What is organic traffic and does it still matter? A guide for managers
Getting noticed online is no small feat. With millions of websites competing for attention, standing out on search engines can feel like shouting into a void. Yet, some websites manage to attract visitors effortlessly, day after day, without spending a cent on ads. How? Through organic traffic.
However, this kind of visibility doesn’t happen by accident. It’s earned through strategy, consistency, and knowing how to play by search engines’ rules. In this article, we’ll peel back the layers of organic traffic: what it is, why it’s critical, and how you can use it to ensure your business doesn’t just exist online but truly gets seen.
What is organic traffic?
Organic traffic refers to visitors who come to your website as a result of unpaid search engine results. When someone searches for a query on a search engine like Google, the search engine returns a list of relevant results, which include both paid ads and organic listings. Organic traffic specifically refers to the visitors who click on your site’s link within these unpaid results.
This type of traffic is driven by search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, meaning that your website ranks higher due to relevant, high-quality content, optimised technical elements, and proper keyword targeting. Unlike paid traffic, which comes from pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, organic traffic is earned through the relevance and value of your content, without any direct financial cost for each visitor.
The key to organic traffic is that it's sustainable. With effective SEO strategies, you can build long-term traffic growth, as organic search results tend to maintain their visibility for longer periods compared to paid ads, which stop generating traffic as soon as the campaign ends.
Organic traffic is often considered a high-quality source of website visitors. People who click on organic results are generally looking for specific information or solutions, making them more likely to engage with your content, products, or services.
Organic traffic benchmarks: what you should aim for
When you're aiming to improve your organic traffic, it's crucial to understand where you stand in comparison to industry standards. Below are some organic traffic benchmarks every business should know:
Share of organic traffic
This is often considered a strong benchmark, indicating that your SEO efforts are yielding significant, sustainable traffic. Websites with solid organic search performance typically see around 51% of their total traffic coming from search engines.
Organic traffic growth
When it comes to organic traffic growth, each industry has its own set of expectations.
· For e-commerce sites, a monthly growth rate of 10% to 20% is typical, reflecting the high demand and competitive nature of the sector.
· Blogging sites, on the other hand, often see a more moderate growth of 5% to 15% each month as they build a steady stream of engaged readers.
· B2B services generally experience slower growth, with monthly increases of around 3% to 10% being more common.
Organic conversion rate
When it comes to defining a healthy organic traffic conversion rate, opinions can vary, but most experts agree that a solid range falls between 2% and 5%. However, some go even further, considering a 20% conversion rate or more as exceptional.
This variance isn't surprising – conversion rates are influenced by numerous factors, and they often fluctuate across different industries. For instance, a 2% conversion rate can still be seen as strong, especially if your visitors are still in the research phase.
Bounce rates for organic traffic
A bounce rate under 40% is an indication that users are finding your content engaging and relevant. If the rate is higher, it suggests a need to optimise your content and user experience to better retain visitors.
Google ranking
Ideally, aim for your target keywords to rank in the top 3 positions for better visibility. Websites in the top 3 search results get the majority of clicks, with the first position receiving approximately 40% of total clicks.
Benefits of organic traffic
Organic traffic is often more stable and long-lasting than paid traffic. Once your content ranks well, it can continue to drive visitors over time without ongoing costs. This makes it an excellent strategy for businesses seeking consistent and long-term results.
While SEO requires an upfront investment in time and resources, there are no recurring costs for each visitor, unlike paid advertising campaigns. This means that organic traffic can provide a high return on investment (ROI) in the long run, particularly for businesses with a solid content strategy.
Plus, organic traffic typically comes from users actively searching for information, products, or services relevant to your business. This means the visitors are often more engaged and have a higher intent to convert, whether that means purchasing a product, signing up for a newsletter, or engaging with your content.
Ranking well in organic search results also helps to establish your brand as an authority in your industry. People tend to trust organic results more than paid ads, which can lead to a stronger reputation and increased credibility.
