Organic website growth basically means your growth in visitor numbers has been achieved largely for free, and largely through word-of-mouth (one of the key aims of social media marketing). Inorganic growth refers mainly to advertising to pull customers to your website.
It’s not hard to see which one might be preferable.
Having people come to your site because they feel compelled to rather than because they have been persuaded to by (often expensive) advertising can only be a good thing.
Not knocking advertising, though, and it should be considered at least, especially when you are starting a business and looking to alert people to your presence. It’s just that if people tell other people who tell other people that your website is a goodie and worthwhile visiting, the brand value is immense.
Here’s a good real life comparison of two New Zealand online businesses – one of which (online bike store Torpedo7) has become hugely successful largely through organic means and one (Ferrit – owned by Telecom) which puts heavy resources into inorganic growth.
UPDATE: Telecom announced today (12/01/09) that the three-year-old Ferrit site is to close. I hope it was not this post that caused its demise!
