Website Traffic

Josepha's been doing basic foundational linkbuilding and social media for a nonprofit, and they've seen a 922% increase in traffic. Another client we're working with has a 215% increase in traffic. Another is up 28% after implementing only a few of my recommendations. We're happy to see these numbers; an increase in traffic is always good.

Yet last week I wrote about a client who has had a 600% increase in online sales in the past year, with only a slight increase in traffic. And I currently have a client whose traffic is down slightly, even though they've moved to the front page of Google for their top keywords.

Increased traffic is good, but it's not the only thing to look at. Here are some questions to ask when you think about your traffic:

• Are your visitors actually your customers? People visiting my website after typing in "internet service provider" probably aren't looking for the kind of internet services I provide -- they're probably looking for an internet hosting company. Increasing their numbers isn't going to do me much good. If your well-targeted traffic increases and your random traffic decreases, you can see improved results without much increased traffic.
• Are your visitors in your service area? International traffic is cool, but your lawn care service won't benefit from it. If you only work with local customers, then you should ignore traffic from elsewhere and look for increases in your local area only.
• Are your visitors taking action? It can take some time for people to move from visiting to taking action, but if you see increasing traffic with no conversion over a long period, then you're not getting the return on your investment that you need. This particular question can be hard to answer if you're not an e-commerce site, but you'll want to notice whether visitors move through your website the way you planned. Make sure that you're taking into account those who visit online and then walk into your shop. And of course with Pay Per Click it's all about conversions -- if you're paying for traffic and they're not paying you, then increased traffic isn't good.
  
• Are your visitors showing seasonal change? It's essential to compare apples to apples, not to oranges. The client I mentioned earlier who has had a dip in traffic is seeing a normal seasonal downturn. The one who has had a huge increase in sales but slight increase in traffic is up 49% over last month -- for Back to School -- but only 12% over last year at the same time.

Increased organic traffic is never a bad thing online. You don't pay for extra staff or higher electric bills from having visitors, even if they're not from your service area or not taking action. Larger numbers of visitors can increase your chances of gaining organic links or of drawing the attention of people who will become your customers. And sometimes there's a gap between when visitors find you and when they begin shopping with you or calling you.

But it's important not to focus on that single metric without looking at the others.