Limitations of organic traffic
SEO is a long-term strategy. Unlike paid advertising, which can deliver immediate results, organic traffic takes time to build. It can take months or even longer for your content to rank well and start bringing significant traffic. Also, organic traffic requires continuous effort to maintain and improve. Search algorithms change frequently, and competitors are always optimizing their sites. To keep your position in search rankings, you need to consistently create high-quality content, update existing pages, and adapt to new SEO best practices.
A step-by-step guide to increase organic traffic
Increasing organic traffic involves a combination of strategies designed to improve your website's visibility in search engine results and attract more visitors over time. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you achieve just that.
1. Conduct in-depth keyword research
Keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. To increase organic traffic, you need to understand the terms and phrases your target audience is searching for. Here’s how to do it:
· Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords with good search volume and low competition.
· Focus on both short-tail and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords are broad and have higher competition, while long-tail keywords are more specific and often easier to rank for.
· Consider user intent. Are people searching to learn more about a topic, compare products, or make a purchase? Tailor your content to meet those needs.
Knowing what your audience is searching for is half the battle in SEO.
2. Optimize on-page SEO
On-page SEO involves optimizing the individual pages on your website to make them more search-engine-friendly. Focus on these elements:
· Title tags and meta descriptions: Ensure each page has a unique and compelling title tag (under 60 characters) and a meta description (under 160 characters) that includes your target keyword.
· Headings and subheadings: Use clear and relevant headings (H1, H2, etc.) to structure your content and make it easier for both users and search engines to understand.
· Content optimization: Incorporate your target keywords naturally into the content but avoid keyword stuffing. Aim for high-quality, informative, and engaging content that addresses user intent.
· Internal linking: Link to other relevant pages on your website to help search engines crawl your site more effectively and keep users engaged.
· Image optimization: Ensure your images are compressed for faster loading times and include descriptive alt text with relevant keywords.
3. Improve technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures that search engines can crawl and index your website efficiently. Without proper technical SEO, even the best content can struggle to rank. Focus on the following:
Site speed: Fast-loading pages are critical for both user experience and SEO. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check your site's speed and implement suggested improvements, such as image compression and browser caching.
Mobile-friendliness: With mobile-first indexing, it's essential that your website is responsive and provides a seamless experience across all devices.
SSL certification: Having HTTPS instead of HTTP is a ranking factor for Google. Ensure your site has an SSL certificate installed to secure your visitors' data.
XML sitemap: Make sure you have an updated XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console. This helps search engines find and index your pages more easily.
Fix crawl errors: Regularly monitor your site for crawl errors using Google Search Console and address any issues promptly to prevent search engines from missing important content.
4. Create high-quality content
Content is the cornerstone of organic traffic. To attract more visitors, you need to create content that answers your audience's questions, solves their problems, and provides value. Here’s how to do it:
Understand user intent: Always focus on providing answers to the questions your target audience is asking. This could be through blog posts, how-to guides, case studies, or product descriptions.
Create evergreen content: Write content that remains relevant over time. This could be industry guides, in-depth tutorials, or foundational content that addresses core topics in your field.
Content length: While there’s no perfect content length, long-form articles (over 1,000 words) tend to rank better because they cover topics more comprehensively.
Update existing content: Regularly revisit older content and update it with new information, statistics, and relevant links to keep it fresh and relevant.
5. Build high-quality backlinks
Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. When reputable websites link to your content, it signals to search engines that your site is trustworthy and authoritative. Here's how to build backlinks:
Create shareable content: Focus on producing content that naturally attracts links, such as in-depth guides, industry research, or data-driven articles.
Guest posting: Write guest posts for other relevant websites in your industry and include a link back to your site.
Outreach: Reach out to industry influencers, bloggers, and journalists to let them know about your content and request backlinks where appropriate.
Broken link building: Identify broken links on other websites in your niche and suggest your content as a replacement.
6. Leverage social media and other channels
Although social media signals aren’t a direct ranking factor for Google, promoting your content through social media channels can drive traffic to your website and generate organic backlinks. Here’s how to make the most of social media:
Share your content: Promote new and existing content across your social media platforms to reach a broader audience.
