Natural search engine optimization is when a website appears in the search engine without using paid advertising to get the site onto the first page also known as organic seo optimization. The search engines take many things into account when deciding where to place a site in the search rankings, but natural search engine optimization can be seen as two things:

Optimizing a page of the site for a given set of keywords. This would include laying out the page and content in a way that many top SEO companies have researched and is working as of today. Then getting a lot of websites to link back to the site and say “this site is really talking about these keywords”. The end results of this that the page of the site moves up the search engine rankings. This is known as natural search engine optimization because efforts of carrying out the work above, means the page should eventually appear on the first page for a given keyword without paying for it to be there through Pay Per Click Advertising.

The second way that natural search engine optimization can be seen is, and if you have the patience to do this, then the search engines will reward you handsomely. The content and the way your site is laid out are of no concern to you….. You are just writing and giving your potential readers great quality content and as a result of that, your readers love your content so they bookmark it, comment on it in forums other website owners link their sites to it etc etc. Over time you get natural links to your pages, this in turn is rewarded by the search engines because they see that you have popular content and you get moved up the search rankings.

As you can probably see from above, getting your site to appear on page one and having your site naturally appear on page one, are two very different strategies, but in essence they the same, one is a forced way of doing the other, but both having the same outcome.

Natural Search Engine Optimization | Webmaster Guidelines

Google clearly states in its T’s and C’s in the webmaster guidelines. ”Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you.” The problem is, anyone that builds a website wants it to be seen or they would just write what they have to say on a word document and keep it on the computer and maybe just show their friends. The majority of websites are businesses and therefor they want customers, the more customers they have the more successful their business is…..It makes sense then to get your site to the top of the search engines. There is only three ways of doing this.

Paid advertising. (Instantly appear on the first page of the search engines if you out bid your competitors for each click of a chosen keyword)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) also known as manipulating your site and building links to it. (The second fastest but not necessarily a guaranteed way to get on the first page)

Natural search engine optimization (the slowest, also not a guaranteed way to get on page one)

It makes complete sense then that most people/businesses go for the second form of natural search engine optimization even though it is clearly warned against in Google’s terms and conditions. Would you feel comfortable explaining to a competing website owner that you have taken a large portion of their business, because you had more money available to spend on buying back links……..? That is an interesting debate and maybe one we’ll discuss another time. If I had to explain to a competing business that I had taken a significant portion of his or hers business because I had spent more time and effort building backlinks, then I would be more than comfortable to do that. After all they are a competing business they are competition that is what competition is all about trying, preparing and working harder than your competitor. Right!

Natural Search Engine Optimization | Naturally

If you were do real natural search engine optimization and not factor in market research for particular keywords and include them strategically within the content, then it could take ages for anyone to find your site, let alone have enough people read it and start the natural back linking process. This kind of approach does work and once it eventually gets going has a snow ball effect of bringing in links and increasing your position in the search engines.

The snowball effect would go something like this:

People stumble across your site, read and love the content. They “like” it on Facebook, bookmark it on one of the many social websites. This gives a back link to your site; Google’s spiders come along to the social site and Facebook, crawl down the link and arrive at your page. Google sees your site as a little bit more important in the context of the anchor text in the link; this may just be your domain name or hopefully a well search for keyword. Your page is now a little higher in the search engines.

Now your page is a little higher more people find it and a repeat the process, this again brings your page higher the rankings.

Even more people are finding your content and they are now talking about it in forums and other places on the web this starting to give many links back to your page. This real natural search engine optimization happening all on its own.

As your content is becoming even more popular, website owners, blog owners are seeing it and linking to from their already established sites, this gives you very valuable links indeed.

This is, in a nut shell, the process of natural search engine optimization and could take many years for even the snowball to start rolling, but eventually if your content is good enough and the completion for the keywords it gets picked up for, is low enough then you could get to page one.

It all sounds a bit, “what if and maybe”. The odds are not really stacked in your favour and that is why most people who want their site/page to be found buy their potential customers, opt for paid search engine optimization or they do it themselves over natural search engine optimization.