Organic ranking, also known as inbound marketing, is a digital marketing strategy designed to rank websites high on search engine result pages. There are numerous legitimate (white hat) and illegitimate (black hat) methods which can be used to influence the search rankings of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.
The myriad components of inbound marketing or organic ranking. Image courtesy of Pixabay
Organic ranking has become an essential component of digital marketing for businesses and organisations in the digital age. It allows websites to attract inbound traffic at practically no cost.
However, it’s just not a matter of having a beautiful website. Websites must be designed and primed to attract and engage the core audience of products and services on offer. There is no point in drawing massive amounts of organic traffic if websites are not tailored for them – the valuable leads will just end up being burned. In addition, the structure, quality of content and rich-media, as well as accurate keywords, all play a criticalpart in attaining high organic rankings.
Accurate keywords or key phrases, in particular, play a massive role in organic rankings. They act as a signal to search engines. As such, thorough keyword research must be performed even before websites are built. Once keywords are finalised, content can then be written around them. What’s the point of hiring expensive copywriters to create content which has little or no relevancy to your products or services? Such content will not convert, and more importantly, they will not rank well in search results.
Businesses can say goodbye to organic traffic if they rank poorly in organic searches. With a proper SEO strategy in place, inbound marketing will automatically drive your traffic, lead generation and sales. It will even inspire brand loyalty. Unlike traditional marketing, inbound marketing is an ongoing dialogue instead of a one-way advertorial. When customers or potential customers feel they are being listened to, they are more likely to stay with your business.
In a way, this is the biggest advantage of digital marketing; it allows businesses and brands to build and drive engagements with their target demographic. Feedback from the core audience will help them to further refine their service or product, as well as their website and price points. The dynamism of this marketing discipline will give businesses continuous opportunities to improve their offerings guided by their audience.