When Can We Say if SEO is Organic?

Many of us know what SEO is. However, some of us are still uncertain if an SEO is organic or not. Of course, opposite organic SEO is what we call non-organic SEO. We can say an SEO is organic if the listings are natural and if websites do not rely on commercial means to be listed.

Organic listings are those that appear on the left hand side of the search engines such as MSN, Google and Yahoo. Major search engines have their own ways of assessing the importance and thus positioning websites on their organic or natural listings, making organic ranking a truly complicated process. In search engines, these algorithms are not published, but a lot of web masters have learned by experience and developed techniques for the improvement of organic rankings.

Most online marketing businesses are more favorable of organic SEO compared to “Non-Organic SEO”. In Webster Dictionary, “organic” is defined as instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to a certain destined function or end.

Organic SEO, if done properly in a step-by-step approach, can literally increase traffic and rankings for years. It can also contain overall marketing costs, as the use of PPC (Pay Per Click), is not needed as much with this method. The main drawbacks of this type of SEO, however, are the length of time it takes to properly implement all the necessary steps and the length of time it takes the Search Engines to thoroughly spider and index a site that has implemented Organic SEO.

Overall, Non-Organic SEO methods are quite popular, being a much quicker means to rankings and placement. Links might be purchased from “link farms” that specialize in the promotion of links to others.

Although non-organic SEO can speed up rankings and placement initially, care needs to be given when using any of these methods. If keyword dense pages are automatically generated en masse, the Search Engines might view large sites, with large numbers of such pages as “Search Engine Spammers” and a risk of being banned does exist. In addition, pages may initially place very high, only to drop lower rather quickly, as the Search Engines still place a great emphasis on good content, which is not usually the focus of the Non-Organic” type of SEO.