Even with the rise of other traffic-driving mediums like website ads, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest etc., organic search remains the most dominant traffic generator in existence today; and if one is being honest, it is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

What is Organic Search?

Another name for this term is natural search. It can basically be defined as unpaid search engine results that come from queries entered by internet users. It is a stark contrast from paid search, which is a search engine marketing technique that uses the pay-per-click advertising model to generate web traffic.

The search engine results from an organic search are always relevant to the web user’s query and are more likely to receive traffic than those search results from a paid search that are clearly there for marketing purposes.

Google continues to be the center focus of most digital marketing campaigns and even though social media has proven to be a reliable traffic generator, it is still lacking in so many areas when compared to the search engine giant.

Why Organic Search Should be Your Website’s Main Focus

Gone are the days when having your site indexed on multiple search engines was enough to get you the amount of traffic you need. Now, a more encompassing SEO plan is needed if your website or blog is to stand a chance of competing for search engine places.

If you want to win the brutal search engine war, then your focus should principally be on organic search. 

Here are a few reasons why: 

Organic Search is Automated

The amazing thing about prioritizing organic search is that it allows Google to naturally place your site’s pages on its SERPs by gauging the quality of the content and matching them with relevant queries of internet users. All you simply have to do in this regard is ensure that your content is optimized for search engines. 

Keywords are the primary tools of SEO and should be aptly incorporated into your web content if you wish to take advantage of organic search. They must, however, be used smartly otherwise you risk subjecting your web platform to a penalty from Google.

Though organic search can give you access to numerous web users making use of search engine platforms, you still need to be able to convince these users to click on your site’s links in order to get the traffic you want. One way of ensuring search engine conversion is by writing clickbait titles that are both alluring and engaging. Though some may see this practice as deceitful, it really isn’t and has become a major traffic generation method applied by online news sites.

Organic Search Still Controls a Large Bulk of Internet Traffic

While traffic from other digital marketing avenues like social media, referrals, and emails continue to grow and gain popularity, organic searches through search engine platforms remain the biggest traffic generator.

This won’t be changing anytime soon simply because search engines remain the first point of call when internet queries need to be sent and important information on a subject is desired. No internet user visits Facebook or checks his or her email if he needs to carry out a search query on a pertinent topic, which is why organic search is your website’s best bet if you want to reach out to more internet visitors and increase your site’s traffic. 

Organic Search is Sustainable

It is one thing to have a sudden influx of traffic and it is another thing to experience consistent traffic generation on a daily basis. The former can be made possible by executing an aggressive social media campaign or engaging potential visitors via email while the latter can only happen by naturally generating traffic via the organic search route using Google and other search engine platforms.

It is quite simple really; when you make use of social media websites to bring traffic to your web platform, there is a fair to good chance that the rise in the number of web visitors will be temporary. This is because social media traffic is mostly made up of users who sparsely consume content outside the social media platforms unless, of course, they have to.

It is possible for impressive content to suddenly trend on a social media platform and help bring in traffic to your website; it is, however, not sustainable as the traffic is bound to fizzle away once the hype dies down.

This is not the case with search engine traffic since there is a continuous input of relevant search queries by internet users that help to maintain the traffic to your website.

Organic Search is Less Restrictive

One of the downsides of using social media platforms to drive traffic to your site is that you’re more than likely to be restricted by the closed system operated on the social media platforms. With most social media websites regularly interfering with the content sharing process, it is quite naïve to rely solely on this channel for traffic generation. Search engines like Google, however, do not interfere with the organic search process and your site’s content is guaranteed to be well-placed to bring in enormous traffic as long as it deserves it.

Conclusion

Organic search should be a priority target of every SEO strategy even if a paid search effort has been budgeted for as well. The longevity of the traffic that is generated from organic search is irreplaceable and no other digital marketing strategy can give you that assurance.

If you want to consistently increase the number of web visitors your website or blog receives then an elaborate digital marketing strategy that incorporates all traffic channels must be executed. You must, however, make sure that organic search is the lead player in the strategy.

The post Why You Should Prioritize Organic Search in Your SEO Strategy appeared first on SiteProNews.

