Google has been the number 1 search engine in the world for over 10 years now. Why? Simply because people using Google like their search results. And that’s what Google has been working on since the beginning: relevance first, and as a result punishment for cheats.

But what is a cheat exactly? A website pretending to be what it’s not, a website with approximate content and ultimately a website that users don’t rate as relevant. Because it’s all that matters in the end: if a website is No1 in Google’s natural listings (also called organic listings) for a certain set of keywords it’s because Google deemed it relevant to the users and because it usually is.

And it’s no surprise that most of the time these days when you type something in Google the first website that appears is Wikipedia. Because that’s the website users trust when looking for information about anything. But why do users and Google like this website? Because it’s not ‘optimised’, because it’s not a business website and it’s authentic.

So this should probably give you a good idea of what Search Engine Optimisation is: to put it bluntly, Search Engine Optimisation does not exist. It’s no more than a lark created by a few opportunists who thought they could make a few bucks from businesses who didn’t understand why their website was not on the first page of Google for keywords related to their activity.

But the reason is usually simple: the content of their website was poor and just didn’t appeal to users. So at the end of the day forget about Search Engine Optimisation and work on having a quality website with quality content, an engaging website users will like and where they will find what they’re looking for.

As a reminder organic listings can be found just underneath sponsored listings in search results.

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