What is Organic SEO?
Organic search engine optimization refers to the methods used to earn a high ranking (or placement) on a search engine results page (SERP) in the unpaid, algorithm-driven results.
When keywords are used properly, the reader shouldn’t be aware of them. In web writing, as it is in all publishing – Content is King! Therefore, your number one objective is always to start with great copy and look for opportunities to weave in your keyword or key phrase as naturally and inconspicuously as possible.
DO NOT, under any circumstances, sacrifice the quality of your content for the sake of boosting the keyword density of your content artificially. Also known as keyword stuffing, loading and cramming, these so-called “black hat” SEO techniques will almost always backfire on the writer as Google easily recognizes over usage of keywords and phrases as cramming and lowers your content’s credibility ranking – and may even temporarily blacklist your entire website. The lesson here is that you can pay to have your targeted keywords show up prominently on an SERP, but trying to accomplish this for free is much more tricky and you must be careful not to outsmart yourself. You’ve been warned.
Using Keywords Effectively
Fortunately, a little practice is all it takes for savvy content marketers to skillfully weave targeted keywords into their content. Check out this sample snippet of blog copy:
Hopefully the keyword isn’t too obvious, but if it is, I will just tell myself it’s because you already knew what to look for (haha)! For the purposes of SEO, keywords and key phrases should be incorporated into your copy word count at a density of 3-5%.
The keyword phrase in this example is “data integration.” Here’s how we’d calculate the keyword density of this phrase for this sample of content:
So, let’s take a closer look at the number of keyword phrases present in this sample:
There are six occurrences of “data integration” on this page. Ultimately, this is how the keyword density calculation breaks down:
Look for all of the possible places to discreetly insert a keyword or phrase into your digital content in a way that’s not obtrusive to the reader. Hint: Please note that regardless of how many words a keyword phrase may actually contain (e.g, “data integration” or “multi-model database”), for the purposes of calculating keyword density, each phrase only counts as one word.
SEO Tools
SEO tools, like Yoast (used for WordPress), can simplify organic SEO for those who find it too time consuming for practicing it manually. Here’s a shot of how Yoast works within the MarkLogic website:
All in all, it’s wonderful to have a tool that can shortcut the process of practicing organic SEO. But, in my humble opinion, I think human SEO “editors” can outperform SEO tools by being able to insert keywords with greater fluency, finesse, and context. After all, nothing shouts “read me” quite as loudly as thoughtfully-written content.
Key Takeaways
Organic SEO is small-effort habit that we can adopt to greatly increase the findability, discoverability and credibility of our brand. Therefore, I recommend that all of our digital content be developed in this manner. If you have any questions, or need assistance inserting keywords into your digital content, I’m happy to help!