From Roots to Results: Why Organic Traffic Matters?
Did you know? 70-80% of users ignore paid ads and focus on organic results.
Companies that want to grow and be more visible in the digital world need to understand all organic traffic subtleties.
This guide can help you make sure you have long-term, steady traffic without having to keep spending money on ads.and what
Find out why organic traffic matters and what tips and tricks you need to use for gaining the real power of organic traffic!
What Is Organic Traffic?
Organic traffic refers to website visitors who arrive at a page through unpaid search engine results or by directly typing in the URL or clicking on other unpaid listings like social media posts. It is also known as "natural" traffic.
Organic traffic is different from paid traffic, where visitors come to a website by clicking on pay-per-click (PPC) ads, paid social media promotions, display ads, or other forms of advertising.
The key differences are:
NOTE: Paid traffic offers immediate volume but lower quality and higher costs. For best results, businesses should leverage both organic and paid channels.
Why Is Organic Traffic Important?
Organic traffic is important for several key reasons:
Cost-Effectiveness
Organic traffic is highly cost-effective compared to other marketing channels like paid search ads or social media ads. There are no costs directly associated with gaining organic traffic, other than the time invested into optimizing your website and content for search engines.
The only investment needed is in creating high-quality content that search engines find valuable. As search engines direct targeted visitors to your site for free, gaining traffic through organic search has a much higher ROI potential than paid ads.
With paid search ads, you have to continuously spend money to maintain traffic levels.
According to statistics, the average cost per click (CPC) on Google Ads is $2-$5, depending on your industry. That results in high costs for paid search campaigns, often $5,000+ per month for mid-size companies. With organic traffic, you get visitors without paying a dime for each click.
Credibility And Trust
When a website shows up prominently in search results, it signals to users that the content is useful, relevant and authoritative. Appearing at the top of search engines like Google is a powerful endorsement, as their algorithms are designed to surface the highest quality results.
This earned placement through content gives organic traffic unique credibility that paid ads lack. Research shows that 92% of users don't click on search ads.
Many consumers place greater trust in organic results as they seem more impartial than sponsored placements. This makes organic search invaluable for establishing thought leadership and subject matter expertise.
Beyond simply being more trusted, organic traffic is less susceptible to ad blockers that increasingly undermine paid efforts.
Sustainability
Organic traffic is more sustainable long-term since it does not rely on advertising budgets. Once high-quality evergreen content is created and ranked on search engines, it can continue providing value and traffic for months or even years after publication.
This inbound traffic is driven by users' needs rather than how much money is spent on ads. In contrast, paid advertising requires continual spending to maintain traffic levels. If the ad budget is lowered, traffic will drop accordingly.
Search Engine Rankings
One of the key benefits of organic traffic is attaining high rankings in search engines' organic results pages. Websites primarily in the top 5 organic results get significant search traffic and visibility.
According to SEMrush data, the top 5 organic results receive about 67% of all clicks for a typical search query. The #1 position alone gets over 30% of clicks.
So if you can rank content on the first page, especially in the top 5, the traffic benefits are substantial compared to lower rankings, highlighting the significant impact of organic search on website traffic and visibility.
Unlike paid search ads, organic rankings are earned through relevance, authority and other quality signals.
They do not fluctuate as rapidly as paid ad placement, which depends on real-time bidding and budgets.
Targeted Traffic
According to statistics, the conversion rate from organic search traffic can be 2 to 3 times higher than other referral sources.
There are a few key reasons for this:
- Searchers find your page by specifically looking for related keywords. This indicates they have an existing interest or need relevant to your business.
- Organic traffic converts better because that traffic comes from relevant, high-quality content that answers searchers' queries.
- Users who come from organic search are ready to act. Studies show up to 70% of searchers choose a business within the first page of results.
Overall, visitors who find your site via organic search convert at a higher rate because they are more targeted, engaged, and ready to act. This highlights why choose organic search as a crucial strategy for driving quality traffic and maximizing conversions on your website.
User Engagement And Experience
Organic search traffic tends to have higher user engagement metrics, such as time on site and lower bounce rates compared to other referral sources. This is because people who arrive via search engines are generally more intent on finding specific information or completing a desired action on your site.
In contrast, paid traffic from social media or display ads often results in higher bounce rates and shorter time on site. Those visitors may not have a specific intent when clicking to your domain.
Long-Term Results
Organic search traffic tends to have higher user engagement metrics, such as time on site and lower bounce rates compared to other referral sources.
This is because people who arrive via search engines are generally more intent on finding specific information or completing a desired action on your site, emphasizing the long-term value of organic traffic.
6 Strategies For Boost Organic Traffic In 2024
The following 6 strategies can help enhance credibility building with organic traffic and search engine rankings in 2024:
Content Optimization
Content is king when it comes to why choose organic search - if your content isn't optimized for search, it will be difficult to rank highly and drive traffic.
Here are some key aspects of optimizing content for better organic performance:
- Create High-Quality, Relevant Content: Focus on topics and keywords your audience is searching for. Conduct keyword research to identify relevant terms and questions.
- Optimize for Keywords: Include target keywords naturally in page titles, meta descriptions, headers, image alt text, and 1-2 times in the body content. Avoid over-optimizing.
