Top 5 factors that affect your organic traffic in 2025

Several factors can affect a website’s organic traffic, but some of the most important ones are:

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Keywords and targeted topics
Content quality and satisfying the search intent
User experience
Outreach, networking, link building
Technical SEO

Keywords and topics

Optimizing your website for certain keywords can help improve its ranking in search engine results and increase organic traffic. Here’s how:

Researching and identifying the right keywords: To attract organic traffic, you need to understand what people are searching for and use those keywords on your website. You can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to research and identify relevant keywords.
Including keywords in your website’s content: Once you have identified the keywords you want to target, you should naturally include them in your website’s content. This means using them in a way that flows smoothly and makes sense to readers rather than stuffing them in unnaturally.
Using keywords in your titles and metadata: You should include your target keywords in your website’s titles and metadata, such as the page title and meta description. This can help improve the visibility of your website in search results and make it more attractive to users.
Using long-tail keywords: Long-tail keywords are more specific and often have less competition than short, broad keywords. For example, “best hiking trails in Yosemite National Park” is a long-tail keyword. Using long-tail keywords can help you attract more qualified traffic to your website.

Following these steps and consistently creating high-quality content optimized for keywords can improve your website’s ranking in search results and increase its organic traffic.

Why you shouldn’t chase the high search volume keywords

Using relevant and targeted keywords in your website’s content, titles, and metadata can help improve its ranking in search engine results and drive more organic traffic.

Let’s say you have a new or low-authority domain and try optimising your website for competitive keywords. In this case, ranking well in search results and driving organic traffic can be difficult.

Here are a few reasons why:

High competition: Websites with high domain authority and strong backlinks will have an advantage over newer or lower-authority websites regarding ranking for competitive keywords. This means it will be more difficult for your website to compete and rank well.
Lack of trust and credibility: Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine the relevance and credibility of websites. If your website is new or has a low domain authority, it may be seen as less trustworthy and credible, which can impact its ranking in search results.
Difficulty creating high-quality content: Creating high-quality content optimized for competitive keywords can be challenging, especially if you are just starting out. It can be difficult to produce informative, useful, and well-written content, which is what search engines and users look for.

Instead of focusing on competitive keywords, it may be more effective for a new or low-authority website to target long-tail keywords or less competitive phrases. This can help you attract more qualified traffic and gradually build up your domain’s authority and credibility over time.

What if you have a high-authority website with loads of traffic from Google?

Suppose you have a high-authority website and already have significant traffic from Google. In that case, it may be worth targeting broad, high-volume keywords in addition to more specific, long-tail keywords.

However, it’s important to remember that ranking for broad terms can be challenging, even for high-authority websites, due to the high level of competition.

Here are a few things to consider when deciding whether to target broad terms:

Relevance: It’s important to ensure that the broad terms you target are relevant to your website’s content and audience. Otherwise, you may attract a lot of traffic that is not interested in your products or services.
Conversion rate: While attracting a large volume of traffic is important, it’s also crucial to consider the conversion rate of that traffic. If the broad terms you are targeting do not result in a high percentage of conversions, it may not be worth trying to rank for them.
ROI: It’s also important to consider the return on investment (ROI) of your efforts to target broad terms. If the cost of creating and promoting content to rank for broad terms outweighs the benefits of increased sales or leads, it may not be worth pursuing.

Overall, it’s important to carefully consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of targeting broad, high-volume keywords and to use a mix of both broad and long-tail keywords to attract the right balance of traffic to your website.

Content quality considering the searcher’s intent

Content quality can influence organic traffic in several ways:

High-quality content is more likely to attract links from other websites, which can improve your search engine rankings and increase your organic traffic.
High-quality content is more likely to be shared on social media, which can drive additional traffic to your site.
Poor-quality content, on the other hand, may be penalized by search engines and can result in a decrease in organic traffic.

High-quality content

High-quality content is well-written, informative, and engaging. It should be free of spelling and grammar errors and well-researched and factually accurate.

To create high-quality content, it is important to understand your target audience and their needs clearly. Your content should be tailored to meet those needs and organized in a way that is easy for your audience to read and understand.

In addition to being informative and engaging, high-quality content should also be visually appealing. This means using formatting techniques like headings, bullet points, and images to break up the text and make it easier to read.

Using appropriate images and videos to illustrate your points and make your content more interesting and engaging is also important.

Low-quality content

Low-quality content is often produced quickly and without much attention to detail. It may contain spelling and grammar errors, and may not be well-researched or factually accurate.

One common way that low-quality content is produced is through “spinning” software, which takes an existing piece of content and automatically replaces certain words with synonyms in an attempt to create a new version of the content. However, the resulting content is often difficult to read and does not provide any real value to the reader.

Another way that low-quality content is produced is through “content farms,” which are websites that produce large amounts of low-quality content to generate ad revenue.

This content is often thin, lacks depth, and is not designed to provide any real value to the reader.

