Organic Optimization 101

[Terry Plank]

If I read this right, this General Search Engine Marketing Tips area in the Forums will be the place for essential strategies for Search Engine Marketing.

One SEM strategy would be organic optimization, a term we use a lot. I'm interested in how people are defining the word, "organic", in their thinking.

Webster Online give two definitions that might be relevant. "...a: forming an integral element of a whole : FUNDAMENTAL <incidental music rather than organic parts of the action -- Francis Fergusson> b : having systematic coordination of parts : ORGANIZED <an organic whole>..."

Based on your definition, what are the essential elements to organic optimization?

[seobook]

keyword research
title optimization
structuring rest of page to rank well
internal linking
link building

(eat peanut butter in between each step)

[Anthony Parsons]

Away from the dictionary: Organic to me, means Natural or Something Natural.

Something Natural is applied to Optimization in the aspect of professional, ethical, honesty, and the list goes on.

[mcanerin]

I tend to think of "organic" SEO as those things that are directly edited or influenced by the designer, and "non-organic" or paid SEO as those things the designer has to pay or influence someone else to do (PPC, Paid inclusion, etc)

I realize that differs from what some people consider the definitions to be, but it makes more sense to me, personally.

Ian

[Anthony Parsons]

I think that is the important thing Ian...one understands it in their own terms but it has the same meaning as the definitive answer. Like it.

[hajith]

Organic SEO or Natural SEO is nothing but optimizing the Website so that they rank high in the search engines.

It comprises of the follwoing parts:

1) Through Site Analysis

2) Competitive Analysis

3) Well researched Keyword Analysis

4) Optimizing the Website

5) Directory Submission and Link building

6) Monitoring Statitics and fine tuning the pages if necessary based on statistics

[mcanerin]

I'm not sure I'd want to connect concepts like "ethical" to organic.

I strongly believe in ethical business (and SEO) but on-page keyword stuffing and link farms would fall under the category of "organic" to me, but I don't consider them to be best practice.

Likewise, I think PFI and PPC is a perfectly acceptable tactic for promotion.

I think you can be a spammer whether you are using organic techniques or not - as a matter of fact, most spam comes from people trying to use organic techniques, IMO.

They are harder and take longer, and are in the control of the webmaster, so it's an ideal enviroment for spam tactics.

This doesn't make organic SEO ethical or unethical, it just makes it different from paid placement. I'm concerned that the word "organic" is taking on a value judgement, rather than a descriptive one.

As an example, not all organic "foods" are automatically good for you - a pesticide-free toadstool will still kill you. Aspestos is the "natural" alternative to artificial ceramics and fibers. It's not automatically safe or good just because it's "natural" or humans haven't overtly manipulated it in some way.

Ian

[Terry Plank]

I'm truely enjoying the different posts on what "organic" means to us. I think it's important because the term is used consistently in the industry and if there is no real consensus about what it means, then we are not really communicating clearly with each other, our clients, and our potential clients.

Of course, this may just be my little quirk about precision in language since my various careers have centered around the importance of clear communication. For one thing, I was a family and couple therapist. Believe me, language and consensus of meaning was "everything". :)

[mcanerin]

The problem, I think, is that "organic" SEO is usually considered to be hand in hand with "organic" SERPS - so lets discuss this.

Is there a difference? Or is Organic SEO simply optimising for Organic SERPS and non-organic SEO simply running an effective PPC campaign.

I think everyone agrees that Organic SERPs are those that Google (for example) presents based on it's algo under the heading of Web Results and Non-Organic (or Paid) is those results that are under the "Sponsored Listings" on that SERP. And the same applies, mutatis mutandi, for the other search engines.

Can we agree on that? Because if we can't the rest of the discussion is likely to be, uh, "lively" ;)

Ian

[Terry Plank]

...I think everyone agrees that Organic SERPs are those that Google (for example) presents based on it's algo under the heading of Web Results and Non-Organic (or Paid) is those results that are under the "Sponsored Listings" on that SERP. And the same applies, mutatis mutandi, for the other search engines.

Can we agree on that?...

I searched through a bunch of resources and I think there is some building momentum for Organic Optimization being equated with "natural" vs unnatural. That would mean the grow your vegetables in a natural way and don't use any strange growth products, hormones, genetic altering, strange foods etc.

So Organic Optimization would be following the search engines suggestions and guidelines on how to build a good website that is search engine friendly. Then avoid any tricks or deceptive tactics to achieve top search engine ranking.

