What Does Healthy Website Traffic Look Like?

All Roads Should Lead to Your Business

Just as thriving cities have multiple roads leading to them, a thriving business has multiple ways of attracting clients to their website online. In what follows, let’s explore the different kinds of website traffic you can have, exactly why having multiple traffic sources is important, and real examples of what that looks like.

Website Traffic Sources

Let’s look at a sample website traffic chart courtesy of Google Analytics showing different ways someone could find your business online.

When looking at traffic sources to your website, they are generally broken up into 5 key main sources:

Direct

Direct traffic consists of website visitors who don’t come through another source. These individuals are typing your URL directly into the search bar or already have your site bookmarked. It’s safe to assume that most of these users are either repeat visitors or are already familiar with your brand somehow.

Organic

Organic traffic consists of users who came to your site using a search engine like Google. These individuals searched for a relevant keyword or phrase that resulted in your website showing up in the search results. This traffic usually correlates with how well your website ranks in search engine result pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. Because of that, this traffic source is impacted by Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Social

Social traffic consists of website visitors who come directly from a social media platform like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more. This traffic can be from organic posts or paid social media ads.

Paid Search

Paid search traffic consists of people coming to your site as a result of any PPC Google or Bing Ad (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns that you are running.

Referral

This traffic source can sometimes be a little vague, as technically nearly all traffic can be considered referral traffic. For our sake, referral traffic consists of users who visit your website via a link on someone else’s website.

Other

Unfortunately, Google Analytics isn’t always able to categorize 100% of the traffic due to technicalities and user settings. In our chart above, that explains the ~6% of traffic being categorized as “Other.”

Why You Want Multiple Traffic Sources

It’s very important for all businesses to have customers coming from a variety of traffic sources rather than relying heavily on one. Why? You can think about this in the same way that you would think about a successful salesperson. The best salespeople aren’t relying on one single tactic to close deals; these individuals are cold calling, networking, developing referral partners, advertising, etc. Your website should be developing multiple strategies for success just as a top salesperson would. One of the top keys to growth in this digital age is ensuring that you’re putting your business in front of as many people as possible.

A Tale of Two Traffic Breakdowns

Now let’s take a look at what a healthy traffic breakdown looks like vs. one that may need some work:

Looking at the chart on the left, you can see that 85% of all traffic is coming from direct. As we stated above, direct traffic is generally those who are already familiar with your business. This essentially means that the business above is not reaching many new customers and is heavily relying on its current customers…this is not a recipe for growth!

Looking at the chart on the right, you can see that the traffic sources are much more balanced. This business is doing a great job of taking advantage of multiple different traffic sources to help set them up for growth.

Some Success Stories

Developing a strategy for multiple traffic sources on a regular basis is achievable with the right team and budget. With the right strategy, you can attract new customers or clients from every corner of the internet. With an appropriate budget, you can get there in a relatively short period of time. Here are examples from some businesses we work with at WISE Digital Partners.

United Wholesale Funding

United Wholesale Funding is a mortgage brokerage based in San Diego, CA.

• We started working with this client for several months, while building a new website, to better understand their business challenges and traffic opportunities.
• 90 Days post launch of the new website, we’ve seen a 440% growth in organic traffic, directly as a result of our strategy, SEO work and new website.

Dr. Nik’s Foot & Ankle Center

Dr. Nik’s Foot & Ankle Center is a podiatry clinic based in Beverly Hills, CA.

• Prior to working with WISE, Dr. Nik didn’t have much of an online presence and was only receiving around 50 website visits a month
• We built him a new website and have also been testing out various SEO and paid ad strategies
• Dr. Nik is now getting 300+ website visits per month from multiple traffic sources

What Does Your Website Traffic Look Like?

How many different traffic sources do you have for your website? You’ll be able to see through Google Analytics, or by connecting with whoever is running your digital marketing efforts.

Unfortunately, some owners don’t get much business from their website because digital strategy is either poor or non-existent. That’s where it’s helpful to hire partners with the proper expertise to bring you great returns on your marketing budget.

WISE Digital Partners is a digital strategy agency that’s ready to assess your current strategy and results, and put a plan in place to bring you new business from multiple traffic sources. We work with businesses and organizations nationwide across a variety of industries. Want to talk about where you’re at and where you want to be? Get in touch today!