What is organic traffic? (And how to increase it)

There are a lot of factors that go into driving organic traffic, but the effort is worth it. It compounds over time, and unlike paid, it doesn't stop the moment you stop spending. The trick is knowing where to focus.

Below, we'll cover what organic traffic is, its benefits and downsides, how AI search is affecting it, five steps to increase it, and how to check your results.

What is organic traffic?

Organic traffic refers to visits that come to your site via unpaid (i.e., "organic") search results. Meaning it's search engine traffic you get for free — aside from what it costs to create and maintain the content.

Increasing organic traffic is one of the main goals of search engine optimization (SEO), because it brings in people already looking for what you offer.

You get organic traffic when people click your website in the organic search results, or when they click your citation within Google’s AI Overviews or AI Mode.

What are the benefits of organic website traffic?

Organic traffic's core benefit is that it sends visitors to your site for free.

Organic website traffic is also:

• Targeted: Organic traffic often attracts visitors who are specifically looking for the types of products/services and content you provide
• Sustainable: Organic traffic can provide a steady stream of visitors over time as long as your content remains relevant and optimized
• Scalable: You can increase organic traffic with an SEO and content marketing strategy

But organic traffic also has potential downsides:

• Ongoing investments: Although organic traffic is free, you still need to invest in SEO and content marketing to improve your search engine visibility
• Slow growth: Organic traffic growth takes time, requiring consistent effort before you'll reliably see results
• Algorithm dependency: Organic traffic is dependent on search engine algorithms, which can change frequently
• Search engine results page (SERP) competition: Zero-click search features like AI Overviews and AI Mode absorb clicks that would have gone to organic results

Organic vs. paid traffic

While organic traffic visits come from appearing in standard search results, paid traffic visits come from pay-per-click (PPC) ads on results pages.

Paid search campaigns deliver faster results and allow you to target users based on specific criteria, such as demographics, location, and search behavior.

But these campaigns can be costly — especially in competitive markets. And the traffic stops as soon as you stop paying for ads.

In contrast, organic search has the potential to generate clicks to your site as long as your content is live (and remains relevant and high-quality).

You can estimate the total value of any website's organic traffic (the estimated monthly cost to rank for a website’s organic keywords in Google Ads) in Semrush's Organic Rankings tool.

Just enter a domain and look for "Traffic Cost":

Knowing a site's traffic cost tells you how much its owner would have to pay in Google Ads to replace the visibility it currently gets for free — useful for sizing up your own organic value or benchmarking a competitor's. 

How does AI search affect organic traffic?

AI search has decreased organic traffic across most industries. Searchers now get detailed answers directly from AI systems like Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and ChatGPT, without needing to click through to a website.

Apparel, beauty, food, and retail are the only industries of the 17 we analyzed that saw growth in organic traffic in 2025, according to our study on how AI is reshaping traffic channels.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on organic traffic. The same research found that organic search generated over 1 trillion visits in 2025, and AI traffic remains a fraction of that even after growing 66%.

The signals that earn rankings also earn citations: accurate, well-sourced content on a site search engines can crawl.

What's new is that AI systems rarely read a page start to finish. They pull the passage that answers the question. So pages built in clear, self-contained sections get cited more often than pages that bury the answer. And a reader who clicks your citation counts as organic traffic just like a reader who clicks a standard result.

AI search optimization tools increase organic traffic by showing you where those citations are going. To see where you stand, Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit tracks how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers and which prompts your competitors are winning.

Improving both rankings and citations starts with the same five steps.

How to increase organic traffic

Increase organic traffic by:

1. Fixing any technical issues your site has so Google can access your content
2. Finding keywords likely to drive organic traffic
3. Creating optimized content that has a better chance of ranking high
4. Acquiring backlinks to grow your site’s authority
5. Setting up a Google Business Profile (if applicable)

Let’s go over each step in greater detail.

Step 1: Fix any technical issues your site has

Fixing technical issues your site has ensures Google can discover, crawl, and index (store in a database) your website's content for you to rank for relevant queries and attract traffic. 

