The real-world traffic is across the land, water, and even air. And yes, for those who love your pure side, you can also travel in space.
On the contrary, the internet can be described with a range of relatively poor metaphors. This is an information highway! It’s an assortment of the tube!
Fortunately, even though our metaphors for the structure that is the internet are…lacking in our descriptions of traffic on websites aren’t. They are precise. Certain types of traffic are more suitable for specific purposes than others. Let’s begin by examining the different kinds of website traffic, and then we’ll discuss the purpose they serve.
The 5 Types of Website Traffic
In general terms, there are five types of traffic on websites. They are:
- Direct
- Organic
- Paid
- Referral
- Social
Let’s look at what each type of traffic looks like and the purpose for which they’re helpful:
Direct traffic
Direct traffic refers to all traffic that arrives at your website through users who have navigated directly to your site’s URL.
This kind of traffic was uncommon when I was a kid when most of the traffic a website received was direct, not as much in the age of search engines. We all utilize Google Chrome, and it’s generally faster to enter some characters of the site you’re trying to access and search than to type their complete URL.
It means that most of the direct traffic you’ll receive comes from people whose address bar automatically fills in your site. So direct traffic comes primarily from supporters who like your site and frequently frequent it. Companies with large scales like Google and Amazon can also anticipate seeing a significant amount of direct visitors.
Also, direct traffic comes from people who already know about your business. This is usually from those who are aware of what they can be expecting. This isn’t necessarily the part you need to acquire in your funnel, but a lot of direct traffic may indicate a strong brand’s trust.
Organic traffic
Organic traffic is generated by organic search results that are not paid for – typically from Google. Organic traffic is your primary source of brand perspective (and returning) clients on the internet. A study in 2019 conducted by Bright Edge discovered that five-thirds of internet website traffic comes from organic sources.
You’re missing most of your potential online traffic if you’re not ranked well on Google. Organic traffic is vital to expand your business. The only way to increase organically is via SEO.
Optimizing your search engine (SEO) focuses on making your site more appealing to users and Googlebot. This means better content that is relevant, a more user-friendly site, and building connections to other websites that are relevant to your customers.
Traffic from PPC
Pay-per-Click (PPC) traffic can refer to any traffic you receive from advertising networks. It could comprise Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or any other advertising network.
PPC traffic is beneficial as per the Bright Edge study that paid search traffic makes up about 15% of website traffic. PPC is also straightforward to track. You’ll be able to see exactly what you’re spending, the value you’re getting from your investment, and the ROI.
Traffic for Referral
Referral traffic refers to any traffic from websites that don’t belong to search engines or social media. If you’ve received many referrers, it’s a sign that other websites are linking to your site – and that’s a highly positive thing! Google analyzes the amount (and the quality) of links you receive to determine the rank of your website. So, a lot of referral traffic could catalyze higher organic traffic.
Be aware, however – not every referral traffic is fantastic! If the referral traffic is from spammy domains and you end up suffering a loss in the rank of your search engine, this could result in less organic traffic.
The process of generating referral traffic is the same as building word-of-mouth. If you’ve got a quality site, a quality product, and you’re working on building relationships with your local community, Good websites are more likely to connect to your site.
Twitter Traffic
This is probably the easiest to explain. If links to your website are shared via social media and are shared on social media, they could generate web traffic through social networks. If you have a well-developed online presence on social networks, you can expect most of the traffic directly from your pages!
The third-most popular traffic includes the search (paid or organic) and directs being the primary and second most popular kinds. For most niches, it’s best to focus on traffic from search engines; companies able to create visually stunning content are more likely to succeed in social media.
Other Types of Website Traffic
Different types of traffic don’t fall within those of the Big 5 we’ve listed here. For instance, if you’ve got avid readers on the list of your emails, then emails are a great source of traffic. It is also possible to get exact referral traffic through affiliate marketing. However, if you’re not Amazon and don’t have affiliate marketing, that traffic may not be pertinent to your business.
Snap SEO is an Edmonton SEO company. This means that we can assist your business in obtaining what we believe to be the most beneficial type of traffic, organic traffic. Organic traffic can boost other kinds of traffic as well. Do you want to know more? Contact us!
