What does it mean to grow your business organically in the digital age? In the very early days of the Internet, a company’s SEO status was able to be enhanced with links bought from brokers, content that was crammed with keywords, and content that had nothing to do with the website but brought in traffic.
In 2012, Google started to bring the hammer down on people who would artificially inflate their traffic numbers using these various methods. Organic growth online means the accumulation of web traffic by using online partnerships, relevant content, and content that is written to meet certain guidelines.
It takes a lot longer to grow website traffic organically, but that traffic also delivers more paying customers on a consistent basis than the traffic that was bought and paid for. Every once in a while, Google tightens up the guidelines for organic web traffic, but the general rule of creating traffic rather than buying it always exists.
In the old days, companies would set up a series of bogus websites and link their clients to those sites. When the search engines saw websites with a lot of links, they would move those websites higher up in the rankings. Today, Google has ways of making sure that the links on your website are not purchased. If you do have purchased links on your website, you will receive a harsh Google penalty.
Links should be acquired through marketing partnerships with companies that are complimentary to your business. For example, your printing company can reach out to shipping companies to create a series of links that add value to both sets of websites, and give value to clients as well. Putting links into websites these days is long and hard work, but it is worth it.
Prior to Google’s actions of 2012, most content on websites was driven by keywords. Marketing experts would determine which keywords were popular in their clients’ industries, and then they would create content stuffed with those keywords. Some marketing companies even put in articles with keywords that had nothing to do with their client’s industry, but were popular with the general public.
If you want to grow your web presence organically, you need to develop content that is relevant to your website and offers value to your clients. Keyword stuffing will get your website one of those Google penalties that can take months to recover from. All of your content needs to be helpful to your audience, and it should not focus on keywords to bring in traffic.
Social media is an excellent way to market your business to millions of people and bring organic traffic to your website. Businesses should rely on experienced digital marketing companies to manage their social media accounts because many social media platforms have very specific rules on how businesses can market to customers. But if you get it right, social media can be an excellent way to grow your online business organically and increase revenue.
Google made sweeping changes in the search engine industry in 2012, and it continues to modify its rules regarding how businesses can attract traffic. Today, organic traffic that is developed through hard work and proper marketing techniques is the best way to go, and it is also a great way to build traffic that will actually make your website money.
