As a business manager with a website to run, you know it takes a lot to drive traffic to your website.
Repeat customers might navigate directly to your site- they probably have it bookmarked on their devices or know your URL by heart. Positive word of mouth and online reviews probably gets you some traffic as well. Your social media followers- those who subscribe to your blog and email, click the links you provide in your content. Occasionally, other websites might send you traffic by linking to yours. And your Marketing Department probably does an excellent job getting your business listed with various online directories which not only send you website traffic, but also phone calls, and foot traffic.
Have you ever wondered why search still drives a lion’s share of your website traffic despite all the other above avenues on which you work so hard? The answer might surprise you.
Search is the only way for potential customers you do not know to find your business when they search online for a products or services similar to what you offer. This is how they find you. It gives you the ability to reach people who need what you offer when they need it, without advertising, sending out emails, post cards, or phone calls! Think of its sheer efficiency in terms of money and effort saved! In fact, search is the single largest source of new traffic to most websites. A good search rank translates to better visibility among a wide, relevant and otherwise unreachable audience.
Search is always relevant. Unlike advertising and direct mail which can often miss its mark, search results are never unsolicited. People search when they need information on something. They are more likely to engage with their search results, and take action in the not-too-distant future. The likelihood of customer action and conversions from search is high.
The relevance of search is not only due to its self-selecting, self-initiated nature, but also due to the technology itself. In order to show clients the most relevant results, search engines typically geolocate them and display results that ensure the right content is shown to the right person at the right time. People see results that are not only semantically relevant, but also relevant to them geographically- their country, region, their city and zip code. They see websites in their preferred language (often with local dialect adaptations).
Relevance in search can be further fine-tuned based on day-part and other local conditions. For example information on restaurants and food during meal times, cab services during rush hour, or emergency repair services during inclement weather conditions.
How Organic Search Works
People search when they need information. They navigate to their favorite search engine, type in their search phrase or question, also known as a query.
A response is returned in seconds in the form of a recommended list of websites. This list is known as a search engine results page (SERP). SERPs can vary in length from a few pages to several hundred pages. If using conversational search, you will receive a spoken response in addition to SERPs. Each listing on a SERP comprises two lines of descriptive text and the address of the website. The results are ranked in order of decreasing importance.
Here is an example: The results displayed below are Google’s organic results for the keyword “best sandy beaches northeast” done in New York State. By “organic” we mean these results are not paid for, but have been determined by Google based on many different criteria. They are ranked in order of decreasing importance from top to bottom and from page 1 through n as determined by Google.
Search engines display results by determining the relevance of a webpage to the query. Relevance is calculated from a number of parameters. The parameters that search engines use to display and rank results make up their search algorithm. How your website stacks up against other websites for the different parameters in Google’s search algorithm, determines whether and where it will show up when a search is conducted on Google. Search algorithms are updated from time to time as people’s web browsing behavior and search technology evolve.
Top organic search ranks are not instantly attainable, nor are they static. They must be earned over time, and need continuous work and attention. Your website’s rank is affected not only by what you do on your site, but also by what your competitors do on theirs.
The steps taken by websites to improve their organic search rank and visibility are collectively called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Before a search engine can find a website, it must become aware of its existence and the nature of its content. This happens through a process called indexing.
Indexing is a process by which software programs known as “bots” or “spiders” belonging to search engine companies, scan the internet at regular intervals looking for new content. This is known as crawling or spidering. The bots pick out chunks of information from the sites they visit. This information is then sorted and stored in the search engine’s data centers all over the world.
When we search online, search engines do not go through the entire web to find results. They search only within their index. Unless your site has been indexed by a search engine, it will not show up when people search using that search engine.
An important thing to remember about indexing is that search engine bots can see and read only the parts of your website that are in HTML text format. They cannot read or see content in any other format. That includes images, audio, video files, animations, and other rich media. Websites that have important content in non-HTML formats should provide transcripts or descriptions in HTML text so that they can be indexed and can show up in search results.