Basically that would mean what some of us have stated above in this thread. For example "seobook" wrote:
keyword research
title optimization
structuring rest of page to rank well
internal linking
link building

The most basic Organic Optimization would mean that no matter what your competitors did, you have good strong text that emphasized your targeted keyword phrases, include those targeted keyword phrases in your Title and Meta Description, have internal links that naturally used your targeted keyword phrases for traveling within the site, and getting some high quality domains to link to your site, preferably with using text links using your keyword phrases not your company URL.

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/deletions/deletions-05.html
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/ranking/ranking-02.html
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

Non-Organic then, would not mean things like PPC, it would mean things like Yahoo! Search states:
-Pages that give the search engine different content than what the end-user sees.
-Excessively cross-linking sites to inflate a site's apparent popularity.
-Pages built primarily for the search engines.

The question then becomes a business, perhaps ethical decision? What do I do when a client has competition that is unfairly using tacts that Google and Yahoo! Search consider spam? But, even after reporting them, nothing happens to the offending sites. I am currently facing that situation with a clients competitor that is using duplicate content on 4 different domains and sub-domains and taking my client to the cleaners.

[mcanerin]

I dunno, Terry

The problem with that line of thinking is that it boils down to Organic = Ethical/White Hat/Compliant, etc and non-organic = spam

I'm not sure that's a useful definition, since then we have spam vs organic as opposed to spam vs non-spam or organic vs non-organic.

Which would ask the question of why this would even be an issue. If you end up with the definition of Organic being non-spam, then everytime someone in a PPC thread starts talking about wanting to show up in the organic listings in order to save money you run the risk of newbies thinking they are spammers - and I for one don't think anyone here is calling PPC pros spammers - I know you are not.

Definitions should make things clearer, not muddy up the waters more than they already are, IMO.

I do think that there could very well be a niche for the term, but I don't think it's as a euphamism for "non-spammer". I might be wrong, and I'm open to counter-arguements, but I'm not seeing the value in the concept at the moment if that's all it means.

Especially since the next issue would be what search engine spam is (opens big can of worms and ducks) :p

Ian

[Daria_Goetsch]

I tend to think of "organic" SEO as those things that are directly edited or influenced by the designer, and "non-organic" or paid SEO as those things the designer has to pay or influence someone else to do (PPC, Paid inclusion, etc)

I'd have to agree with Ian as to his take on this.

I see organic more as a long-term method in comparison to the faster results of PPC programs. I don't see organic SEO as a white hat/black hat thing. Anyone can use a variety of methods, organic plus PPC plus Paid Inclusion, etc. In both situations organic and PPC can provide long term results, the only difference is the amount of money needed to keep it going. It comes down to method of optimization more than anything else.

[seobook]

Definitions should make things clearer, not muddy up the waters more than they already are, IMO.

The one problem with this is that we are all marketers. It is far easier to make money by coming up with this great brand new saying, word, or description (purple cow, sneezer, free prize inside, edgecrafting are all just a few examples from Seth) than to just let defenitions rest.

Us going back and forth about it only helps us get more exposure, and eventually someone will have the version that sticks. When I formulate my definintion hopefully it will be mine :)

[mcanerin]

Oh - I don't mind helping to hash it out at all :)

As some here know, I was a lawyer in a former life and I certainly see the value in making sure that everyone is working off the same definition. Many of the most heated discussions in forums often center around several people taking positions based on their definitions.

All good contracts have a definition section in them for this very purpose. To me, "blue" is a nice royal or navy, whereas to you it might be that nifty day-glo or turquoise. You can imagine my opinion of you painting my house blue without us agreeing on the definition :D

I think the consensus so far is, at least, organic SEO is long term in nature and not directly dependant on consistant payments of fees. Yes?

This isn't complete (at all), but perhaps it's a start. Anyone care to expand on this? I'm sticking by my original definition (which fits this) but I'm open to a better one if you can come up with a good arguement, since other definitions may fit this as well. I think Terry's does, too (even though I disagree with it)

So we need a tie breaker - what other key aspect do people generally consider to be part of "organic" that would *not* be part of non-organic?

I think that would leave out keyword research, which is common to all forms of SEO and therefore not part of a definition distinguishing one from the others, I think.

Anything else?

Ian

[Terry Plank]

The problem with that line of thinking is that it boils down to Organic = Ethical/White Hat/Compliant, etc and non-organic = spam

I'm not sure that's a useful definition, since then we have spam vs organic as opposed to spam vs non-spam or organic vs non-organic.

May be this is a better definintion of "organic" as suggested by Webster:

4 a : forming an integral element of a whole : FUNDAMENTAL <incidental music rather than organic parts of the action -- Francis Fergusson>

b : having systematic coordination of parts : ORGANIZED <an organic whole>

This approach would allow us to consider Organic Optimization as integrating everything that needs to be considered to be a search engine friendly page for good search results. Which would include avoiding what is counter to the Guidelines of the SE's.