Organic Traffic vs. Direct Traffic – What you need to know to grow your website’s visibility

Figuring out how to get your website seen by more people can feel daunting, especially when you’re not sure where to start. 

It’s no secret that website visibility is key to success in today’s digital age. Without traffic, your website might as well not exist.

Direct and organic traffic are two important sources of website visibility that should be leveraged together for the best results. By understanding the differences between the two types of traffic and taking actionable steps to improve your marketing knowledge and analytics skills, you’ll be on your way to increasing your website’s visibility and reach.

What Is Organic Traffic?

Organic traffic is any traffic that is naturally generated from search engine results. This type of traffic is earned, as opposed to paid traffic, and typically happens when a user searches for something in a search engine like Google or Bing.

An organic traffic example might be someone who finds this article on Google when searching for the term organic traffic vs. direct traffic.

Organic traffic includes clicks on organic search results and is usually seen as more valuable than other types of website traffic since it generally results in higher conversion rates.

What Is Direct Traffic?

Direct traffic is categorized as traffic that does not come from a referring website. This might include organic searches conducted via a bookmarked URL or organic searches without accompanying keyword data. In some cases, it could also be attributed to users who type the URL of your website directly into the browser or are referred by social media.

However, this isn’t entirely true. An experiment done by SearchEngineLand and Groupon revealed that as much as 60% of what is considered to be direct traffic is organic traffic – meaning organic searches are being incorrectly categorized as direct.

This important distinction has led many website owners to question the accuracy of their analytical data and resulted in some changes to Google’s organic search algorithms.

Direct Traffic vs. Organic Traffic: Which one is more important?

When it comes to web traffic, organic traffic is considered the holy grail. This highly targeted type of traffic usually has a better conversion rate than direct traffic because it comes from individuals who are actively searching for a solution to a problem. This means organic traffic is more likely to result in sales or more qualified leads.

However, that doesn’t mean direct traffic isn’t important too. Direct traffic can still be valuable for website owners looking to increase their visibility and reach. Leveraging organic and direct traffic together can help boost website visibility and increase organic search engine rankings.

How to Check Your Website’s Organic Traffic

As a website owner, you want to make sure you’re getting plenty of organic traffic to your website, and to do this; you need to track organic search engine traffic. You can do this by using Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or a tool like HubSpot.

When you use one of these tools, you’ll be able to see how much organic traffic your website is getting and which pages are performing best. This will help you make data-driven decisions that will improve your organic search engine rankings

How To Check Organic Traffic Using Google Analytics 360 (Universal Analytics)

Universal analytics has been around since 2012 and provides Google Analytics 360 users with an improved tracking system. This system allows you to track organic search engine traffic from organic searches, as well as organic clicks from SERPs (search engine results pages).

To view organic search engine traffic in Google Analytics 360, log in to your account and click “Audience” under the “Behavior” section. On the left-hand side of the page, click on “Organic Traffic” to view organic search engine traffic details.

You can also use organic search engine traffic reports in Google Analytics 360 to identify which organic keywords are driving organic website visitors and clicks from SERPs. This will help you make informed decisions about organic search engine optimization and improve organic search engine rankings.

How To Check Organic Traffic Using Google Analytics 4

Google has announced that Universal Analytics will disappear on July 1, 2023, so if you haven’t yet switched to Google Analytics 4, now is the time to do so.

Google Analytics 4 also allows you to track organic search engine traffic from organic searches and organic clicks from SERPs.

To view organic search engine traffic in Google Analytics 4, log in to your account and click “Acquisition” under the “Reporting” section. Select “Search Console” and then click on organic traffic.

Just like with universal analytics, you can also use organic search engine traffic reports in Google Analytics 4 to identify which organic keywords are driving organic website visitors and organic clicks from SERPs. This will help you make informed decisions about organic search engine optimization and improve organic search engine rankings.

How To Check Organic Traffic Using Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to track organic traffic vs. direct traffic, as well as many other metrics.

To use the organic search engine tracking feature in Google Search Console, simply log in to your account and click on “Search Traffic.” Here you will be able to see how much organic traffic vs. direct traffic you’re getting as well as view organic search engine traffic details such as organic keyword searches, organic clicks from SERPs, and organic impressions.

This information can be used to identify organic search engine optimization opportunities, diagnose organic ranking issues, and improve organic search engine rankings.

How To Check Organic Traffic Using Hubspot

Hubspot is a powerful all-in-one marketing platform that allows you to track organic search engine traffic as well as organic clicks from SERPs.