Using AI writers

Whether or not it is a good idea to use an AI writer to get your content done depends on your specific needs and goals. Here are some things to consider:

An AI writer may be a good option if you need to produce a large amount of content quickly and at scale. AI writers can generate content quickly and save time and resources for businesses that need to produce a lot of content.
On the other hand, if you are looking for high-quality, engaging content that effectively communicates your brand’s message and voice, an AI writer may not be the best choice. AI content writers may not be able to produce high-quality content written by a human, and they may not be able to capture the unique voice and tone of a brand as well as a human writer.
Ultimately, the decision to use an AI writer will depend on your specific needs and goals. An AI writer may be a good option if you want to produce a large amount of content quickly and at scale. If you are looking for high-quality, engaging content, it may be best to stick with human writers.

Pros and cons of using AI content writers:

Pros:

AI content writers can produce content quickly and at scale.
They can save time and resources for businesses producing large amounts of content.
AI content writers may be able to write on a wider range of topics than a single human writer.

Cons:

AI content writers may not be able to produce content that is as high quality as content written by a human.
They may be unable to capture the unique voice and tone of a brand and a human writer.
AI content writers may not be able to understand the nuances and subtleties of language as well as a human.
They may not be able to produce content as engaging and compelling as a human’s.

User experience

User experience (UX) can affect organic traffic in several ways:

Good UX design creates a positive user experience (for any kind of traffic) and drives organic traffic.
Improved UX can lead to increased engagement and conversion rates, which can, in turn, lead to higher rankings in search results. This can drive more organic traffic to a website.
Poor UX can lead to a high bounce rate when users leave a website quickly after arriving. This can indicate to search engines that the website is not meeting the needs of its users, which can lead to a decrease in rankings and organic traffic.
A website with poor UX may also have lower engagement and conversion rates, negatively impacting its search engine rankings and organic traffic.

Good UX design optimises the user journey and ensures it is smooth, intuitive, and engaging. This can be achieved by focusing on website design, usability, speed, accessibility, and content quality.

UX Elements

Several elements contribute to user experience (UX) on a website:

Usability: refers to how easy it is for users to navigate and interact with a website. A website with good usability is easy to use and understand, and users can find the information they are looking for quickly and easily.
Accessibility: refers to how easy it is for users with disabilities to access and use a website. A website with good accessibility is designed to make it easy for users with disabilities to interact with it, for example, by providing alt text for images or using high-contrast colors.
Content: The content on a website should be relevant, useful, and well-written. It should also be presented clearly and organised, with appropriate headings and formatting.
Visual design: The visual design of a website should be visually appealing and consistent. It should also be easy to read, with appropriate font sizes and colors.
Loading speed: A website should load quickly, as users are likely to leave if a website takes too long to load.

By considering these aspects, businesses can create websites that provide a good user experience and meet the needs of their users.

While UX is a ranking factor, it is just one of many factors that search engines consider when ranking websites and driving organic traffic. Other factors include the relevance and quality of a website’s content (the first 2 in my list), the number and quality of external links pointing to the website, and the website’s technical SEO.

Outreach, networking, link building

With countless marketing strategies that cost a fortune, bringing in new users can be both time-consuming and expensive. If you invest the effort into outreach tactics like blogging and online networking activities – such as engaging existing audiences with posts and content – link building should provide great opportunities for boosting organic visits.

Backlinks

One of the ways that Google determines the relevance and authority of a website is by looking at the number and quality of external links pointing to the website. If a website can secure many high-quality backlinks, it may be seen as more relevant and authoritative by Google.

However, suppose a website can acquire these backlinks by buying them or participating in link schemes. In that case, it may be seen as trying to manipulate its search engine rankings, which goes against Google’s guidelines.

As a result, Google is against buying backlinks and may penalize websites that engage in this behavior by lowering their rankings in search results.

Outreach, networking, and link-building can all affect organic traffic in the following ways:

Outreach: By reaching out to other websites, businesses can build relationships and potentially earn backlinks from those websites. These backlinks can help improve the search engine rankings of the business’s website, which can increase organic traffic.
Networking: Building relationships with other businesses, industry experts, and influencers can help businesses gain exposure and potentially earn backlinks.
Link building: By building high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites, businesses can improve their position in SERP (and increase their organic traffic).

Contacting website owners or admins for related sites ranking for related keywords to yours can be an amazing idea for several reasons:

First, it can help you build relationships with other websites in your industry. These relationships can be beneficial in the long run, as you may be able to collaborate or share content with these websites in the future.
Second, you may earn backlinks from their websites by reaching out to website owners or admins. These backlinks can help improve the search engine rankings of your website, which can increase your organic traffic. It’s important to note that not all websites will be willing to link to you, but it’s worth reaching out to see if there are any opportunities.
Contacting website owners or admins for related sites can be useful for building relationships, earning backlinks, and improving your search engine rankings.

Referral traffic

Getting a backlink from another website can increase your referral and organic traffic.

When a website links to your site, it can drive traffic to your site from that website. This traffic is known as referral traffic. If the website linking to your site has a large audience, it can potentially drive a significant amount of referral traffic to your site.