Engage with your audience: Respond to comments, messages, and mentions. Engaging with your followers can increase brand awareness and drive more traffic to your site.
Use social proof: Encourage users to share your content, participate in discussions, or leave testimonials. Social proof can enhance your credibility and attract more visitors.
7. Track performance and make adjustments
To see if your efforts are paying off, it’s crucial to track your organic traffic and SEO performance. Use these tools to monitor progress:
Google Analytics: Monitor organic traffic trends, user behaviour, and conversions on your website.
Google Search Console: Track keyword rankings, click-through rates, and any issues with site performance.
SEO Tools: Tools like Ahrefs can help you track your rankings, backlinks, and overall SEO health.
AI traffic vs. organic traffic: what’s the connection
The rise of AI-driven tools like ChatGPT has sparked endless debates: will AI make Google obsolete? While some argue that conversational AI is changing how people seek and consume information, the reality is that these two platforms currently serve different purposes. Google remains the go-to for immediate, varied, and clickable answers, while ChatGPT offers a conversational, context-driven experience.
While Google excels at commercial and local searches, for instance, ChatGPT shines in answering content-related queries, with detailed conversational responses. And here’s where it gets interesting – they’re not mutually exclusive, and your organic traffic strategy can (and should) align with both.
What many don’t realize is that SEO optimization plays a key role in how your content appears in ChatGPT responses. Why? Because ChatGPT doesn’t pull information out of thin air. It’s trained on vast amounts of text data, much of which originates from the web. This means well-optimized, authoritative content has a higher likelihood of influencing AI-generated answers. If your content is ranking well on Google and other search engines, there’s a better chance it’s also informing the data ChatGPT uses to provide responses. And just as there are best practices for ranking on Google, there are ways to fine-tune your content to make it AI-friendly. Here are some strategies:
Create clear, structured content. AI tools thrive on clarity and structure. Use headers, bullet points, and concise paragraphs to make your content easy to parse. Answer common industry questions directly, as AI models are trained to prioritize information that’s straightforward and digestible.
Focus on FAQs and conversational queries. ChatGPT shines when answering conversational, question-based queries. Think about the kinds of questions your audience might ask – like “What are the benefits of premium credit cards for frequent travellers?” or “How can I reduce checkout abandonment in my retail store?” Craft content that provides detailed, actionable answers to these queries.
Leverage long-tail keywords. While traditional SEO often emphasizes competitive, high-traffic keywords, conversational AI is more likely to pull from content rich in long-tail, natural-sounding keywords. For example, instead of focusing solely on “credit cards,” consider phrases like “best credit card options for small business owners” or “how to choose a credit card with travel rewards.”
Be authoritative and up-to-date. AI models like ChatGPT favour accurate, trustworthy sources. Regularly updating your content with new data, statistics, and insights increases its relevance – both for search engines and AI.
Offer value beyond basic information. ChatGPT’s responses often summarize general knowledge. To stand out, create content that goes deeper – case studies, unique perspectives, or proprietary insights. This type of content makes you the source worth referencing, whether by human users or AI tools.
In short, don’t pick sides. Instead, embrace the partnership. High-quality, well-structured content will make you the life of the digital landscape, whether it’s being recommended on Google’s first page or woven into ChatGPT’s AI-generated responses. If you play your cards right, you’ll protect your organic traffic and also expand your visibility into the AI-driven future.
Drive sustainable organic traffic with Articulate
Growing organic traffic is a strategic effort that demands both expertise and persistence. It’s not a one-time fix, but rather an ongoing process of refining, optimizing, and delivering valuable content – but the results are well worth the investment.
At Articulate, we understand the complexities of organic growth. Our team combines industry insights, data-driven strategies, and cutting-edge SEO techniques to help businesses achieve measurable, sustainable results. If you're ready to see your website rise in search rankings and attract the right audience, we’re here to build a customized SEO strategy tailored to your needs. Let’s talk and turn your organic traffic goals into a reality, with a clear, results-oriented approach.