Semrush's Site Audit tool makes it easy to check your site for technical issues that could affect its crawlability and indexability.

First, enter your domain into the text box and click "Start Audit."

Follow the prompts to configure your audit. When the audit is complete, you can see your site's overall health with the "Site Health" score. The higher the score, the fewer technical issues your site has.

Head to the "Issues" tab to see a complete list of all the problems the tool detected.

These are categorized into "Errors," "Warnings," and "Notices."

You should address errors first — they're the most severe issues affecting your site.

In this example, the tool found broken JavaScript and CSS files, broken images, mixed content, and invalid structured data.

Click "How to fix" next to any issue to learn how to address it.

Take whatever steps you need to resolve the first error. Then, work through the rest of the errors, warnings, and notices.

Further reading: How to Perform a Technical SEO Audit in 10 Steps

Step 2: Perform keyword research

Performing keyword research helps you identify the queries people use when searching for information related to your niche.

Find relevant search terms with Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool.

Enter a seed keyword (a broad term related to your niche) into the text box and your domain in the field below it. Then, click "Search."

The tool will then produce a list of relevant keyword suggestions.

It also provides important metrics for each keyword, including:

• Search intent (Intent): What users are hoping to achieve when they perform a search for that term
• Search volume (Volume): The average number of monthly searches for the keyword
• Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %): The estimated ranking difficulty for that keyword on a scale of 0 to 100 for your specific domain. The lower the score, the more likely you are to rank well.
• Potential traffic: An AI-driven forecast that analyzes your domain and estimates your potential traffic from a given keyword, based on your domain's relevancy and Topical Authority

Your goal is to find terms with the right combination of high potential traffic and low Personal Keyword Difficulty. And then target those terms with the right type of content to satisfy the searcher's intent. (More on that in the next step.)

You'll find keyword groups (topically related terms) in the left-hand menu. Which can be useful for exploring more specific keyword topics within your niche.

You can find more relevant keywords by seeing which terms your competitors target that you don’t. 

Use Semrush's Keyword Gap tool for this.

Enter your domain and at least one competitor's domain. Then, click "Compare."

The tool will then compare the keyword profiles of each domain.

The two keyword categories you should focus on first are:

• Missing: These are keywords your competitors rank for but you don't
• Weak: These are keywords your competitors rank for higher than you

There's a good chance you'll find some great keyword opportunities here. After all, if your closest competitors are ranking for certain keywords, they're probably relevant to your website as well.

Move on to the next step once you’ve selected keywords most likely to drive traffic to your site.

Further reading: Keyword Research for SEO: What It Is & How to Do It

Step 3: Create optimized content

Optimized SEO content that satisfies users' needs is more likely to rank highly in organic search results and drive traffic to your site.

It also helps you establish authority in your niche, build trust with your audience, and earn citations in AI-generated answers.

The Content Optimization tool, available in both Enterprise AIO and Enterprise SEO, gives you tips for optimizing your content for organic and AI search.

Start by creating a brief with the keywords you wish to target. 

You can write your article directly in the tool or copy and paste in an existing article (if you need to re-optimize one you’ve already published). 

Here are some tips to help you write content that ranks:

• Answer the query in your first sentence: Mirror the heading or target keyword so readers get an immediate, extractable answer
• Structure with clear H2s and H3s: Each heading should signal exactly what the section covers, so users can jump straight to it
• Keep sections self-contained: Write each section so it makes sense without needing context from earlier paragraphs, since AI systems often pull isolated chunks
• Back claims with data or sources: Cite research, stats, or first-hand experience instead of general statements to increase your odds of being cited
• Use short, direct sentences: Cut dependency hops so both readers and AI systems parse your point quickly

As you write, apply the tips provided and aim to score as high as possible for AI SEO and SEO.

Step 4: Build quality backlinks

Building quality backlinks from other reputable websites increases your site's authority and credibility, which can lead to better rankings and more organic traffic.

