Traffic=Getting Attention.

Traffic when driving and website Traffic are polar opposites. The first we avoid. The second is something craved and cherished by websites and internet businesses. Website traffic, visitors to a website, can occur many ways. Here are the 2 main ways:

1. Natural (“Organic”) Traffic

A website will receive visitors when its content is what people Search for naturally online. The search engine a person has used (Google, for example) has already scanned websites and indexed their content. Much like the phone book, only digital.

In the past, online businesses would overload their website with “keywords”, which are words or phrases people type into a search engine. This is “keyword stuffing”. Bad strategy. Why?

Example: “What are the best tennis shoes for jogging?” would be searched for. In times past, Search Engines would list the sites with massive amounts of the words “tennis shoes” and “jogging”‘ on their website. So what’s the problem?

Many of those sites did not answer the searchers question! The visitor went to “besttennisshoesforjogging.com” (a fictional site) and found virtually no information to help decide which is the best tennis shoe! Just excessive keywords crammed on a page or two, and a barrage of tennis shoe advertisements. So who was hurt?

There are at least 2 victims of keyword stuffing.

Primarily, the person looking for tennis shoe information. They did not have their question answered. The website’s keyword strategy just placed them in front of a “billboard buffet” of tennis shoe ads. Which leads us to the second victim.

The search engine. Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.: all are trying to satisfy their customers, not lead them down dead ends. They want people to happily use them for searching online, because questions get answered, problems get solved. The website that people landed on received website traffic, but it wasn’t win-win-win.

Search engines now use sophisticated “bots” or digital website inspectors to determine which sites should receive visits after a search inquiry. Satisfied searcher, satisfied search engine, website traffic process: successful!

2. Paid Traffic (Basically, Paid Advertising)

It would be very unusual for anyone to pay for website traffic unless that public exposure resulted in revenue of some sort. A perfect example: when you type “best treadmill” into the Google, Yahoo, or Bing search bar, your results on page 1 will include ads with pictures of treadmills. Think of page 1 advertising spaces as tiny expensive billboards.

The space taken up on this first page is a costly location. Businesses pay billions to these search engines to “rent” that little spot. Ad rates vary on different search engines. Factors affecting advertising rates revolve mainly around the amount of monthly searches people execute using those “keywords”.

To illustrate: more people search for “best treadmill” (“A”) than for “best commercial treadmill” (“A”). By about 25 to 1. Google it and see. So search engines charge more for advertising to searchers of keyword “A” than for searchers of keyword “B”. More website traffic to your advertising is going to cost you more.

Which Type of Website Traffic Is Best?

If a website has public appeal, frequently updated content, and is one which visitors “bookmark” to quickly visit again, it will receive website traffic for those reasons alone. Google’s favorable rating of such a site earns it a high-ranking (and more public notice) from a Google search, further increasing visitors. This increasing traffic doesn’t occur overnight, but costs the website owner nothing.

Paid website traffic, on the other hand, can happen in the blink of an eye. As many visitors as you’d like. Increase your advertising budget, increase how many people view your website. The downside is that although you’re buying what’s described as “targeted traffic” interested in your website, it’s not always possible to verify that claim.

Conclusion: No website traffic method can perfectly satisfy website owners. Excellent regular content provides free desirable visitors over the long haul. Paid traffic, conversely, is spending money, not time, so that your site receives exposure almost immediately.

If this overview of website traffic helped, or for more important information on internet marketing, contact me today. Benefit from our experience.

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