What Is Traffic Cost?
Traffic Cost is Semrush’s way of telling you:
“If you had to PAY for all your free organic traffic (via ads), how much would it cost?”
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Simple Guide to Traffic Cost in Semrush
It’s an estimated dollar value of your organic traffic, calculated as if you bought those visits through paid ads (like Google Ads).
How Does Semrush Calculate It?
Semrush looks at:
- Your organic keywords (search terms ranking in Google).
- Traffic volume (how many clicks each keyword brings).
- Cost-per-click (CPC) (what advertisers pay for ads on those keywords).
Formula:
(Traffic from Keyword X) × (Avg. CPC for Keyword X) = Traffic Cost for that keyword.
Add up all keywords, and you get your total Traffic Cost.
Why Does It Matter?
✅ Shows SEO ROI – A high Traffic Cost = big savings from organic traffic.
✅ Competitor Benchmarking – Compare your Traffic Cost to competitors’ to see who’s winning.
✅ Find Valuable Keywords – High-Traffic Cost keywords = expensive in ads, so ranking organically is a win!
✅ Prove SEO Value – Show clients/bosses: “Our SEO saved $X vs. paid ads!”
In Short:
Traffic Cost = The $$$ value of your “free” organic traffic.
The higher it is, the more money your SEO is saving you! 🚀
Now you know—next time you see it, you’ll see dollar signs (in a good way)! 💰