Traffic in marketing terms refers to the number of people who visit a website, app or other online platform. It’s usually measured in terms of page views, visits, and unique visitors, and is among the most important metrics used to measure website performance.
Website traffic is a crucial component of any successful online business, and is typically a priority for most online marketers. It’s because the more visitors to a website, the more chances of making sales; and the more chances of making sales, the higher the chances for profit.
When it comes to measuring and analysing website traffic, it is important to have an understanding of different types of traffic. There are three main types of website visitors: organic, referral and paid.
Organic traffic usually refers to traffic that is generated when a user searches for something on a search engine (such as Google or Bing) and clicks on a link that takes them to your website or page. The traffic is considered organic because it originates from natural user behaviour when searching for a particular topic or term, rather than via a paid advertisement. In order to increase organic traffic, a website must be optimised for search engine algorithms. This includes creating content that is keyword-rich, using appropriate internal linking, having a mobile-friendly site, providing quality backlinks, and more.
Referral traffic is traffic that is sent from one website to another. It is most often from social media, particularly when a user clicks on a link that takes them to your website. Referral traffic is valuable because it often comes from highly motivated, quality users who may be more likely to take an action — such as sign up for a newsletter, buy a product, or follow you on social media — than someone who is coming from a Google search.
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Paid traffic, on the other hand, is traffic that is generated specifically through a paid advertising campaign — such as a banner ad, PPC (pay-per-click) advertisement, or sponsored content. Paid traffic is a useful method for driving short-term, immediate traffic, but it’s important to be discerning when choosing which sources to invest in.
Tracking website traffic is essential for understanding and making decisions about your website’s performance. There are lots of tools available to help track website traffic, such as Google analytics or similar services and many of these tools integrate with each other to provide a comprehensive picture.
The most basic data to start tracking is typically unique visitors, page views and visits, as these are easy to measure and offer a good starting point for analysing website performance. From here, more advanced data can be tracked, such as time spent on site, pages per session, bounce rate, and more. All of this data can help provide further insights, such as what content is popular, where visitors are coming from, and which pages tend to have higher conversion rates.
Apart from measuring and tracking website traffic, there are several other tactics that can be implemented to increase website traffic. Content marketing is a crucial component of any website and is essential for generating ongoing, organic traffic. Content marketing is a long-term strategy, and involves creating and sharing quality content such as videos, articles, blog posts, social media posts, and more. It’s important to tailor content to serve the specific audience of a website or page and track how it engages with its target audience.
It is also important to invest in SEO (search engine optimization), as well as other tactics such as link building, social media marketing, PPC campaigns, and more.