Traffic Obsessions

[surreypcsupport]

Why do so many optimisers become obsessed with increasing web traffic levels? A visitor to your website has no value at all unless they purchase your goods or services or click on advertising.

I see thread after thread in these forums asking "How do I increase web traffic?" but have never seen a thread asking "How do I improve conversion rates?"

Again, this is another example of the 'sheep phenomenon' where vast numbers of individuals just follow the herd without thinking for themselves. This seems to be extremely common in the SEO community and it's no wonder it's so hard to sell SEO services when there are so many bad optimisers out there.

 

[Vivid Holidays]

I think its obsession linked to being popular.

I like at webstats and get excited when I see we have had say 100 more visitors yesterday then this time last week. However, as you say the bottom line is the number of enqueries and then bookings we can generate.

For example last weekend, our Italian website was quiet but we had 2 people book their holidays direct through the website. That 1,000 times more useful to me than people just visiting.

However, I guess its also a numbers game, more visitors equal more business. Although about 50% of my visitors spend less than a minute on the sites before they leave....

 

[surreypcsupport]

However, I guess its also a numbers game, more visitors equal more business. Although about 50% of my visitors spend less than a minute on the sites before they leave....

And this is my point. More visitors only equals more business if the traffic is relevant.

I know of companies who pay tens of thousands of pounds for email marketing services and then they ask me "Why is the bounce rate so high?" I suggest to them they should ask that question to the company running the email campaigns for them.

 

[Vivid Holidays]

I guess that means that 50% of my traffic is not relavent then....

 

[articlemaster]

I guess that means that 50% of my traffic is not relavent then....

Yes it might be.Maximum of the visitors come just come to check whats in your site.And that is why PPC is still there to get targeted traffic.

 

[jambee]

However, I guess its also a numbers game, more visitors equal more business. Although about 50% of my visitors spend less than a minute on the sites before they leave....

If that 50% visitors spend less than a minute on your site, it means that you need to have fresh and unique content on your site.. They always say that content is king and I totally agree to what they say..

 

[bailey.rein]

I guess that means that 50% of my traffic is not relavent then....

Maybe, so relevancy plays a big role in in getting back links to get higher chances to get the right visitors you wanted..

 

[surreypcsupport]

It's worth remembering of course that average bounce rates for the web in general are something like 35-40%

 

[YooHee]

Why do so many optimisers become obsessed with increasing web traffic levels? A visitor to your website has no value at all unless they purchase your goods or services or click on advertising.

I see thread after thread in these forums asking "How do I increase web traffic?" but have never seen a thread asking "How do I improve conversion rates?"

Again, this is another example of the 'sheep phenomenon' where vast numbers of individuals just follow the herd without thinking for themselves. This seems to be extremely common in the SEO community and it's no wonder it's so hard to sell SEO services when there are so many bad optimisers out there.

i think they want their blog or site become popular, so they want to have many visitors a day... or some do have business sites like shopping sites, they really need a lot of traffic or visitors, that may become loyal shoppers to them

 

[surreypcsupport]

i think they want their blog or site become popular, so they want to have many visitors a day... or some do have business sites like shopping sites, they really need a lot of traffic or visitors, that may become loyal shoppers to them

Surely it's better to focus on conversions.