The key to building quality backlinks is to consistently publish high-value content that other sites naturally want to link to.

Speed up this process with dedicated link building tactics. Some examples include:

• Unlinked brand mentions: Finding sites that mention your brand without linking to it, then asking them to add the link
• Checking competitor backlinks: Identifying sites that link to your competitors but not you, then asking them to link to yours as well
• Broken link building: Finding a site with a broken external link and offering a relevant, working resource on your own site as the replacement

Find broken links with the Backlinks tool. Enter a rival’s domain and click “Analyze.” Head into the “Indexed Pages” report and check off “Broken Pages.” 

Now you have a list of your competitor’s broken pages. Look for a broken page similar to one you already have published, or one you could easily create content for. 

Then click “#” in the backlinks column to view which sites link to the broken page.

Identify reputable and relevant sites and reach out to each one. Let them know they are currently linking to a broken page and offer your resource as a working replacement.

Further reading: Link Building for SEO: A Guide to the Basics

Step 5: Set up your Google Business Profile (if applicable)

Setting up and maintaining your Google Business Profile (GBP) can increase your visibility for location-based searches if you run a brick-and-mortar business or a local service business.

A GBP is a free business listing that shows important information about your business directly in the search results. It’s an important part of local SEO.

Populate your GBP with as much relevant information as you can to maximize its visibility and persuade people to visit your site. 

Include:

• Your business description
• Your business category
• Your website, phone number, and address (or service area)
• Your business hours
• Photos of your business, products, or services

Consistent information across the web helps search engines and AI tools verify that your details are accurate, which improves your visibility in both places.

Then, keep your GBP active by asking customers for reviews (more reviews with high ratings can improve local rankings) and posting regularly.

You can learn more about how to optimize your profile in our in-depth guide to GBP.

How to check your site's organic traffic

You can check your site's organic traffic using three tools: Semrush's Organic Rankings, GA4, and Google Search Console (GSC). 

Organic Rankings

Follow these steps to use Semrush's Organic Rankings tool to see any website's organic traffic estimates:

1. Enter a domain into the text box and hit "Search"

2. View the "Traffic" number at the top of this report, which estimates how many monthly visits organic rankings drive to the site

3. Click the "Traffic" section to see an estimate of the domain's organic traffic over time

4. Click on the "Position changes" report to see how ranking changes affect traffic

Google Analytics 4

Follow these steps to check organic traffic in GA4:

1. Go to your GA4 account

2. Click on "Reports"

3. Under the "Life cycle" section, click "Acquisition" > "Traffic acquisition"

4. Here, you can see all your traffic sources, including "Organic Search"

5. To see the specific search engine driving your organic traffic, scroll down the "Traffic acquisition" report. Then, add "Session source" as a secondary dimension.

Look for any spikes or drops in organic traffic. Investigate anomalies further to see why they may have happened. 

For example, a temporary drop in organic traffic could indicate an algorithm update. Review SERP volatility from Semrush Sensor to confirm. 

Further reading: What Is Organic Traffic in Google Analytics 4? (+ Analysis Tips)

Google Search Console

Follow these steps to check organic traffic with GSC:

1. Go to your GSC account

2. Open the "Performance" report. Here, you'll see the total number of organic clicks driving traffic to your site from Google's search results.

3. Scroll down to see which queries, pages, and countries bring the most organic traffic to your site

Re-optimize any search terms that are ranking lower than anticipated using the Content Optimization tool.

Keep track of your organic traffic performance

Keeping track of your organic traffic can support your business's long-term growth.

And making technical improvements, doing keyword research, creating content, and building links are all vital ingredients for improving your organic visibility and traffic.

As you work to improve your SEO efforts, use a tool like Enterprise SEO's Keyword Rankings Overview report to monitor your keyword rankings. Rankings move before organic traffic does, so they show whether your changes are working before the visits arrive.

With Semrush Enterprise, you can also track rankings across AI search surfaces, so you can see how your visibility is shifting across the different places people go to find answers.

Try it today.