Natural search engine optimization and paid optimization. How different are they?

Simply put, when you type in a particular keyword in any of the search engines like Google, Yahoo! or MSN the websites that show up on the left side of the pages are due to natural search engine optimization. The positions or rankings of the websites vary from search engine to search engine due to different algorithms that each search engine adopts.

Whereas, paid optimization involves SEM(search engine marketing) such as PPC ( Pay per click) advertising on all the major search engines. If you google “football updates”, you will find results on either side of the page, the left results are through natural search engine optimization and the results on the right are the PPC results. Advertisers pay for the Ads and everytime a visitor cliks on the ad, the advertiser pays google for that. Which is why PPC is referred to as paid optimization.

Natural Search engine optimization techniques are applied in all of the below mentioned. It is not limited to only these elements though, the list can be endless, depending upon your strategy –

1. Website/ blog design
2. Website/ blog navigation
3. Content optimization
4. Video optimization
5. Optimization for Social Networking sites
6. Press releases
7. Links from relevant sites
and more….

In summary, Search engine optimization techniques that focus on bringing in traffic to your website/ blog by natural means (without using any payment services)  is referred to as natural search engine optimization.

Natural SEO starts from the inception of the site, it takes into account a lot of factors especially elements that help visitors access information easily in your website. The idea is to create a website for the visitors, of the visitors and by the visitors.Basically create a website that keeps its promise to the visitors.For instance, if your title says something like, “tips on search engines ranking” and your website does not have anything to do with it, your visitors will be most disappointed and they will log out out of your website immediately. Natural Search engine optimization takes into account all of these elements.

It helps a lot if before a website or blog is conceived, there is a well defined objective. With a defined objective, and a strategy in place, a website can achieve its goals easily.