SEO Basics From Semalt Or What Search Traffic Is


Table of Content

  1. Introduction
  2. What's Search Traffic
  3. Definition of Related Terms
  4. Forms of Search Traffic
  5. Why do you need an organic search traffic
  6. How to double your organic search traffic
  7. Conclusion

Introduction

Everyone or at least a majority of people says that profit is the most important variable for a business. However, this is not entirely true. And by the end of this article, you might even say profit is not the most important. So what is? - Traffic. You can call it whatever you like since it has different names. Some of its contextual synonyms are views, visibility, visitors, clicks, customers, and so on. Yes, customers are more important than profit. Because without customers (traffic), where would your profit come from? 
 

In an offline business, a solid and constant marketing strategy and delivery is the primary way to get more customers or keep your old customers. However, in online business, things are a little more technical. We have things like Search engine traffic, website analytics, website index, SEO, SEM, SERP, and other technical stuff. This article will teach you everything you need to know about getting traffic for your website. There is no secret here, or maybe there is after all. The secret is that we'll explain to you in simple words for you to understand almost everything that would be delivered here today. So let's begin.

What's Search Traffic?

Search traffic has so many names and you should know what they are in case you try to search it online. There's SEO traffic, Search engine Traffic, and website search traffic. They all relatively mean the same thing though - except for a few differences.

Search Traffic is the total amount of traffic (visitors) that comes from any search engine. That is the number of people that clicked through your website's URL after they had searched for a keyword through search engines. The different search engines we have include Bing, Google, Yahoo, Ask, and so much more. When a query is typed on the search bar, many results pop out. And these results are gotten from many websites that relate to the query searched. So when a person (a searcher) clicks on one of the results, the searcher counts as search traffic for that website he or she clicked on. Did you get that?  

There are different forms of Search Traffic but before diving into that, learn about some terms so that you'll better understand the next sections.

Definition of Related Terms

Here are a few keywords that you'll most likely run into during this article:
  1. Search Engine: This is a medium that has been created to help people search for things and find results. Examples are Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, and so on.
  2. SEO: This means Search Engine Optimization. It is the use of certain tools and techniques to help increase the visibility of a website on any search engine through organic methods.
  3. SEM: This means Search Engine Marketing. It is the employment of Search Engine services to help advertise a website. SEM results are always first on the result page and they carry the 'Ad' sign.
  4. SERP: This means Search Engine Result Page. It is the page that shows the results of a query on any search engine. Though there are many pages for a search engine result, the first page is of utmost importance because only a few people check the next three pages. And a lower percentage checkup to the 10th page. 
  5. Traffic: As it has been discussed earlier, it refers to the people that on your website through any medium. They are also known as potential customers of your business. 

Forms of Search Traffic

There are several ways a person can gather search traffic for his or her website. The forms include organic and paid search traffic. 

Paid Search Traffic



To understand what paid search traffic is, you first need to have a ground knowledge of SEM. SEM, as it has been explained before is a marketing technique where a website is being advertised on SERPs. When you sign up for SEM, your website (no matter the quality) would be featured on the first page of the SERP (and not just the first page, first option). And because you'll have to pay the search engine for advertising your website, it's called PAID search traffic. It is the traffic generated from your website's paid ad. Paid search traffic is seen as a temporary boost of visibility especially if the website is not user-friendly. See it like this. Paid search is about advertising your brand on Google's platform for a short while. If your brand is not valuable enough to customers, they'll click and exit almost immediately. However, organic search traffic is the opposite.

Organic Search Traffic

This is gotten as a result of clicks through the regular (not advertised) link on the SERP. For this, the website has gotten enough reputation (ranking) to be placed on the first page. You see, only advertised and high-ranking websites get featured on the first page. High-ranking websites are sites that have valuable and user-friendly content, have a good website structure, are created for readers and not for bots, and so on. This is all and more that's embedded in SEO. SEO helps a website to rank high by making sure that the website contains quality and well-organized content, is in line with Google's ranking requirements, and has a good relationship with other related websites.

Organic vs Paid Search Traffic

Here is the full picture of both forms of search traffic:
  1. Paid Search traffic is temporary while Organic is long-lasting.
  2. Organic search traffic leads to more trust in your brand.
  3. Paid Search Traffic is a fast and quick way to get traffic.
  4. Organic search traffic is targeted (your website shows up when keywords related to your website are searched for) while Paid search is limited (your website ad shows up when the keywords you paid for are searched for).
  5. Organic Search traffic uses SEO, while Paid search traffic uses SEM.

Why do you need an organic search traffic

It has already been established that search traffic is the equivalent of potential customers entering your store. While paid search traffic causes them to enter and look around, organic search traffic guarantees that they buy something. Organic search traffic, with that understanding, is a good goal to chase after. 

However, understand that paid search traffic is not a bad thing. It's just much better when it is combined with SEO so that when your site is placed in front of people's faces, they'll see your site as worthwhile. 

 
In summary, organic search traffic implies a good webpage ranking, high-quality content, increase in visibility, increase in trust, improved sales, and of course, more revenue. And all of this is long-lasting.

How to double your organic search traffic

The only way to double your organic search traffic is to tighten your SEO seat belt. If you don't understand SEO, your organic search traffic would not improve. SEO generally improves the visibility and sales of businesses. It packages your site so that it is attractive to viewers, arranges it so that it is easy to navigate through, optimizes it so that it is valuable, and then places you in the spotlight (the first page of SERP). 

So how can you ensure that you'll get more organic search traffic?
  1. Do an advanced SEO auditing on your website: Website auditing is an SEO tool that checks your website thoroughly for all the things that keep your website from ranking high. Some companies like Semalt are geniuses in this. They would check everything including the on-page content, keywords, inbound links, technical SEO, website structuring, page loading speed, and so much more. After checking, they'll give you a report on what is limiting your site as well as suggestions on how you can solve it. 
  2. Study your customers: When you know what your customers want, you'll know how to serve them well. Make sure that you create several lead magnets so that you can collect your customers' data. Pay attention to their comments and feedback also. That way, you'll know the kind of content to create for them. And when the value of your page increases, so does your ranking. 
  3. Make sure your landing pages are Search Engine Optimized: Landing pages are the pages on your website that people would land on after they have clicked a URL linking to your website. It can be your homepage, and it can be other pages within your website. And since the landing page is the page visitors would see first, it would be wise to keep that page optimized (attractive). There are some companies that can help you do that at an affordable price. 
  4. Finally, don't forget about the mobile channel: More than 60% of daily searches are done through mobile devices so if your website is not mobile-friendly, it'll be ugly. Make your website mobile-friendly so that those that land on your page through mobile devices would get the same amount of quality, hence, increasing your ranking.


Conclusion

A good ranking is a result of a good SEO. And high rankings shift your position on SERPs to the number 1, thereby increasing your organic search traffic. You also remember that organic search traffic is likened to people that visit your store and are genuinely interested. Therefore, one can conclude that SEO is the basis for successful, result-bearing search traffic.