To view organic search engine traffic in Hubspot, simply log in to your account and click on “Marketing > Analytics” in the left navigation menu. Here you will be able to access organic search engine traffic details such as organic keyword searches, organic clicks from SERPs, and organic impressions.

This information can be used to identify organic search engine optimization opportunities, diagnose organic ranking issues, and improve organic search engine rankings.

How to Check Any Website’s Organic Traffic

Not only can you check your organic search traffic, but you can also see how your competitor’s websites are ranking.

Using tools like SEMRush and Ubersuggest, you can easily check the organic traffic of any website. Just type in the domain name, and you will be able to see organic SERP ranking, organic keyword search volume, and other search metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), Impressions, CTR rate, and organic average position.

Organic vs. Paid Traffic Value

Now that we’ve compared organic traffic and direct traffic, let’s take a look at paid traffic. While organic traffic is still considered the holy grail of traffic sources, paid traffic is very targeted and can also be very effective in generating leads.

Paid traffic allows you to target specific keywords that are related to your products or services. While organic traffic requires you to wait for organic rankings to start appearing in the SERPs, paid traffic can get you immediate visibility and sometimes even speed up your ability to rank.

The downside to paid traffic is customer acquisition cost (CAC). With organic traffic, you are able to acquire customers for a lower price (the price of your web hosting and expenses) compared to when using paid traffic. Organic traffic also allows you to build trust with your target audience.

How Do You Get Organic Traffic?

While there are a number of factors that go into organic traffic acquisition, SEO is by far the most important. SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the process of optimizing your website for organic search engine rankings.

In order to get organic traffic from Google, you need to make sure that your website is optimized and follows best practices, such as using relevant keywords in your content and having an organic link-building strategy.

Why Is Organic Traffic Important?

Like we said before, organic traffic is the holy grail when it comes to page views because readers who find your page organically are actively searching for a solution to a problem. This means that organic traffic is highly targeted and more likely to convert than direct or referrer traffic.

Organic search engine rankings are also believed to be more trustworthy than other forms of online advertising, since organic search engine users are actively looking for the products and services you are offering.

How SEO Drives Organic Traffic

Search engine optimization is all about making sure that your website follows best practices and includes the keywords that you want to rank for.

When organic search engine users type in a query related to your services, Google will display organic results in order of relevance as determined by their algorithms. If your page matches the search so closely that it appears on page one of Google’s search engine results, you stand a much higher chance of getting organic visitors to your site.

How To Increase Your Organic Traffic

Set up Your Google Business Profile

Having a profile set up on Google My Business will help you appear in organic search engine results, as well as the local three-pack. Make sure to include all of your relevant business information, such as website address, contact information, and images, to ensure that your profile is complete. Including a local address and phone number proves to Google that you are a real person and real business, increasing your chance of ranking.

SEO Optimization

Be sure to optimize every page and blog post on your website for SEO. This includes optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions, including keyword-rich content, and creating internal links between pages.

These small changes will help Google understand the relevance of your website to organic search engine queries and increase your organic traffic over time.

Create Epic Content

The content on your website should be highly valuable and a one-stop shop for readers who are actively searching for a solution to a problem. You want to make sure your blog post is comprehensive and answers any questions they could possibly have to make sure they stay on your site until they decide to buy.

Target High-Volume Keywords

High-volume keywords are broad terms that many organic search engine users are searching for. They tend to have a higher organic search engine volume and competing websites, so it’s important to come up with creative ways of targeting them.

Do some keyword research to determine which high-volume keywords could bring organic traffic to your website. Be sure to create unique content focusing not only on your targeted keyword but also on related keywords and their long-tail counterparts. Keyword research is something we do a deep dive into in Creative SEO.

Check Your Website for Any Technical Issues

Technical issues such as slow page load times, broken links, de-indexing, and redirects can have a significant impact on search engine rankings. Be sure to audit your website for any technical issues that may be preventing you from ranking on page one.

Leveraging Organic and Direct Traffic for Maximum Visibility

It’s not always an organic traffic vs. direct traffic stand-off. Organic traffic and direct traffic are both important to website owners looking to maximize their visibility and organic search engine rankings. Understanding the differences between organic traffic and direct traffic, as well as how to increase organic traffic, is key.

To maximize organic visibility, you should focus on optimizing your website for both organic and direct traffic sources. Optimizing your website for organic search engines means creating content that is relevant to users’ searches, creating backlinks from other high-quality websites, and optimizing your website for keywords.

To have a better understanding of direct traffic sources, you should conduct experiments and track different variables to help determine the source of that traffic. By understanding how to utilize both organic and direct traffic, you can increase your overall visibility and drive more visitors to your website.