What is Organic Traffic Value?
Organic traffic value refers to the estimated cost that a website would incur each month if it had to pay for the traffic it receives from all the keywords it ranks for in search engines, rather than receiving this traffic organically.
This value is calculated by multiplying the monthly organic traffic generated by each keyword, based on its respective ranking position, by its CPC value.
The resulting cost of individual keywords that the website ranks for is then added up to determine the total organic traffic value.
Why do we calculate it?
The calculation of organic traffic value provides valuable insights for website owners and digital marketers.
It gives an estimation of the financial value generated by the website's organic search engine rankings, which can be compared to the cost of paid advertising.
This indicates how much money is being saved by ranking organically rather than paying for traffic.
The organic traffic value also highlights the importance and value of the keywords that the website is ranking for.
The cost-per-click of each keyword indicates its relevance and popularity, and this information can be used to inform keyword research and content-creation strategies.
By estimating the potential organic traffic cost for a desired target rank, website owners can set realistic goals for their SEO efforts and track progress towards achieving these goals.
How is it calculated?
There are several approaches to calculating organic traffic value, and numerous SEO tools, including Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz, offer estimations of this metric.
These tools consider factors such as search engine ranking positions, search volume, and projected click-through rates for your keywords to estimate the overall value of your organic traffic.
One commonly used method involves employing a formula to calculate the value of an individual keyword.
This can then be applied to determine the cost of all the keywords for which your domain/URL is ranking.
The formula for organic traffic value
Estimated monthly value = Total monthly searches х CTR х Cost per visit
To further elaborate on the equation:
The estimated monthly value is the cost of a particular keyword estimated to be spent monthly.
Total monthly searches can be called the monthly search volume of that keyword.
CTR is the click-through rate that is estimated according to the position of the URL in SERPs that this particular keyword is making to rank.
Click-through rates are higher for the results coming at the top and keep on decreasing when you go down the results.
Moreover, organic results have more CTRs than paid ones, even though paid ones come at the top of the SERPs.
For the equation, the CTR will be taken as the current rank of that keyword or the target position you set to reach.
Cost per visit refers to the amount of money a website would need to pay for each click generated from a paid search ad - also known as cost-per-click (CPC). This value is used in the formula to estimate the financial value of each visit generated through organic search traffic.
Finding total monthly searches
Google Ads Keyword Planner is the best free tool to determine the total monthly searches or the search volume of a keyword.
You can sign up on Google AdWords if you have an account then log in and go to the “Tools” option, and from there, go to “Keyword Planner.”
From “Keyword Planner”, choose “Get search volume data and forecasts.”
A box will be opened where you can type or paste the keywords you want to check out. Upon clicking “Get search volume”, you will have details like average “Monthly searches”, “Competition”, and “Suggested bid.”
Now assume that your keyword has a search volume of “12500”.
Finding click-through rate (CTR)
The formula for calculating click-through rate (CTR) is to divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions and then multiply by 100.
For example, if there are 20 clicks and 100 impressions, the equation would be (20/100) x 100 = 20%.
However, you cannot manually find out impressions and clicks therefore, you need tools to get it done.
The best way to check CTR is through the Googe Search Console. Using it, you can check the CTR of the page that is ranking for your given keyword.
You can log into your Search Console account and go to the “Search results” section. Choose “average CTR” and set the date range as one month.
You can then select the "Pages" option and get the average CTR for the specific page that is ranking for your given keyword.
Assuming a CTR of 20%, the equation would use the value of 0.2 instead of 20 because the formula requires a decimal.
Finding cost per visit
The cost per visit for a keyword can be estimated using the Suggested bid value provided by Google Keyword Planner.
This value represents the estimated cost of a visit to your website that you would have paid if you were advertising.
For example, let's assume the Suggested bid for the chosen keyword is $0.55. This value can be used in the equation to calculate the estimated monthly value of the keyword.
Finding the organic traffic value of the given keyword
To calculate the organic traffic value of a given keyword, we will use this equation:
Estimated monthly value = Total monthly searches x CTR x Cost per visit
Let's assume we have a keyword with a total monthly search volume of 12,500, a CTR of 0.2, and a cost per visit (based on the "Suggested bid" value from Google Keyword Planner) of $0.55.
Plugging these values into the equation, we get:
Estimated monthly value = 12,500 x 0.2 x 0.55
The resulting answer is $1,375. This means that the estimated monthly value of this keyword, based on its organic search engine ranking, is $1,375.
This is the amount that would have been spent on advertising to generate the same amount of traffic if the website had not ranked organically for this keyword.
Takeaway
Organic traffic value is the estimated cost of all the traffic a website receives through its keyword ranking in search results.
Calculating it helps to understand the value of the keywords a website ranks for and estimate the cost of advertising for those keywords.
By improving the ranking for valuable keywords, a website can reduce its advertising costs and increase its organic traffic value.