I know we have been inundated with the term organic with respect to food and ecologically friendly companies and services, but there is an even more important position that has surfaced with respect to the term organic; this is related to a Company looking for low-cost high return-on-investment visibility from search engines.

The term organic as it relates to search engines was coined by writer John Kilroy back in 2006. Organic search results are listings on search engines that appear due to their relevance to the search term or phrase that a person is using within their respective search engine (i.e. Google, Yahoo, BING (MSN), AOL,...).

So, why are organic search results important to a Company and what are organic search results?

Let us start with what are organic search results versus other search results, and where do you find them. First, each search engine has a different format for creating search results based on matching the relevance of the search term/phrase to the extensive amount of information that a search engine has stored, but within the results there are distinct areas. Typically on the far right hand-side you will find a column denoted as "sponsored links" also know as pay-per-click where a Company will pay a search engine to place their advertisement on a page where the search term/phrase closely corresponds to the keywords associated with their sponsored link (advertisement). The most well known type of sponsored link is associated with Google called AdSense, and the keywords created by a Company to show up in the sponsored link section are called AdWords.  Down the middle of many of the search result pages are the organic search results, though some search engines will allocate the top 2-4 returns for pay-per-click advertisements that look similar to other organic search listings within the center portion of the page. The 2-4 returns are typically encased by a shaded colored section; if there is a colored area, then below this area you will find the organic search results.

So, why are organic search results and positioning within this section important for a Company? Google, obviously the largest search engine, receives billions of dollars through the AdSense and AdWords programs, though they claim that the organic section is the most often clicked section on the search results page. So, what does this say about the search results? People have become aware of the section denoted as "sponsored links" and thus they gravitate to the organic section and read the related text for the links listed. There have been studies that point out people want to read what has been written from other respected websites listed within the organic search results section for a brand, product, or Company; this means that the Company's website may not be the first place a person goes.

Thus, if you are a Company that has interesting information on your product or service that shows up in the organic listings on a search results page then this provides prospective customers with additional insight and information to read. This also means that you are receiving recognition and visibility via the non-pay-per-click route, thus no cost to you if a person clicks on an organic link versus clicking on a pay-per-click advertisement. Therefore, with no cost associated from the pay-per-click your return-on-investment from the exposure, visibility, and sales is high. This is why the organic positioning has become a very important component for a Company when creating an Internet Presence.

The point is that the information that a person reads, the choices that they have, and the decisions that they make are all under their control. The Internet is about consumer control and we the consumer still dictate the flow of business and usage of the Internet. This is why the organic section is one of the highest clicked sections. You now have the opportunity to read the information associated with each link, choose the link you want, and make a decision based off the information that you have accumulated. This puts the person requesting the search in control of the process versus selecting a sponsored link, which puts the company in control. This is not to say creating sponsored links is not a good idea, but when creating a progressive Internet Presence a Company needs to make sure that they have rich and meaningful information available within the organic section.   

Thus, achieving organic positioning for a product, company, or a related search is very powerful. The links associated with the organic section provide related information that the person searching can select from. This is why companies continue to work relationships with other related websites, as well as work with service providers to ensure that their respective website is properly set up to garner all the visibility, exposure, and positioning that is possible.

So, organic is not just for food,  it also represents information that is grown from relationships, customer satisfaction, and communications; thus creating dynamic information to feed the search engines, which will end up within an organic listing.   

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