The holy grail for any online business is to be found for a search term on the first page of Google without having to pay for placement, this is known as an Organic search.

Unfortunately, for the vast majority of web businesses that remains only a dream, with thousands of websites competing for the same search terms it’s not surprising that Google quickly realised they could monetize the ranking by creating a bidding program to promote web pages for placement. This is known as PPC [Pay per Click].

When you enter a search term or phrase into Google it immediately gives you results and offers you suggested terms also searched for by others.

The search returns results that Google’s system believes best matches the search. This is completed by a very sophisticated and secret algorithm that uses many factors to search its database of millions of webpages, and then lists results accordingly.

The algorithm invariably looks at many relevancy factors including:

• URL matching                 [does the url match the search]
• Keyword matching [keyword matching of site to search]
• Content [Content added regular or old and out of date]
• Volume [Is the site a pamphlet or a book]
• Your Location [Your location will vary your search results]
• Your Browser [Results will vary on Google.com / co.uk / Bing]
• Community importance [URL extensions .com .co.uk is not ranked the same as .ac academic]
• Popularity [Back link scoring, the quality of back links to url]
• Reviews [Google review and third party reviews are influencers
• Social Media [Remember Google owns You Tube it’s the more popular search engine]
• Plus other factors……………?

The exact algorithm factors are unknown and are constantly evolving with self-aware AI software, and other adjustments to keep the Google results as relevant as possible.

Business owners generally see their product or service subjectively, claiming to be the best in their field, offering great customer service along with the good value. This is natural to be proud of your business. But of course, Google is not human and doesn’t have feelings or opinions. it’s an automated directory with an ultra-sophisticated search algorithm that is continually updated and a closely guarded secret.

The vast majority of web business owners have mixed results or very little results from organic search. Having invested in a great-looking website with good reviews and a few hundred followers on social media, they can be forgiven for thinking that this is enough to attract visitors. “Build it and they will come” so to speak.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality, and having a smart and easy to use website is just the corner stone of effective online marketing.

It’s all about the marketing

The marketing program of trying to anticipate how the Organic algorithm ranks a web page is known as SEO [Search Engine Optimisation]