Is Organic Better for You? It Is When You're Talking About Site Traffic
September 24, 2014 | eMarketer Staff
When it comes to driving internet users to a website, nothing beats organic search. According to data from BrightEdge, organic search drove 51% of website traffic referrals worldwide during June and July 2014. Meanwhile, display, email and referred search ranked second, with 34% of referrals, paid search third (10%), and social media last (5%). The research monitored data from BrightEdge’s Data Cube, so broader industry metrics may vary.
Of course, website traffic referral share varied by industry, and organic dominated the business services space the most, fueling 73% of all site referrals. Organic’s share of traffic referrals huddled around 50% for media and entertainment, technology and internet, and hospitality sites, while retail rounded out the list (42%). Display, email and referred sources as well as social each grabbed their largest pieces of the pie in the media and entertainment space, while paid search was most successful at driving website traffic in the retail industry.