Passed on 7 April, 2025

3. Search engines, web content, and organic search

When people use a search engine, they’re letting it know exactly what they are trying to find. In this lesson, we’ll find out more about how search engines locate relevant content and how you can apply this to an online business.

✅ Learning objectivesBy the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:Understand what organic search is and how it’s different from paid results.Identify how to make a business more visible in organic search results.Explain what search engines prioritise when they are ranking search results.

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:

Understand what organic search is and how it’s different from paid results.

Identify how to make a business more visible in organic search results.

Explain what search engines prioritise when they are ranking search results.

Organic search and businesses

Let’s find out what organic search is and how you can use it to help people find a business or website.

What is organic search?

When someone searches for something using a search engine, the results page displays a list of organic results – these are unpaid listings that appear based on relevance to the search query.

How can you appear in organic search results?

If a business offers services and products that are relevant to the search query, search engines will show that business in the search results. Organic results typically appear in the centre of the page, and are the results the search engine decides are the best match for the search query.

What makes products and services relevant to the search query?

Search engines look at things like matching keywords and whether the content answers what the user is looking for. For example, searching “eco-friendly cleaning products” is more likely to show pages using those words and offering sustainable options.

What other types of search results are there?

Results pages also display paid results, labelled as ads, which are usually shown separately at the top of the page. Although organic results and ads appear on the same page, there’s no cost to appear in the organic results. However, SEO experts or agencies may be able to refine a website to appear higher up in the search results.

Indexing

In the last lesson, we learned a little about indexing. Let’s explore the topic in a little more detail.

What is a search engine index?

In simple terms, when you ask a search engine to find something, it looks through a huge list of previously indexed pages, called ‘the index’, and pulls out relevant results based on what you’re looking for.

What do search engines prioritise?

The search engines’ primary goal is to help people find what they are looking for. You can improve your website’s chances of appearing in the unpaid results by making it clear which searches your website is relevant to.So let’s find out more about what search engines like.

So let’s find out more about what search engines like.

So let’s find out more about what search engines like.

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Transcript

Transcript

How can I refine my website?

You’ve learned about titles and meta descriptions. Let’s revisit those and find out what else search engines prioritise when they are ranking search results.Note: Meta titles and meta descriptions are part of the code of the webpage. They are visible to search engines, but they aren’t displayed on the webpage itself.

Note: Meta titles and meta descriptions are part of the code of the webpage. They are visible to search engines, but they aren’t displayed on the webpage itself.

Note: Meta titles and meta descriptions are part of the code of the webpage. They are visible to search engines, but they aren’t displayed on the webpage itself.

Titles and meta titles

A good title is short, describes what the page is about, and also highlights your company name. For example, if you sell fruits and vegetables, a good title would be ‘Pichler’s Produce - Fresh Fruits and Vegetables’.

Meta descriptions

This describes what the page is about and also highlights your company name. A good description length is usually two short sentences. It should also reinforce the title by using the keyword or phrase again. For example, ‘Pichler’s Produce delivers organic fresh fruit and veg to your home, as often as you need them. Order your customisable box online.’

Headings

Often, headings are displayed at the top of a page. A great heading could be ‘Fresh fruits and vegetables’, which clearly tells a person what the page is about and works well for the search engines, too.

Images

Search engines won’t see the actual images on your site. Instead, they see the code behind it. To help search engines identify the image, give it a descriptive name. For example, instead of ‘image.jpg’, choose something that describes exactly what’s in the picture, like ripe-oranges.jpg.

Content

Think about who you want to visit your page and the words they’re using to describe your products and services. Include words and phrases customers will use to search when you write your content. This can help ensure they’ll find your pages.We’ll cover more about writing content in the next lesson.

We’ll cover more about writing content in the next lesson.

We’ll cover more about writing content in the next lesson.

Search in practice

Spend some time completing the activity on this page. It will provide a foundation for the lessons that follow.

✅ ActivityThink about the way you and your customers talk about your products and services when they use a search engine. How could you adjust your website and content to be easier to find?Alternatively, you could complete this activity by reviewing the website of a local company.Check the items off as you go.What types of words or phrases might customers use to search for products and services that are on offer?When the website appears on the search engine results page (SERP) what is the title and meta description that is displayed?Are there any keywords you could add to titles, descriptions, or headings that could help people find the website?Think of three images you could add to help your content be found and what you could name them.

Activity

Think about the way you and your customers talk about your products and services when they use a search engine. How could you adjust your website and content to be easier to find?Alternatively, you could complete this activity by reviewing the website of a local company.

Alternatively, you could complete this activity by reviewing the website of a local company.

Alternatively, you could complete this activity by reviewing the website of a local company.

What types of words or phrases might customers use to search for products and services that are on offer?

When the website appears on the search engine results page (SERP) what is the title and meta description that is displayed?

Are there any keywords you could add to titles, descriptions, or headings that could help people find the website?

Think of three images you could add to help your content be found and what you could name them.

Download PDF

Download PDF

Check your knowledge

It's time for you to check and reflect on what you've learned so far.

Question 1 of 1

Pichler’s Produce would like to make sure as many interested customers as possible find their website displayed in their search results. What could they pay attention to in order to achieve this?

Page titles

Image file names

Words and phrases in the content

Brand colours

Show Answer

Show Answer

Almost.Using accurate labels for images helps search engines pick them up when people make relevant searches. Using generic file names, like image3.jpg, can be counterproductive as they’re unlikely to appear in a specific search. In the same way, using accurate page titles can also help websites appear in relevant search results. Lastly, using the kinds of words that interested people might be searching for – such as ‘fresh’ or ‘organic’ – will mean that the Pichler’ Produce website is more likely to be displayed in search results.

Using accurate labels for images helps search engines pick them up when people make relevant searches. Using generic file names, like image3.jpg, can be counterproductive as they’re unlikely to appear in a specific search. In the same way, using accurate page titles can also help websites appear in relevant search results. Lastly, using the kinds of words that interested people might be searching for – such as ‘fresh’ or ‘organic’ – will mean that the Pichler’ Produce website is more likely to be displayed in search results.

Lesson complete

Great job!You now know more about how search engines process web content and what organic search is.Find out more about optimising your content for search engines in the next lesson.

You now know more about how search engines process web content and what organic search is.Find out more about optimising your content for search engines in the next lesson.

Find out more about optimising your content for search engines in the next lesson.

Find out more about optimising your content for search engines in the next lesson.