Why Traffic Sources Matter in Web Analytics

 

Photo by PhotoMIX Company from Pexels

 

 

By Jim Hingst

 

In this article, Jim Hingst describes the various traffic sources that visitors use to find your website. Hingst explains what traffic source data can tell you about the success of your digital marketing strategy.

 

 

Web analytics is a program that collects data tracking what happens on your website. The most popular web analytics tool is Google Analytics.   This tool not only provides comprehensive data on web activity, its best feature is that it is FREE.

 

The information, that web analytics tools display, provides you with a snapshot of what works and does not work on your site. Some of the data that web analytics tools collect include:

 

● Overall website traffic.

● Traffic sources (such as search engines, and links from other sites)

● New visitors to your site.

● Bounce rate. (This metric records the percentage of visitors that leave after viewing only a single webpage. A low percentage indicates that visitors view multiple pages, which increases dwell time and suggests that you are providing content that visitors value.)

 

Types of Traffic Sources

 

Google Analytics tracks traffic sources, which are the routes that visitors use to find your website. Tracking the sources of your website traffic can tell you which marketing efforts are moving the dial with your target audience.  In also provides you with an insight on the improvements needed to make your digital strategy more effective.

 

Whatever you can do to improve the volume of traffic to your website, you will stimulate interest in your product offerings and generate leads that turn into sales. No one single traffic source provides the surest route to attracting new customers. The best approach is to have a balance among these sources.

 

Website traffic comes from four major sources: 

 

● Organic Search Traffic. This refers to how much of your website traffic comes from search engines. Organic search traffic provides you with a reliable barometer indicating how well your SEO strategy is working. While you should strive for a good mixture of traffic from all search traffic sources, organic search traffic is key in growing a broad audience of potential buyers.

 

Much of the traffic resulting from searches depends on three key factors:

 

(a)  Choosing the right keywords that aim at a select segment of your target audience;

 

(b) Creating relevant and comprehensive content that provides website visitors with answers to their searches; and

 

(c) Providing internal links and organizing your site to allow visitors to easily navigate from one webpage to another. This reduces bounce rate and increases dwell time, two critical factors in search engine ranking.

 

 

● Referral Traffic.  Traffic that results from backlinks, which are external links from other websites to your site. Search engines weigh referral traffic highly in their ranking, because it indicates that your content is regarded as relevant and authoritative.

 

Referral Traffic is not quite so easy to develop, because it relies on backlinks from other sites. Next to keywords and content, backlinks from authoritative sites are a sure way to dramatically grow site traffic.

 

Relying on others to link to your site on their own is often a fruitless gamble. Instead, a better approach to proactively seek links from reliable websites in your industry. That means that you need to contact authoritative websites in your field, that have linked to other sites, including competitors and businesses selling to the same target audience as yours.

 

Keep in mind, that if you want others to link to your site, you must publish the most useful and thorough content in your industry. In some cases, you may also need agree to publish on another’s site as a guest blogger.

 

● Direct Traffic. Direct traffic measures visits resulting from users typing your website address into their browser. Because most of your visitors will land on your home page, it is critical that you provide internal links allowing them to easily navigate your site and find the content that delivers answers to their questions.

 

If you provide users with unique content and reliable and relevant answers, visitors will return to your site and you will develop a loyal following. All of your printed materials, such business cards and brochures, should include your website address.

 

● Social Traffic tracks traffic from social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. Other important social media platforms include Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

 

Social media is an important and effective source for generating website traffic.  Those, who feel that this source is free, do not factor in the time you and your employees invest in creating content for these social media platforms. If you want to build significant social traffic, you must actively participate by posting regular updates and engaging with followers on the various social networks. That takes time, which you need to account for the time in your marketing budget.

 

Make sure to include links from your posts to your website. What makes social traffic so valuable is that a high percentage of social visitors read your content and frequently return to your site. In addition, more than 1/3 of these people, on average, are new visitors.

 

In addition to promoting your content on social media platforms, such as Facebook, you should use email blasts to help build website traffic. Using ConstantContact I would regularly broadcast a monthly newsletter to my dbase of 13,000 contacts. Immediately following my email blast, I would notice an increase in traffic. Also get into the habit of including a link to your website on every email that you send.

 Digital Marketing Articles

Developing a Content Marketing Plan

Choosing Keywords to Improve Search Engine Results

Building an Email Marketing List

Writing Webpage Headlines that Improve Traffic

Picking a Domain Name

Incorporating Social Media in Your Marketing Plan

Do You Have Questions or Comments?

About Jim Hingst: Sign business authority on vehicle wraps, vinyl graphics, screen printing, marketing, sales, gold leaf, woodcarving and painting. 

After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 190 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 500 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

Slides of Jim's Artwork

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