A friend of mine asked what organic meant when discussing SEO (aka search engine optimization). Well, I’ve paraphrased his question because his words were not quite suitable for my online readers. Regardless, he was confused by the term and so are many small business owners. To my friend, the farmer, organic means the remains left behind by his cows. While the term means something entirely different, it does stem from the same concept.

When discussing Internet marketing, organic means natural. It refers to the process of driving website traffic (aka people) to your domain (aka www dot something dot com) through the natural optimization of your website’s content (aka words). It refers to the process of writing solid content and bringing visitors to read it based on the matching of their search terms and your actual content.

If that is the case, then what does nonorganic mean? Nonorganic refers to the process of PPC (aka pay per click) advertising. It refers to the process of paying for higher placement on a search engine to artificially attract traffic (aka people) to your domain (aka www dot something dot com). For my friend, the farmer, this would be related to fertilizer.

As the farmer plants and tends to his crops, so must the webmaster plant and tend to his website. The process of planting or tending a website is internet marketing, search engine optimization, and other related activities. I’d love a great comparison in here for farming and blogging, but it hasn’t come to me yet. Check back later because it just might appear for a later blog entry.