There are many reasons why e-commerce sites fail to become viable commercial ventures. While the most obvious, of course, includes establishing an e-commerce site in an over-saturated niche and failing to build a customer base that is sufficient for the website, there are other shortcomings that are specific to factors that are within the pages of the e-commerce website.

Google Analytics is a vital tool that helps in identifying these internal factors responsible for the poor performance of an e-commerce website. It basically functions by gathering data on your site’s activities, including pertinent details about every one of the site’s visitors, with the main objective being to evaluate the site’s performance and optimize it if it turns out to be lacking in any manner whatsoever.

Before the data tendered by the much revered Analytics tool can be used to improve the conversion rate of an e-commerce website, it must first be accurately interpreted in order to identify the area or section of the site that is flawed and hindering commercial activities. It is simply wise to be armed with the right information before attempting to proffer a solution because it makes certain that the source of the issue is targeted when the optimization process is being implemented.

Interpreting the content of a Google Analytics report can be very tricky especially if you aren’t familiar with certain web traffic terminologies; the elaborated tips below will, however, help you understand what each site-traffic metric entails and how it affects your e-commerce website.

Google Analytics’ Key Metrics

Website KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are among reliable metrics that are made available by the Google Analytics tool. They basically provide information that can be assessed to grade the performance of the site in terms of productivity and the achievement of set targets. 

The information that is retrieved from the data breaks down every component of the e-commerce website and utilizes both graphical and numerical descriptions to rate the performance of each component.

Some metrics that are used as a measure of a website’s performance are:

Pageviews 

This is a wholesome metric that attempts to measure the amount of traffic a website receives. If you wish to have an idea of the number of pages in your e-commerce website that receive regular visits or want to confirm the number of visits each page receives, then Pageviews’ figures are important data that must be studied.

Pageviews is among the measures used to confirm the efficacy of a digital marketing strategy, most importantly as it pertains to SEO implementation. For example, an off-page SEO campaign that includes guest post outreach, link building, and other white-hat methods can only be regarded as successful if the Pageviews’ figures suggest a substantial increase in the number of visits since the commencement of the SEO campaign.

Most often times, lackluster Pageviews’ figures can be solely attributed to flaws that aren’t concerned with the composition and configuration of the e-commerce website i.e., it is often as a result of a failed digital marketing effort.

The metric, however, ensures that the website owner is aware of the estimated number of visits that it receives within a given timeframe.

Product Performance

Knowing how well each product in your e-commerce store is performing is critical to the success of the venture since it allows you to create a marketing strategy that will be uniform and adequately addresses any issue that may arise.

This metric makes it possible for you to identify the products in your online store that are doing great as well as those that aren’t performing too well. The information curated from the data can be used to identify the cause of a product’s poor performance, which is then incorporated into a digital marketing strategy in order boost sales.

Checkout Behavior

The Checkout page is perhaps the most important part of an e-commerce website since it is the page that is instrumental to the completion of the commercial process. 

It is, thus, important that you regularly have access to information that details the checkout behavior of all visitors to your online store. This information is critical as it is used to calculate the conversion rate of the e-commerce store and, hence, gauge its performance.

Studying the behavioral pattern of customers that make it to the checkout page and understanding why they cancel orders — if at all they do — make certain that you are able recognize any possible flaw in the page that may be hindering the checkout process.

If the issue with the checkout process is a design flaw or functional defect, then you can hire a freelance web design or programming expert to rectify the error and optimize the page in order to improve your site’s conversion rate.

Sales Performance

It isn’t enough to only have information that represents the amount of traffic garnered by your e-commerce platform as it doesn’t really do much and fails to describe the financial status of the site. It is the revenue you make, however, that really matters and not the number of web users navigating through the pages of your online store.  

The information contained in a Sales Performance report keeps you abreast with important financial stats like your business’ total revenue, tax fees as well as shipping figures, and even the amount expended on executing refunds to customers.

This is basically a metric that measures the financial health of your website, and if the figures do not correlate with those of traffic metrics, then it simply means that your site’s conversion rate is meager.

The figures and illustrations provided by Google Analytics are only as useful and effective as the quality of their interpretation, and failure to properly interpret the retrieved data may jeopardize the commercial viability of your e-commerce site.

The post How to Accurately Interpret Google Analytics Data for an E-commerce Site appeared first on SiteProNews.