At Web.com Search Agency, we usually help new SEO customers get signed up with Google Analytics or other programs that can help them monitor web traffic. For our purposes, it allows for a clear indication of how well the work we do translates into site traffic from Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Clients who already have an analytics program also generally gravitate toward search engine traffic measurement, since it represents one of the least expensive channels for new business. When the engagement comes up for renewal, we can invariably show increased traffic and keyword growth that would otherwise be hard to pin down.
However, search engine traffic by itself is a small part of the story. Understanding traffic from other sites can sometimes be more indicative of a website’s overall success in its field, and can provide valuable information about a site’s total footprint on the World Wide Web. An oft-repeated piece of advice from Google is to design a site as if search engines did not exist. If you consider that sites once relied on reference traffic from each other, you can understand the potential for developing traffic between sites. Secondarily, you can improve your link popularity by cultivating relationships with other popular sites in your industry.
Monitoring other sources of web traffic can help you uncover positive and negative references to your business. With the rise of social media, it is easier than ever for people to comment on your store and your services, and even an unhappy reference will often link to your site. Tracing the link back to its source lets you do some low cost reputation management, where you can either refute the person’s point of view or thank them for their kind words.
You can also develop relationships with sites that are sending you good traffic and leads. We have seen a couple of cases where sites are referenced in a list of resources, and that list is used by interested shoppers. Not surprisingly, some of these sites will move your name to the top of their lists for a certain amount of money, but even then you can be the “top” site in your field, which is akin to the old phone book trick of adding “AAAA” to your name to make it to the front of the business listings.
Another aspect of checking referring sites relates to click fraud and misuse of your website. To detect click fraud, you can usually see pages on your site that are getting referenced from shady looking sites, and the fraud is easy to spot because you will have a bounce rate that is close to 100%, or a visit time averaging one second. Basically, a site is misusing content match or search match in combination with automated clicking tools. If you detect this type of behavior, and you are the one buying the PPC, then you may want to alert your search engine directly and/or shut off the portion of the campaign that resulted in phony clicks.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but referencing (and getting traffic from) a competitor can be a win-win situation online. As long as you aren’t selling identical products, some cross-linking between sites can improve the user experience and may even give window shoppers an opportunity to choose your site. From our own standpoint, we have noticed competitor traffic coming to our website, and if someone else in the field has an interesting tool or article then we aren’t afraid to make a reference to it on our own site. Search engines prefer a collaborative internet; a certain amount of professional courtesy puts you on the high road, even when you’re going after the same customers.
If you’re seeing a lot of “direct” traffic coming to your site, you are either experiencing brand loyalty, lots of return customers, or there are a lot of people who keep your site bookmarked. Some of the bigger “dot com” companies will see direct traffic because people just type the site name into the browser bar. As a side note, a heavy amount of “direct” traffic can also indicate that Analytics code is not loaded on every page of the site, so if your direct traffic numbers don’t seem credible you should ensure that you have tracking code placed on every page.
Knowing where your non-search clicks come from can provide you with a wealth of information about how people get to your site, how they use it, and which demographics are the most profitable. You can even model user behavior by each referring source, which may offer you a chance to improve certain site features that would drive up your conversion rate. The ability to spot traffic trends from outside sites also provides you with opportunities to expand your web traffic beyond SEO and PPC, which is a stealthy path toward increased profitability that your competitors may not even be trying. No matter how you use the information about outside click sources, a better picture of your audience is always beneficial in the dynamic world of websites and the internet.