- Update and Refresh Existing Content: Audit old content and update outdated statistics, facts, references, or broken links. This signals freshness to search engines.
By focusing on optimization best practices in content creation, brands can dramatically improve organic search visibility and traffic. High-performing content pays dividends long-term.
Mobile Optimization
To boost mobile performance:
- Implement a responsive web design that dynamically adapts to fit any screen size.
- Optimize navigation menus and forms for touchscreens. Follow Google's mobile-first indexing practices.
- Fast load times are critical, with 53% of mobile site visitors abandoning pages that take over 3 seconds to load.
- Enable compression, caching, and image optimization to accelerate speeds. Use minimal HTTP requests, asynchronous loading, and optimized hosting configurations.
Video Content
Video is quickly becoming one of the most important mediums for organic search traffic. With the rise of platforms like YouTube and the preference for video content among younger demographics, optimizing videos for search can provide a significant boost to organic traffic.
When creating videos, it's important to optimize the actual video file itself through proper titling, descriptions, and keyword tagging.
Voice Search Optimization
- When optimizing for voice, focus on conversational queries - the natural way people ask questions. For example, instead of "organic traffic importance and strategies", target phrases like "what are some strategies to increase organic traffic".
- Include audio transcripts for your videos and podcasts. Voice assistants can read the transcript aloud, allowing users to get information quickly without having to watch or listen to the full file.
- Optimize your titles and descriptions for long-tail natural language queries. For example, "how can I boost organic traffic in 2024" instead of just "organic traffic importance".
- Use speakable schema markup like FAQPage and HowTo schemas where applicable. This allows voice assistants to understand the content structure better.
Featured Snippets And Rich Snippets
Here are some tips for optimizing content to increase the chances of being featured:
Optimize Title Tags
- Keep title tags succinct, under 60 characters
- Include primary keyword target at the beginning
- Write compelling titles that encourage clicks
Format Content for Quick Scanning
- Use descriptive headers and sub headers (H2, H3)
- Break content into scannable sections with bullet points and numbered lists
- Highlight key points in bold or italics
Include FAQs and Lists
- Identify common user questions and provide concise answers
- Create lists and tables to present information visually
User Experience (UX) And Core Web Vitals
There are three core web vitals that sites should focus on improving:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
LCP measures how fast the main content of a page loads. Pages should aim for an LCP under 2.5 seconds on mobile and 4 seconds on desktop. To improve organic SEO advantages with it:
- Minify HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images to reduce file sizes
- Defer non-critical JavaScript
- Load third-party scripts asynchronously
- Optimize images and video files
- Enable text compression
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
CLS measures the stability of page content as it loads. A score under 0.1 is considered good. To improve CLS:
- Avoid lazy-loading content above the fold
- Add size attributes to images/videos and reserve space for them
- Avoid large changes in ad units or visual elements
- Use CSS flexbox and grid for better stability
First Input Delay (FID)
FID measures responsiveness when users try to interact with a page. Scores under 100ms are optimal. To improve FID:
- Minimize use of JavaScript
- Use newest Chromium engine
- Enable text compression
- Reduce use of third-party code
- Optimize images and fonts
- Eliminate render-blocking resources
How To Calculate ROI From Organic Search Traffic?
Define Goals
The first step in calculating ROI from organic traffic is to clearly define your goals. What actions or conversions on your website do you want to track?
Common goals include:
- Lead generation
- eBook downloads
- Sales
- Registrations.
Clearly outline the goals you want to focus on. For example, you can track how much revenue is generated from organic traffic.
Assign Monetary Values
Once you've defined your goals, assign a monetary value to each conversion or action for ultimate SEO benefits for business growth.
- For lead generation, you could assign a value based on the average lifetime value of a lead.
- For eBook downloads, use the listed purchase price.
- For sales, simply use the product selling price.
Come up with a realistic monetary value for each goal you defined.
Track Conversions
Now it's time to start tracking conversions. Use Google Analytics to monitor which organic landing pages result in conversions. Set up goals in Analytics to assign monetary values to your goals.
Make sure your conversion tracking is properly implemented so you have accurate data.
Calculate Revenue
With your goals defined and conversions tracked, you can now calculate revenue from credibility building with organic traffic.
Take the number of conversions and multiply it by the assigned goal value to get total revenue. For example, 100 sales from organic at $50 each would equal $5,000 in revenue.
Calculate ROI
Finally, calculate ROI by subtracting costs from revenue. Take the revenue you calculated and subtract out the costs associated with your organic marketing efforts. This includes costs for content creation, SEO tools, etc. Divide the resulting profit by the costs to get your ROI percentage.
For example, $5,000 revenue minus $2,000 costs equals $3,000 profit. $3,000 profit divided by $2,000 costs equals a 150% ROI.
Ready For Impact? Harness The Power Of Organic Traffic!
To figure out ROI from organic search traffic, you need to be very careful, focus on clear goals, give monetary values, and keep track of conversions. Businesses need a flexible tool like Linkbot to really use the power of inbound traffic.
Its automated internal linking features improve user involvement and experience by integrating smoothly with existing websites, emphasizing the significance of natural website visits for enhancing user engagement and retention.
Linkbot's job of improving organic traffic via smooth internal linking becomes a sign of speed and long-term success as we move from roots to results.