Digital marketing is apaid advertising-heavy world, one where brands hugely rely on high ad spend in exchange for steady site traffic and conversions. But by discovering the power of organic search, you can still secure free traffic and improve brand visibility while keeping the costs of your digital marketing efforts to a low.

Want to know how and why you should invest in organic search? Our guide delves into what it is, why it matters, and how to get started with increasing organic search traffic to your site with our free templates and other helpful insights.

What is organic search traffic?

Organic search traffic refers to visitors arriving on your website after clicking through from search engine results pages (SERPs). Creating an organic search strategy that covers several areas of your site is crucial for increasing this type of traffic. And while it can take a few months and some trial and error before seeing results, a strategy aimed at continuous growth makes organic search extremely valuable for all types of businesses in different sectors.  

The main aim is to get your site to rank above the competition for key search terms and keywords on SERPs. So, for example, when somebody searches on Google for ‘best trainers for running a marathon’, a footwear brand would want its content to appear at the top of this results page. To do this, they might create relevant guides for choosing footwear and include links to products on the site, funnelling users to the purchasing stage.  

This differs from paid search traffic, where visitors have clicked on a paid advert to reach a product or page. Businesses bid against competitors to rank in the best positions in SERPS, spending more to secure the highest and most coveted spots.

Paid search also offers immediate reach and targeted results, while organic search’s slow burn focuses on building a lasting audience relationship, so results aren’t usually instant. Compared to other channels, like social and referral, organic traffic comes directly from the search engine, rather than a third party.

The 3 pillars of increasing organic search traffic

Organic search traffic is built on three pillars that are the focus areas of this marketing channel. Here, we’ll run through each of these in more detail and explain how each one works in practice.  

Content marketing

Content marketing is all about creating relevant, useful and regularly updated content targeting keywords. Whether that’s how-to guides, interactive content, infographics, or white papers, the content on your site should meet your target audience where they are. Focus on answering the questions they’re asking and dealing with the needs they have. Creating customer personas is one way you can achieve this, letting you flesh out your users’ background, preferences and pain points, so you can properly market your content to them in more targeted ways. 

When creating content, it’s also important not to confuse keyword targeting with keyword stuffing. Overuse of certain keywords can actually do more harm than good for your organic traffic, since search engines are sophisticated enough to recognise when a site isn’t including keywords authentically.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the technical aspects of your site. Optimising things like your site speed and mobile-friendliness, while cleaning up URLs, structuring site data, properly indexing pages and improving security can also make a huge difference to your organic search traffic. This is because the algorithms of Google and other search engines favour sites that seem more trustworthy, gauging the technical parts of a site when deciding which pages rank highest.

Backlinks & authority

Want to show off your authority as a brand? Backlinks are the answer and come in the form of reputable sites linking to your content. Things like guest posting, digital PR and brand partnerships are a powerful way of showing users you’re an expert in your chosen field. If it makes sense for your brand, we’d highly recommend bringing in outside forces your users would respond well to.

Investing in organic search: The results

What can you expect to see by investing in organic search for your site? Here are just some of the benefits:

• Ranking for relevant keywords: It’s simple – targeting relevant keywords on your site increases your chance of ranking in SERPs for common search queries, meaning your brand lands on more people’s radars.
• More qualified leads (MQLs) and conversions: With the right target audience being directed to your content, you’re more likely to see MQLs andconvert leads into sales. 
• Lower reliance on paid ad spend: Paid ads can be expensive when you’re solely reliant on them for increasing site traffic.Paid and organic search should go hand-in-hand to help you reduce costs while still getting users through your digital door.
• Stronger brand awareness: Creating relevant, useful and reputable content means you’re building a stronger digital brand for people to remember and engage with.  
• Steady traffic to site: An organic search strategy that continuously creates and improves site content can deliver an uptick in traffic that should stay that way.

Why is organic search traffic important?

Increasing organic search traffic can be a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to a wider digital strategy for business growth. So, let’s explore some of the reasons why it’s valuable and how it can support you in reaching your goals. 

Sustainable traffic

Once organic search visibility and rankings are established, they can result in sustainable traffic to your site.

Of course, steady site traffic means more people are finding your brand through relevant searches and increases the likelihood of lead generation. But it also means you can gather additional valuable user data, collect user experience feedback and further boost your brand visibility. 

High-quality users

When investing in organic search, whether that’s by creating content for your intended audiences or outreaching to relevant media outlets, you’ll attract users who are searching for related keywords and search queries. So, you’ll be targeting audiences with relevant interests, who are more likely to purchase the products or services you’re offering.

Builds brand visibility, awareness and trust

Appearing high on non-paid search results with a fast, reliable site builds audience awareness and brand trust because you’re providing users with valuable content first, rather than directly pointing them toward ways they can spend money with you.

When you’re getting mentions in authoritative media sources, you can also create a positive reputation as a thought leader on relevant topics within your industry.

Supports long-term goals 

Consistently high organic search traffic drives overall traffic in the long term, helping support goals such as lead generation, conversions and brand awareness.

How to get started with organic search marketing

Looking at the different pillars of organic search highlights several actionable areas you can focus on. From content audits and target keyword research to SEO optimisations and progress tracking, here’s some ace advice for kickstarting a successful organic search marketing channel.

Carry out a content audit

Content audits are a great place to start. Not only do they uncover opportunities for content pruning (e.g. deletion and noindex-ing), but they also reveal where content across your site can be optimised. Consider topical relevancy, keyword targeting and intent when looking at your existing content and be sure to note down anything that could help with your content strategy.

Download our free content audit guide & template

Struggling to keep track of your audit? To help you gain valuable insights and keep things neatly structured, we’ve created a content audit guide and template you can download for free below.

Research target keywords 

Finding keywords relevant to both your target audience’s interests and your products and services should be your next priority. Utilise SEO tools to find out the most common search terms, noting down search volumes and highlighting the lowest competition keywords that might be easier to target.

Remember – keyword research is an important part of developing your content strategy later.    

Create a content strategy plan 

Use your knowledge of audience needs and search intent to begin formulating a content strategy plan. Begin with content ideation sessions focused on topics your audience will be interested in, before moving on to organic content briefing. Keyword research should also support your ideas and decisions at each step.

Download our free content strategy planner template

Not sure where to start with your content strategy? Whether you need some steer on ideation or want to improve the efficiency of your planning, our free content strategy planner template has you covered with everything you need to map out a successful strategy. 

Technical SEO audit and optimisations

Improving technical SEO across your site is important, so be sure to create a plan for how you’ll carry out audits and optimisations wherever needed.

Check aspects such as page speed, broken pages and images, redirect links and canonical links to ensure everything is up to scratch, and if not, highlight exactly what needs fixing. Quick optimisations, like meta descriptions, page titles, image alt text and imagery, can also have a huge impact on your site’s SEO value and should be prioritised.

Build a digital PR strategy

A digital PR strategy that’s relevant to your brand and focuses on your target audience’s interests can translate to increased organic search traffic. Digital PR is mainly used for link acquisition and building quality backlinks over time, which in turn, will improve your site’s authority.

Outreaching expert commentary and PR campaigns to the right media outlets and journalists is key to the success of any digital PR strategy, so spend some time building a relevant media list and gaining contacts in the areas you’re interested in. The more relevant the outlets and journalists are, the more likely they are to publish your comments and use your campaigns.

Track progress with analytics 

Keeping track of your site’s organic traffic through reporting and SEO tools like GA4, Google Search Console, and SEMrush can help you see the real-time impact of your organic activity. From this, you can uncover insights about what’s working and what isn’t, guiding future organic search strategies toward success.