Why your Google Analytics might be missing your most valuable marketing channel.
Tracking our marketing efforts through data and analytics is an obvious non-negotiable. But it’s also important to remember that our dashboards don’t always give us the full picture of how things are working.
I recently came across this data from NP Digital and was pretty surprised by the gap in tracked conversions from organic content vs. reported ones.
Only 7.01% of conversions are tracked as coming from Google organic in analytics platforms. But when users are asked directly? A much higher 16.58% say they found the brand through organic search.
What gives?
That’s a big gap, and it exists because most analytics platforms, like Google Analytics, give credit to the last click before a conversion. They ignore how someone first discovered you. That initial blog they read? The Instagram post they saved but didn’t click? The product page they browsed two weeks ago? None of that is accounted for here.
That’s where the real disconnect lives and why organic traffic deserves a lot more credit than it typically gets.
Most marketing dashboards are built on last-click attribution, which basically means it’s tracking the final action someone took before converting and that action gets 100% of the credit. But real life and user behavior are not that simple.
Let’s say a potential customer reads a blog post you wrote six months ago. It answers their question, leaves a good impression, and they move on. Later, they see a retargeting ad. They come back and poke around. A week after that, they Google your brand name directly and finally make a purchase.
Analytics? It credits the sale to direct traffic.
Reality? That blog post planted the seed.
When I analyze my own user behavior, I see this same pattern.
Today, I was researching jean trends for fall. I started with an AI search, got a few ideas, and then went to Google. I read the AI overview, but I wanted more than that. So, I scrolled down and looked at blogs. I saw what people at Fashion Week were wearing and I ended up reading actual people’s takes (stylists, designers, bloggers). I might not buy the jeans I liked today, but in two months? I’ll go search for them and probably buy them. The thing is, it won’t look like any of those sources led me there. But they did. It was all of them together that will help me make that purchase when the time comes.
That’s the journey your future customers are on. And organic content — blog posts, how-to guides, FAQs — is doing the heavy lifting in that early trust-building stage. You just don’t always see it in your dashboard.
When businesses pull back on SEO, GEO, or organic content, it’s often because they don’t see the payoff. But organic efforts aren’t quick hits. They’re long plays.
A well-written blog post doesn’t just drive traffic for the week you publish it. It keeps working. It ranks. It gets shared. It shows up in related searches. It gets linked. It brings someone back.
Organic marketing is about compounding visibility:
Underinvesting in organic = playing a short-term game in a long-term arena.
When organic marketing is done right, it proves you’re the go-to choice before you ever talk to a potential client:
Each of these efforts builds on the others. Unlike paid ads, which stop delivering results the second your budget dries up, organic marketing compounds over time. The earlier you start, the more momentum you build.
Yes, multi-touch attribution is the goal. But let’s be real…not every business has the tools or budget to implement a sophisticated attribution model.
What can you do?
But even if you don’t have all the data yet, don’t let that stop you from investing in organic. Waiting for perfect attribution can cause you to miss out on the compounding growth organic delivers.
At the end of the day, investing in SEO, content, and organic visibility isn’t just about generating traffic alone, but about building a brand that people trust, one blog, one search, and one scroll at a time.
Here are four places to start right now:
Because the brands that win tomorrow are the ones showing up today, even when no one’s clicking — yet.
Savannah Abney is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Breezy Company. With over 6 years of experience, she specializes in content strategy, video marketing, and brand storytelling-helping small businesses grow through a strong digital reputation.
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