Where to see it
- Google Analytics 4: the Organic Search channel in the Traffic acquisition report.
- Google Search Console: clicks, impressions and positions for each search query and page, straight from Google.
- Bing Webmaster Tools: the same data for Bing.
Why it matters
Organic visitors are looking for something you offer, and you don’t pay per click. Once a page ranks, it can bring visitors for years, which makes organic search one of the most cost-effective channels for many businesses.
How to grow it
- Create pages that answer what your customers search for.
- Fix technical issues that stop pages from being crawled and indexed.
- Earn links and mentions from relevant websites.
- Improve titles and descriptions to raise the click-through rate.
Organic search traffic example
A solicitor’s site gets 2,000 visits a month from Google with no ad spend. Search Console shows that 60% come from a few guides on tenant rights, while the service pages bring fewer visitors but more enquiries. The solicitor adds clear contact links to the guides and improves the service pages, so more of the same traffic becomes enquiries.
How to analyse your organic traffic
- In Analytics, open the Organic Search channel and look at landing pages and conversions.
- In Search Console, see queries, impressions, clicks and average position.
- Split brand and non-brand queries.
- Find pages with many impressions and a low click-through rate: improve titles and descriptions.
- Find pages that rank on page two: improve the content and add internal links.
- Compare with the same period last year to allow for seasonality.
Organic traffic mistakes
- Judging by visits alone and not by leads and sales.
- Counting visits from your own team or bots.
- Panicking at a small weekly dip, without checking the trend.
- Ignoring other engines, such as Bing and DuckDuckGo.
Organic traffic FAQs
How is it different from direct traffic?
Organic visits come from search results. Direct visits have no known source. See direct traffic and referral traffic.
How long does it take to grow?
Often months. See SEO and impressions.