Organic Keywords: What Is An Organic Keyword

Google is a known platform, and almost more than 3.5 billion searches occur every day. Therefore, it is a tricky task to catch the users and drive traffic to the website. To get organic traffic to your website without any paid campaigns, you need to optimize your web content with organic keywords.

Organic keywords are used to drive free traffic through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Let’s understand simply with the help of an example. When you search for something on Google or any other platform, you type in a few words or a phrase. Right? Those words or phrases are called organic keywords for websites whose content you view (non-sponsored). When a search query leads you to results that are not paid, it is termed an organic keyword.

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What Is An Organic Keyword?

Organic keywords refer to the words or phrases that users actually type on Google while searching for something. There can be various reasons for people typing in these keywords in search engines, like to find information, products, or services.

Remember, organic keywords are only the ones that bring you traffic for free. You get organic traffic when your website ranks for any of these keywords. It simply means that people visit your site naturally through search results without any paid promotion. An organic keyword is different from a PPC (Pay-per-click) keyword. PPC keywords are bid on through paid search marketing campaigns.

Organic vs PPC Keywords: What’s The Difference?

Organic keywords and PPC keywords are both helpful in driving traffic to your website, but they work differently. Organic keywords get you visitors through unpaid search results.

Here, your site automatically appears because it matches what people are trying to find. PPC keywords are a part of paid advertising campaigns where you bid on some keywords, and you have to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Let’s have a look at some of the key differences in Organic and PPC keywords.

Feature	Organic Keywords	PPC Keywords
Cost	Free	You have to pay every time someone clicks on your ad
Time	It is a time-consuming process. All you need to show consistent SEO efforts	It gives faster results. Ads can appear almost immediately
Credibility	Users trust organic results more	These are labeled as ‘Ads’, so some people may skip them
Control	There is only limited control over placement	You have full control over the targeting and scheduling of ads

Why Are Organic Keywords Important?

Organic keywords are important to rank without the need of any paid campaigns by providing users with what they need. You need to find keywords that people actually use and search for.

You have to ensure that the targeted keyword is there in your web copy because Google’s ranking algorithms keep evolving, but one of the consistent factors is on-page optimization. If the keyword that people are searching for doesn’t appear anywhere in your web copy, then there are very less chances for your content to rank for that organic keyword. Organic keywords are important as they provide:

Free website traffic: Using organic keywords doesn’t cost you any money
Credibility: People are most likely to trust organic search results rather than paid results.
Long-term value: If your content is ranking high, then it can drive traffic for a longer period of time with continuous monitoring and updates.

How To Do Organic Keyword Research?

When your aim is to rank on top of search engine result pages, then just guessing the keywords won’t help you. You have to find the keywords that people actually type in search engines to target the correct audience. Have a look at how you can search for organic keywords.

1. Use SEO tools

You can use various organic keyword research tools to find the best organic keywords. There are multiple free and paid platforms like Google Search Console, Semrush, Moz, Ahrefs, etc, to find the top-ranking keywords according to your niche.

Google Search Console: Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool by Google that lets you check the exact keywords that are driving traffic to your website. It will help you to take note of all the keywords you are already ranking for and the need to optimize the non-performing ones.
Keyword Research Platforms: There are various paid tools also available like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, etc, which provide data about search volume, keyword difficulty, and related keyword ideas. You can also access these tools for free, but with certain limitations.

You can select the keywords with high volume and low keyword difficulty, which will increase the chances of your content getting ranked.

2. Analyze your competitors

Analysing your competitors is an important step to understand what your competitors are targeting that you aren’t.

Identify your competitors: Find websites that have a similar audience to you, who create content around a similar topic as you.
Identify gaps: After identifying competitors, identify the gaps between you and them. Check what they are targeting and which keywords they are ranking for, which you aren’t. Then create content that fills the gap.

3. Brainstorm for user intent

You can start by thinking about what your users actually want. Whether your audience is looking for how-to guides, quick answers, or product comparisons. There are mainly four types of user intent: informational, commercial, navigational, and transactional. For example, if a person wants to learn about SEO, he/she wouldn’t be satisfied with a page promoting its own digital marketing course.

Match your content with the right user intent and choose keywords based on what your users must be searching for. For example, if you’ve written an article on SEO for informational purposes, the target keyword can be:

What is SEO?
Learn SEO, etc.

4. Look for ‘Related Searches’ and ‘People Also Ask’

You can also take keyword ideas from related searches on Google and People Also Ask questions. These include the queries that people constantly search for, and thus often have high search volume. You can visit Google, type in your topic, then scroll down to find the ‘related searches’ and ‘people also ask’ sections.

How To Optimize Your Site For Organic Keywords?

Optimizing your website is a key aspect of on-page SEO. If you want to drive traffic through organic search, you need to optimize your webpages and website. You can’t just stuff all the keywords on one page and expect it to rank. Search engines value content with high-quality and informational content. Some of the key areas that you must optimize are:

URL: It is the web address of your page. It should be short, easy to read and must contain the targeted keyword.
Title Tags: It is the clickable headline on search engine results. It must include the primary organic keyword.
Meta Description: Meta description is a short paragraph summarizing the content below the title tag in search results. It encourages people to click on your content. Make sure to include your main keyword and some supporting keywords (naturally) in the meta description.
Headings and Subheadings: Headings (H1, H2, H3, etc) help in breaking the content and maintain a readable flow. These must have your targeted keywords, especially, H1 with the primary keyword is considered good.
Content: The main content of your article must have your target keywords, wherever possible.

Make sure to integrate keywords wherever possible in your content, but don’t overstuff keywords, as it could result in a negative impact.

Organic Keywords In SEO FAQs

Q1. What is an organic keyword?

Ans: Organic keywords refer to those keywords that help you drive traffic to your website for free through search engine optimization. These are the words or phrases that people actually search for to find answers to their queries.

Q2. What is the difference between organic keywords and paid keywords?

Ans: Both organic and paid keywords help you to drive traffic to your website. However, organic keywords help you to drive traffic for free, whereas paid keywords or PPC (pay-per-click) keywords help you drive traffic through paid campaigns. You have to pay each time someone clicks on your ad.

Q3. What is an example of an organic keyword?

Ans: An organic keyword is any word that drives traffic naturally without the need to spend money on paid campaigns.
For example, if you write blogs related to travel guides and someone searches for ‘best places to visit in Goa’ and clicks on your article (it should not be an ad), then the phrase ‘best places to visit in Goa’ is your organic keyword.

Q4. Is it possible to rank for multiple organic keywords on a single page?

Ans: Yes, a single page can rank for multiple related organic keywords if the content is well-written and well-optimized.