Ah, traffic. Varieties range from bumper to bumper, stop and go, rush hour, gridlock, and if you’re lucky – light to no traffic. It seems like everywhere we go, there are people racing to the same destination, or crossing our path on the way to their destination.
Online traffic is no different. Every person who visits your website is on a journey, though not all of them may have a destination in mind. Visitors falls into 1 of 5 categories of web traffic. Keep tabs on them, and you can scoop up more leads.
- Organic traffic comes from a search engine. If a user types in “window replacement” on Google and clicks on your business, that’s organic traffic. By knowing the terms your visitors are searching, you can showcase your services accordingly.
- Direct traffic is when a user types your company’s URL into their browser and presses enter. Or, they may have your website bookmarked. Either way, they’re going straight to your site. This is a good indicator of successful advertising, brand presence and customer loyalty.
- Paid traffic comes from homeowners who see an online advertisement and click on it. These web users are more likely to be ready to purchase.
- Referral traffic is when a user finds your company through a link on another site. A user may stumble across your service while looking for reviews, for example. When they click through, that’s referral traffic.
- Social traffic comes from social media posts across all platforms. Having a responsive social media personality and reputation can boost this type of traffic.
When it comes to lead generation, the quality of web traffic beats out quantity. Direct and paid search traffic have higher conversion rates, but you want to make sure your website as a healthy mix of the other types too.
Companies can easily track their web traffic using Google Analytics (fear not, there’s a tutorial). From there, you can compare traffic types and target your marketing budget accordingly.
Making the journey smoother for the customers who are more likely to buy means more conversions and more leads. In the end, everyone gets where they need to go.