to and SEO specialist”. It’s like building a roof and putting in the walls later!

This post, summarised from an article from Business Link in this month’s issue, provides with a very positive view of the services we provide here at DEXthis. To be visible to search engines, you need a website which is constructed properly and which allows you to add more content on a regular basis. That is precisely what we aim for: to provide well-structured website ready for SEO (using headings, titles, alt tags, etc) and which can easily be updated through a state-of-the-art Content Management System. Thanks to DEXthis, our clients are able to update and improve the content of their website themselves, in order to ensure their position in search engine results. This allows them to acquire a product which is usable, well designed and efficient, whilst being SEO-friendly and easily maintanable. We are unique in that way and are proud to be able to provide usable and well-designed SEO ready websites.

At the end of the day, one must admit the fact that while SEO isn’t getting any easier to implement, it is at least becoming far harder to ignore.

For more information on our SEO ready websites, please contact us or send us an enquiry form.