Hilda Mateiu
Most search engines list two types of result for every query: paid results and organic or natural results. Paid results are often shown at the top or on the side of the results page as the owners of those web pages pay to be high in results. On the other hand organic results are listed high as search engines believe they are relevant for the query and offer high quality useful information for users.
Each time a user types keywords into a search engine’s search box, the engine will look through the web to find pages with relevant content. The listed pages are selected based on a series of metrics, including:
The engine will look whether the keywords are present on the web page; will check their position, density and whether the page contains words from the same area of interest. The content of the page will be checked as well to make sure it is unique, easy to read and grammatically correct. The search engine will look for images or videos as well, that can make a page more attractive and more useful for visitors. The reputation of a site will be established based on the other pages it links to for reference, the pages which link to it and the way users interact with the site.
The organic results are then listed, including a title, a reference to the full version and a short description including the searched keywords. After that the decision of accessing one website or another, or even to repeat the search with different keywords belongs to the user.
Most users consider paid results similar to advertisement and basically this is what they are. Search engines combine advertisements with organic results each time a query is completed. Paid results are designed to look similar with natural results; however some features still distinguish them. For example the placement on the page or the background color is slightly different. As statistics reveal in 81% of the cases users access paid results only when there aren’t any organic results listed.
From a webmaster’s point of view ranking high in organic search results is more important for several reasons:
Instead of spending time and money creating paid results, SEO specialist can help online business owners to optimize their webpage so that it would rank high in organic results. Such a process, although it might take some time is definitely worth the effort, as it will certainly generate more credibility, traffic and income. So if you are interested in making your business more competitive, contact Hilda for an initial consultation, audit and optimization.
Organic results are on the left hand side below the paid and the local results; are represented by the traffic that is naturally driven to a website coming from a search engine without any payment aspects related to it.
