By Elvijs Plugis, Chief Marketing Officer for the UK, Grozeo
If you’re relatively new to your e-commerce adventure, you’ve likely been inundated with marketing terms — pay-per-click, search engine marketing, user-generated content, SEO, and more. Figuring out a robust advertising mix is an integral part of growing your online store website, but there’s another side of growth that you don’t pay for — organic traffic. Today, we will dissect the basics of organic vs. paid traffic and start you on a path towards generating natural interest and momentum in your store.
What is Organic Web Traffic?
Organic web traffic is generated when someone clicks through to your site from a search result (on platforms like Google, Bing, etc.) you didn’t pay for. While programs like Google Ads let you pay to show up when someone types in a relevant term, search engines also publish thousands of unpaid results. These can generate natural (organic) traffic.
Why is Organic Web Traffic Valuable for Online Stores?
Once you know that organic traffic isn’t the result of advertising, you can see why it’s essential to pursue it. It sounds free. But, to be clear, generating organic traffic takes a lot of work. Whether it’s your own time or you hire a team, it requires an investment to achieve. However, you can enjoy traffic without ongoing advertising costs once you have established success. Your business can operate more independently with less reliance on ad platforms.
Here are some benefits of organic web traffic:
- You’re Not Paying Per Click: If your organic pet treats brand shows up when someone searches for “organic dog bones,” you’ll pay the same price whether 100 people click through or one hundred thousand people click through — nothing.
- Independence and Stability: If you’re relying on all of your traffic and sales from a single ad platform or two, the future of your business is in its hands. You’ll be in a challenging position if you accidentally violate a policy and are no longer allowed to run ads. Plus, should you need to cut advertising spending for any reason, organic traffic will continue to flow to your store at the same level — visits from ads will not.
- It’s a Sign of a Healthy Business: Since it’s the result of natural efforts and momentum from mentions on social media, in the press, or on other websites, growing organic traffic is one sign of a healthy business.
- The Leads Are Hot: Organic traffic brings highly qualified visitors to your site. Rather than being convinced by an ad, these people are already actively searching for or are interested in your brand or the products and services you offer.
- 5. It Helps You Build Trust: Organic traffic helps boost consumers’ trust in your website because they’ve found you naturally. No gimmicks or advertising tricks were involved, and their online experience wasn’t interrupted by a paid ad. This sets you far ahead of the competition regarding being seen as trustworthy and credible.
- 6. It Provides Long-term Value:Your investment into your organic traffic strategy will pay dividends as you eventually won’t have to dole out cash for every visitor to your site.
How to Generate Organic Web Traffic
Now that you know the value of organic web traffic, it’s time to learn how to start building a fantastic strategy to harness its power.
- Work on Search Engine Optimization (SEO): To enjoy the benefits of organic traffic, you must show up when your target audience is looking for you on search engines. This is where you hear about search engine optimization — the practice of fine-tuning your site, content, and reputation so that it shows up when people search critical terms related to what you have to offer.
- Perform Keyword Research: To be successful in SEO, you must first know what you’re targeting. Keywords are the search phrases you want to show up for. The more broad they are (e.g., “pet toys”), the more traffic they can generate, but the more competition you’ll face. Using tools like KeySearch can help you find the right keywords to focus on, ensuring that your efforts are directed toward terms that will bring in the most qualified traffic.
- Focus on Content:Content may be the most crucial thing in SEO. You need consistent, unique, high-quality content to rank high on search engines.
- Build Out Your Product Pages:Remember to consider the value of writing strong product descriptions and product pages that perfectly capture the essence of each item.
- Use Your Target Keywords:You don’t want only to use keywords on your product pages and blog posts. You can incorporate these into content throughout your site and link back to relevant pages.
- Remember the Technical Side:Search engines like Google want to be assured that if they send people to your site, they’ll find relevant content and have a safe, enjoyable experience.
- Use Social Media: Social media is a known marketing tool for stores, but how does it contribute to your efforts for traffic to your site itself?
- Track Your Traffic:Keeping track of your site traffic is crucial. You need to know what’s working and what’s not.
- Grow Your Organic Traffic: Advertising is great, but growing more natural sources of traffic provides a level of independence from third-party platforms and is essential to the long-term health of your store.
This traffic is genuinely earned through hard work, building value, and community contribution. Making unpaid traffic is vital to reaching a high level of profitability — and personal satisfaction — with your business.
It’s not instant, but it’s worth it. If you haven’t already, take your first small step today.
About Grozeo
Grozeo is a pioneering force in the retail technology sector based in the United Kingdom, dedicated to empowering retailers with innovative solutions like an online retail store website which drives growth, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. With a relentless commitment to staying at the forefront of technology, Grozeo delivers cutting-edge products and services that help retailers thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.