When a website links to your site, it can signal to search engines that it is a credible and authoritative source of information on a particular topic. This can help improve your visibility in search and increase your organic traffic.

Businesses must focus on earning high-quality backlinks through legitimate means, such as creating valuable content and building relationships with other websites. Please remember that Google is against buying backlinks because it goes against the company’s guidelines for webmasters.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to optimizing a website’s technical aspects to improve its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and increase the organic traffic it receives.

Not surprisingly, seasoned software developers make outstanding technical SEO managers! Their know-how of coding and algorithms allows them to optimize website performance in a way that no other can.

Good to know that technical SEO, content, and UX are closely interconnected and improving any of these aspects can positively impact the others.

Several technical factors can affect a website’s organic traffic, including:

Site speed: If a website is slow to load, it can deter users from staying on the site and increase the likelihood that they will bounce back to the SERPs. This can lead to a decrease in organic traffic.
Mobile-friendliness: More and more users are accessing the internet on their mobile devices, so websites must be optimized for mobile. If a website is not mobile-friendly, it may be ranked lower in the search results, leading to decreased organic traffic.
Crawlability and indexability: Search engines need to be able to crawl and index a website’s pages to understand its content and determine its relevance to search queries. If a website has technical issues that prevent search engines from properly crawling and indexing its pages, it can decrease organic traffic.
URL structure: A clear and easy-to-understand URL structure can help search engines understand the hierarchy of a website’s content and improve its chances of ranking well in the search results. On the other hand, if a website has a poorly structured URL structure, it can make it more difficult for search engines to understand its content and may decrease organic traffic.

There are other technical SEO factors can affect a website’s organic traffic, including:

XML sitemaps: An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the URLs on a website and can help search engines more easily discover and crawl the website’s pages. If a website does not have an XML sitemap or is not properly configured, it can make it more difficult for search engines to discover all of the site’s pages, leading to a decrease in organic traffic.
Canonicalization: Canonicalization refers to specifying the preferred version of a web page for search engines to index. Suppose a website has multiple pages with similar or duplicate content. In that case, it is important to use the rel=canonical tag or 301 redirects to specify the preferred version of the page to avoid potential penalties from search engines and ensure that the correct page is being indexed.
Meta tags: Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content and can be used by search engines to understand the relevance of a page to a particular search query. If a website has poorly written or missing meta tags, it can make it more difficult for search engines to understand the page’s content and may decrease organic traffic.
Structured data: Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and can be used by search engines to understand the content and context of a page. Using structured data can help search engines better understand a website’s content and may improve its chances of ranking well in the search results.

As I mentioned, some technical SEO factors can overlap with content and user experience (UX) because they all contribute to a website’s overall quality and effectiveness.

For example:

Site speed: Fast loading times are important for technical SEO and contribute to a positive UX because users are likelier to stay on a website if it loads quickly. A fast-loading website leads to a low bounce rate and a higher conversion rate – signals that Google loves and makes them send more organic traffic.
Mobile-friendliness: A website optimized for mobile devices has the technical advantage of being easier for search engines to crawl and provides a better UX for mobile users because the content is easy to read and navigate on a small screen.
URL structure: A clear and easy-to-understand URL structure can help search engines understand the hierarchy of a website’s content and make it easier for users to navigate the site and understand the context of the pages they visit.
Meta tags: In addition to providing information to search engines, meta tags can also be used to improve the UX by giving users a brief overview of what a page is about and helping them decide whether or not it is relevant to their needs.
Structured data: Using structured data can help search engines better understand a website’s content and improve the UX by providing users with more detailed and relevant information about a page in the search results.

I believe that ex-software developers may be particularly effective technical SEO managers due to their strong coding skills, familiarity with web technologies, problem-solving skills, and attention to detail. These qualities enable them to understand and implement technical SEO techniques, troubleshoot issues, and ensure that a website is fully optimized and free of technical errors.

In conclusion, the top 5 factors that are likely to affect organic traffic in 2025 include the quality and relevance of a website’s content, the user experience it provides, the technical SEO of the site, the website’s authority and reputation, and the presence of high-quality backlinks. By focusing on these factors and continually improving them, websites can increase their organic traffic and visibility in search engine results pages.

SEO isn’t for the faint of heart! If you want to stay ahead, your digital game must be on point – always one step beyond the competition.

SEO is not a simple, straightforward field, and many factors can influence a website’s search engine rankings. Google is constantly updating its algorithms to ensure that it provides users with the most relevant and high-quality search results. This means it constantly adapts to new types of content and techniques people use to improve their rankings.

As a result, many variables can impact a website’s rankings, and it is often difficult to predict with certainty how a particular change or strategy will affect a site’s performance. This is why it is often said that “it depends” in the world of SEO – because the specific circumstances of a website and the competition it faces can have a big impact on its performance.

This article is a part of our organic traffic category. Discover more on this topic.

The top 5 factors that affect your organic traffic in 2025