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What Are the Different Types of Website Traffic and Why Are They Important?

There are many ways your website can generate traffic. Therefore, there are different types of website traffic. Here's why they're important.

If you're at your desk staring at your Google Analytics account waiting for the needle to move -- we understand. Many companies struggle to get people to their website.

When they do have people visit their website, most people don't understand the types of website traffic coming in even if they do watch their analytics.

Being a business owner is complicated enough without having to take care of your own marketing and having to figure out the particulars of website traffic. Continue reading this article and we will explain the different types of traffic to you and why they are important.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is when people enter your website address into their browser and purposefully visit your site. These people likely know a good bit about you and your brand. If they didn't know a bit about you they wouldn't be typing your URL directly into their browser.

They may be typing your URL in because they know about your brand through offline advertising or because they know your brand well.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic is traffic that comes from people that visit your website through being referred from anywhere else on the web. You might get referral traffic from websites where you guest post, directories where your business is listed, press releases and more.

Social Traffic

You got it. Social traffic comes from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and any other social media. There's always a new site popping up and since people can share your link through these platforms, it can be a good source of traffic if you know how to create shareable content.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is when searchers find your traffic through search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo or even other smaller search engines. When you search engine optimize your content, you are more likely to get traffic from the search engines.

You want to increase your organic traffic as much as possible since organic traffic often converts well since they are searching for exactly what you have to offer. The further they are in the buyer cycle when they search, the more likely it is that you're going to snag the sale.

Why Knowing Where Your Traffic Is Coming From Is Important

When you know where your traffic is coming from you're able to see what is working and what isn't working. The things that are working should get more attention and the things that aren't might need to be changed up or canned altogether.

Now That You Understand the Types of Website Traffic

Now that you have a more in-depth understanding of the different types of website traffic, are you ready to increase your number of visitors? How about increasing your conversion rate?

We understand that you have work to do on your core business and we'd love to take stressful items off your plate like web design and traffic generation. If you're ready to grow your online footprint, give us a call today.

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