Organic vs. paid traffic
Visitors who found you through unpaid search results versus through an ad.
What it means
Organic traffic arrives through a regular, unpaid search result. Paid traffic arrives by clicking an ad you are paying for — on Google, Bing, or elsewhere. Same search engine, two very different costs to acquire the visit.
Why it matters
Confusing the two hides your real return on ad spend, and can make an SEO win look like nothing happened if the paid campaign is quietly propping up your numbers.
ask datanephew
How much of my traffic is actually free?
Ask datanephew to break your traffic down by channel — it will separate organic search from paid, social, direct, and referral.
Is it worth paying for ads if my organic traffic is already good?
That depends on what you are trying to grow. Ask datanephew to show you which queries you already rank well for organically versus which ones you are currently paying to appear for — that overlap is often where budget is being wasted.