In terms of SEO or the internet world, “traffic” refers to the people who visit your website. If 100 people visit your website, then we say your website traffic is 100. It’s that simple.
There are several types of website traffic. Let’s look at the differences between each one, one by one.
What Is Organic Traffic?
When someone reaches your website through Google search results or another search engine, it is called organic traffic.
This traffic is different from paid and referral traffic.
Here your website is well-optimized and when someone searches for a keyword, they find your website and then click on it.
This way, this traffic is called organic traffic as it is earned and not paid for.
What Is Direct Traffic?
On the other hand, direct traffic, as its name indicates, comes to your website directly.
This happens in the following cases:
- When someone directly types your website URL because they already know it
- When they click on a link because they have bookmarked it
- When they have marked a link as a favorite
- When they found a link in any live doc, Word document, or PDF file
In all these situations, the traffic from this type of source will be called “Direct.”
Other Sources of Traffic
There are a few other types of traffic you may be interested in knowing:
Email Traffic
This traffic comes from email marketing campaigns.
You must receive several emails per day from different businesses. Some of them are actually valuable to you as you must have subscribed for them.
But some are quite irritating as you never subscribed to them or may not be interested.
When you click on this link, you are directed to a website. This traffic will be called email traffic for this website.
Paid Traffic
The traffic a website gets from a paid advertisement is called paid traffic.
Suppose you run an ad using Google Ads or another ad platform.
When someone clicks on this ad, they are directed towards your website. It is called paid traffic as it comes from a paid source.
Referral Traffic
This traffic is different from social media traffic or organic traffic. Here users come to your website by clicking a link on another website.
Just think about backlinks.
There are several backlinks pointing to your websites. When a user clicks on a backlink, they will be directed toward your website, which will be referred to as referral traffic.
Social Traffic
The traffic from social media platforms like Linkedin, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, etc is called social traffic.
You must have a Facebook page or an Instagram account where you keep on posting about various things.
If you add a link to your website on your social media account and someone clicks on it, it is called social traffic.
Other
If the source of traffic is unknown or it is not categorized as one of the above-mentioned sources, it will fall into this traffic category.
Now you know all the types of traffic, let’s see the exact difference between organic and direct traffic.
Organic Traffic vs Direct Traffic
See the exact difference between organic and direct traffic with this comprehensive chart:
| Aspect | Organic Traffic | Direct Traffic |
| Definition | Visitors come from search engines like Google or Bing. | Visitors who manually enter the URL or use bookmarks. |
| Primary Source | Search engine results. | Direct URL entry, bookmarks. |
| Role in Marketing | Key channel for inbound marketing; driven by SEO efforts. | Often seen as a baseline measure of brand recognition. |
| Impact of SEO | Heavily influenced by search engine optimization and keyword rankings. | Not directly influenced by SEO but can increase with overall brand visibility. |
| Influence of Paid Ads | Can be indirectly affected by paid search/display advertising. | Typically not influenced by paid ads directly, but brand campaigns can boost direct visits. |
| Trends and Growth | Increases with consistent, optimized content creation. | Growing due to various web trends, including mobile usage and secure site protocols. |
| Common Causes | Effective SEO strategies, and high-quality content. | Direct URL access, bookmarks, secure site protocols, and certain software/app links. |
Organic Traffic vs Direct Traffic: Which One is Good?
Now you must be thinking about which one is good for your website.
The short answer is it depends on your goals and the nature of your business.
Both types have their own advantages.
If we talk about organic traffic, users perceive it as more trustworthy than other types of traffic like paid ads.
Moreover, it is cost-effective and a sustainable way to achieve long-term success.
But one thing that is frustrating about organic traffic is that it takes too much time and effort to see the results.
You must have to do regular SEO efforts for at least 4-6 months to start seeing the results. Moreover, any big change to the algorithm can suddenly shift your rankings from a higher position to a lower one.
This uncertainty makes people think about paid traffic sources.
On the other hand, direct traffic shows that a brand is well-established and people already know about it. People trust this brand, that is the reason they directly visit its website and make a purchase or get the answer to their queries.
For example, suppose you want to get a pair of shoes. If you already know a brand you might directly type its website name and make a purchase.
Contrary, you will Google for the best shoes and explore different options one by one.
This is the main concept behind direct traffic, if you have a strong reputation people will directly open your website to interact with you.
Besides that direct traffic is less susceptible to algorithmic changes and faces less competition as it does not compete with other websites based on short or long-tail keywords.
But there is another side of the picture.
Bringing your brand to that level requires substantial investment in branding and marketing efforts.
Even if it is not paid, you have to meet the expectations of people by offering them exactly what they want. It can be quality content, a low-priced product, or a durable item.
From my point of view, if your website is content-based, you must focus on increasing your organic traffic. It builds slowly but you will see the benefits in the long run.
On the other hand, if you have a strong product or service, you must make efforts to build a direct channel of customers in addition to focusing on organic and paid traffic.
📣Now if you have got the answer to your query, you may leave. But if you are further interested in learning how to increase organic traffic, you can continue reading.
How Do I Get More Organic Traffic?
Getting organic traffic isn’t hard.
All you need to do is make consistent efforts to build it up. Read my detailed post on increasing your organic traffic.
Hope you will get exactly what you want. All you need to do is implement all these strategies, and you are good to go.
