Web Traffic Should be Balanced to be Healthy
Sat, Oct 10, 2009
If all or the vast majority of your web traffic comes from just one of four primary sources, you may have a problem that if not corrected, could leave you without sufficient new business. Or, it could be telling you that you have a potential problem with customer retention, PR, or referrals. Either way, a balanced mix of web traffic is usually a healthy sign, and a more stable business model.
The four possible web traffic sources are:
- Organic or natural search engine traffic generated by user search queries. We often refer to this as SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization, meaning that you have a website that is properly structured to be indexed by the search engines and found relevant for a specific topic or theme. Many say this is “free” web traffic, but I assure you that in order to optimize a site and generate the content required to be seen by the search engines, someone has to be paid to do it.
- Paid search traffic or pay-per-click (PPC). This is traffic you buy with pay per click ads on the search engines. You can also place banner ads in this paid traffic category if you like. Banner ads can be sold on a PPC basis or on a CPM or cost per thousand impressions basis. They may also be sold on a CPA or cost per action agreement. In any case, they are paid clicks and not based on natural or organic listings in the free search engines results pages (SERPS).
- Direct traffic is generated when users type your URL or web address directly into their web browser. Direct traffic is normally generated by traditional offline advertising, collateral and PR. For example, when you place your URL or web address in you radio or TV ads, on your brochures and packaging. Your URL should be placed on absolutely every piece or PR, advertising and collateral you produce. It’s really the only true free web traffic you will ever generate since you are producing these touch points regardless.
- Referral traffic comes from inbound links from other websites, blogs, twitter tweets, social media sites, affiliate sites, online press releases and the like. This means that other people and users like your website content, or they like your product/service enough to talk about it and link to it.
Ideally, your website traffic would come from a fairly balanced blend of all four sources. Why? Because a blend of traffic sources means you have a balanced marketing strategy that connects with prospects across multiple online and offline touch points, with strong customer retention and brand advocates that rave about your brand and tell others about it.
A balanced blend of traffic is the ideal scenario because it means that you are maximizing all opportunities, creating more brand equity and brand awareness across the marketing landscape, you are building customer and media advocates, and you are not relying on a single lead source to drive new business and growth. Which we all know is inherently dangerous and precarious.
I often hear of and see companies that get off on a tangent chasing a single web lead source, be it social media, pay per click, organic listings, inbound link sources, or direct type-in. It is neither healthy or effective to put all your focus and resources into a single lead generating strategy. Web marketing and exposure works best when it is maximized and integrated across multiple channels and lead sources.
I always say that effective web marketing means casting your net far and wide. You will simply catch more fish that way.
If you are not generating roughly an equal amount of your overall web traffic from organic searches, that means your site is not properly designed, built, or optimized for search engine spiders to crawl and index, or it means you do not have the correct copy/text on your site to attract your target market.
If you are not generating paid traffic or PPC leads, you either do not have a PPC program, or it is not being managed or executed properly. This is a large potential revenue source. There are those that say you can survive on organic leads alone, since 75% of search users prefer the organic listings over the paid. This is true, but you can never depend on your site always being on the first page of the organic listings, and 25% of 12 million searches a day is huge potential.
If your site does not have sufficient leads from direct traffic you are either not advertising enough, or you are not creating a compelling reason in your advertising to drive web traffic.
And finally, if you do not have enough traffic from inbound links and referrals, you are either not generating and publishing enough quality content, or you are not creating enough brand advocates. If you do not generate sufficient quality content, you are easy prey to be overtaken by your competition.
If you do not have repeat and referral traffic from brand advocates and users, you do not have sufficient retention and customer satisfaction, which means you have a high customer acquisition cost and lower ROI.
This is why I believe in a balanced, integrated approach to online and offline marketing, web analytics and research.
–Duane “DJ” Sprague
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