You’ve heard the term’organic traffic’ thrown around a lot lately, but what exactly does it mean?
Is it really worth paying for?
Organic traffic refers to visitors who come from searches done through Google or other search engines. This type of traffic is free and comes directly from potential customers searching for products or services.
Paid traffic, on the other hand, refers to visits generated by ads placed on websites. These visitors often pay for their clicks, meaning they don’t necessarily want to purchase anything.
There are several ways to generate organic traffic, such as SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay per click) advertising, social media marketing, etc.
Organic traffic is generally considered to be more valuable because these visitors tend to convert better than those brought in via paid methods. In fact, many bloggers and website owners say that organic traffic makes up 70% of all of their site’s total traffic.
That being said, you should never ignore paid traffic when building your blog. A well-placed ad can still drive enough interest and sales to make it worthwhile.
Here are six important differences between organic and paid traffic:
The first major difference is relevancy. Paid traffic is very targeted and relevant, while organic traffic is not.
This means that if you’re selling dog food, you’ll likely get different results than if you were selling tech support services.
In addition, people usually opt out of receiving certain types of e-mails based on their interests. So, if you send an e-mail about how to start a business opportunity with little work, you won’t receive much interest.
On the other hand, if you sent an e-mail about making money online, you’d have a higher chance of getting a response.
Another big difference between organic and paid traffic is demographics.
For example, let’s say you run a personal finance blog. If you only write content related to personal finance, you might only appeal to men ages 25 to 34.
However, if you also write about recipes, you may reach a wider audience.
You could even target specific states within this demographic group. For instance, you may decide to focus on women in the Midwest.
Interests and preferences vary greatly between organic and paid traffic.
For example, if you sell dog food, you probably wouldn’t see much interest in buying a book about starting a business.
But, if you sell tech support services, you might find more interest in reading about starting a business.
I’m not saying that the two are mutually exclusive – I think they can be combined to make for a very successful business. But, it is important to know what your strengths and weaknesses are before you start.
If you have a technical background, then you may want to consider selling computer repair or IT consulting services.
If you don’t have any experience with computers, then you may want to try something completely different like writing books or doing web design.
Are another key difference between organic and paid clicks. When someone clicks on an ad, there’s a good chance that he/she will visit the advertiser’s website.
However, when someone organically clicks on a link, there’s no guarantee that he/she will actually visit the advertiser’s website.
Play a huge role in determining which traffic source converts best.
For example, if you sell fashion accessories, you probably wouldn’t do too well using a recipe blog as an affiliate.
But, if you had a blog about cooking, you may see some success.
Determine whether it was worth spending money on paid traffic.
One way to determine this is by looking at conversion rates. This refers to the percentage of visitors who take action after clicking on an advertisement.
For example, you may spend $20 per day advertising on Facebook. Let’s assume that 100 people click on your ads each day.
Of those 100 people, 10 buy your product. That would mean that you spent $200 but generated just $10 revenue.
If you spend $5,000 on Facebook ads, you may only end up converting one sale for every 100 leads you got from Facebook.
On the other hand, if you spend $100 on Google Ads, you may get 10 leads but turn them into five sales.
It depends largely on what you’re selling.
Time spent on site is another factor that determines conversion rates.
If someone spends 30 seconds reading your page, they may leave without buying anything.
On the other hand, if they stay around for three minutes, there’s a good chance they’ll buy something.
Another big difference between organic and paid traffic is time spent on site.
When someone visits your website through organic search results, the potential customer has already found you.
This means that your visitor likely knows exactly what they want and isn’t searching around for information.
In contrast, when someone clicks on an ad and lands on your page, the visitor may be researching products or services.
As such, the visitor may need additional information before making a purchase decision.
You must give potential customers enough time to read everything on your site. If you rush them, they won’t trust you. Provide them with all the necessary information so that they feel comfortable buying from you.
Social proof can also help increase conversions.
People are more likely to make purchases when they see others doing the same thing.
For example, let’s say that you own a restaurant. You want to promote your new menu item, “The Chicken Parmesan Sandwich.”
You could create a post on social media sites asking your followers if anyone likes chicken Parmesan sandwiches.
Or, you could simply ask your friends to share their thoughts on the topic.
Social proof is similar to time spent on site in that it plays a large part in conversions.
When someone sees that her friends, family, and co-workers are interested in your product, they’re more likely to try it out as well.