The content indexed by search engines is subdivided into smaller databases or groups organized around keywords. These are called keyword groups. A keyword group contains contextual variations and synonyms of the same keyword and stands for an idea, or concept. The keyword you type in tells the search engine where to look within its index, and what to look for. That is why search engines are able to return results really fast.
In order for your website to be found when someone types in a particular keyword, not only is it important for it to be associated with that keyword (done as part of SEO optimization), it is also important that search engines see it as belonging under that specific keyword/keyword group. Unless your site is associated with a keyword group in a search engine’s index, it will not show up when people search for that keyword on that search engine.
It may take a long time for new material on websites to get indexed if left to the natural cycle of web crawling by bots. As a business owner, you should not wait around for search engines to “discover” your website or new content as that could take weeks or months. Every time fresh content such as a blog post or a video is added to your site, or existing content is significantly changed, your webmaster or SEO strategist should submit that for indexing to search engines. There are a number of tools available to help you do that. Doing this will not only boost your visibility on organic search, but also on YouTube, local listings, image and video searches.
Adding an XML sitemap is another important step you should take to make sure all of your pages, especially the ones that are buried deep within your site are crawled and indexed.
It should be obvious by now that keywords are at the very core of search. There can be no search without keywords. The manner in which search engines interpret keywords however, has changed over time. Until recently, keywords were literally one word or short phrase. In the last several years, search engines have become more sophisticated in how they interpret keywords. Keywords today convey a specific contextual meaning (object, entity, place, concept), and search intent (how the information is likely to be used).
Search Ranks and their Basis
Search ranks are subjective. They are based on search algorithms that are unique to every search engine. A website that shows up in the number 1 position for a search done on Google by someone located in New York, NY may be ranked differently by Yahoo or Bing when someone searches at the same location.
Further, search criteria are dynamic; e.g, influenced by the searcher’s geographic location (country, region, zip code, etc.), and type of device or technology used (mobile or desktop). The same search conducted on any given search engine would yield different results when conducted on a laptop, as opposed to a mobile device.
Search results would also be different for individuals based on their unique browsing habits and search history. The reason for this is to increase relevance and maximize conversions. Remember search engines always try to show results that are the most relevant to their clients so that we spend the least amount of time searching, and maximize our chances of clicking on them.
It is important to understand that your search rank is a search engine’s opinion on
- The overall relevance of a page to the keyword or query
- The popularity of a page among others who searched for the same keyword
Businesses invest a lot of time and effort to establish their site’s relevance to keywords they wish to be found for. If many people searching for a keyword visit a page and find it useful, search engines conclude that the page must be highly relevant to that keyword.
Content is an important determinant of relevance. That includes not only text, but also graphics, animations, photographs and images, videos, illustrations and outbound links. The keywords used throughout your website, including their variations and synonyms, and the outbound links on your site help search engines figure out the meaning of your content and its contextual relevance to other pages with similar or related content. Keywords and outbound links help you establish your web page’s “relevance” to a topic.
Two very important metrics that search engines use to gauge page relevance are
- Bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who arrive at your site and then leave without spending much time on the page or engaging with it in any way), and
- Time on site (number of minutes spent on the site)
Relevance is also determined through Geo-location and Geo-targeting clients by their country, region, city and zip code, language preference, time of day, device or technology used to browse the web, and local weather conditions.
Here are some additional factors that influence your site’s rank:
User experience (UX) or usability of website – How easy and intuitive is it for users to navigate around your website. Do they usually find what they come for? Is your content original and easy to understand? Is it well-written? Does it add value?
Trustworthiness of site – Does your site engage in any deceptive and misleading practice to attract visitors? Are there reasons why other websites would not want to link to it?
Page authority – Do other websites link to your content (inbound links)? Do you have lots of engaged visitors including a significant number of repeat visitors spending time on it regularly.
As a business owner, you probably have a team of functional experts to help you with the day-to-day operations and marketing of your website. No matter how good they are and how up-to-speed your website is, as the owner and chief strategist of your business it is always wise to get a bird’s-eye view and understanding of the larger search landscape. This way, you can stay in the loop and nudge your team in the right direction when its members appear to lose sight of the forest among the trees.
Please share your experiences and thoughts by clicking on the “comment” link. Happy searching!
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