The most successful companies use multiple sources of website traffic in their Digital Marketing strategy.
Recently, I conducted extensive research into which source of website traffic was the most important, particularly in eCommerce. From the research, it was quickly evident that Google Search and Google Organic traffic were responsible for most of the traffic, conversions, and, in the case of e-commerce websites, sales.
The research involved examining the data of numerous companies across multiple verticals in both the B2B and B2C spheres over a substantial period to account for seasonal variations.
Of all the companies in the study, 35% rely on Organic traffic as their sole source of Website traffic.
Looking deeper I realised the companies that relied on Google Organic traffic and did not invest in any other source generated a mere 2% of the total Revenue of all the companies included in the study and these companies were not growing. So clearly relying on Organic traffic alone is not sufficient.
The 65% of the companies that generated 98% of the revenue used multiple sources of website traffic to Drive and Attract website visitors at all stages of the Buyers Journey.
The companies that invested the most in multiple sources are also the companies growing the fastest.
Before we dig into the reasons why utilising multiple sources of website traffic is so important, let’s first take a deeper look at the various sources available and what makes each one unique.
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Table of Contents
- What are the various sources of Website Traffic?
- Organic
- Direct
- Unassigned
- Referral
- Google Search Ads
- Google Display – Remarketing
- Social Organic
- Social Paid – Remarketing
- Email – Automation
- Why do you need to use multiple sources for website traffic?
What are the various sources of Website Traffic?
Organic
What is Organic Traffic?
When we talk about Organic traffic in Ireland, we predominantly refer to Google which handles 95% of organic searches in Ireland.
These website visitors are people who perform a search on Google for your products or services and click on a non-sponsored link in the search results page that takes them to your website. A non-sponsored link means it’s not paid for – it’s a free listing.
Today these people could also be making use of Voice Search.
We can optimise for Organic Search by applying SEO best practices and providing great quality content that appeals to your prospective customers.
What makes Organic such a good source of website traffic?
There are two reasons why Organic traffic is such a great source of website traffic.
Firstly, it’s Free, there is no direct cost involved in Organic traffic. All websites, even the most basic, will attract some Organic website visitors, however investing in a good SEO strategy will greatly improve your Organic traffic and grow your business.
Secondly, One of the overriding challenges in marketing is getting the “Right Message” to the “Right Person” at the “Right Time”. Organic search achieves this by its Inbound nature. Potential customers find you when they are researching your products or services online. These website visitors are more likely to contact you or make a purchase.
Direct
What is Direct Traffic?
Direct traffic is website visitors that land on your website from links outside of Google, for example, someone sends you a link on WhatsApp or in an email. It could also be from people typing in your exact URL into a browser or clicking on saved Favourites in Chrome etc.
An interesting fact about Direct traffic was discovered by an experiment by Groupon, up to 60% of the traffic marked as Direct in Google Analytics could be Organic Search traffic.
Is Direct Traffic a good source?
Yes, Direct traffic is a great source. It’s often returning visitors who are now familiar with your website and have bookmarked it or typed in the exact name on a browser. This would indicate that they are moving along the buyer’s journey and are closer to making a purchase or contacting you. You can optimise for Direct traffic by having great-quality content on your website.
We also know that up to 60% of Direct traffic is Organic, and we already know how good Organic traffic is.
Unassigned
Why do we have unassigned traffic?
Sometimes, Google Analytics doesn’t know where a website visitor came from and marks it as unassigned. As we don’t know what unassigned traffic is, it’s very difficult to optimise for it, but we can reduce it by using UTM parameters on any links we provide.
Is unassigned traffic good?
It’s not possible to say one way or the other, unassigned traffic could be coming from anywhere, but on the whole, I have seen the data from many websites and generally unassigned traffic converts quite well, so, in my opinion, unassigned traffic is often good, but it would be better to know exactly where traffic is coming from so you can optimise accordingly.
Referral
What is Referral Traffic?
Referral traffic are website visitors who land on your site via links on other websites.
Is Referral traffic a good source?
Referral as a source did not contribute much to overall traffic in our data. It does however serve a dual purpose, if you are getting referral traffic then you must be getting links on other sites to your website. Google considers these “backlinks” to be one of its top ranking factors in Organic searches so it will improve your Organic Traffic.
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Google Search Ads
What is Google Search Traffic?
Traffic from Google Search Ads is similar to Organic. When a person performs a search on Google that contains certain keywords Google will display paid listings on the Google Search Results page that are triggered by the relevant keywords paid for by the advertiser. We include Shopping and Performance Max campaigns in this category.
These sponsored ads are often shown at the top of the page above the Organic listings and are therefore more likely to be clicked on taking the searcher to a specific page on your website.
Google Search ads are an extremely powerful tool offering numerous options that can all be optimised to achieve better results and manage campaigns.
Why are Google Search Ads a good source of website traffic?
Investing in Google Search Ads is an excellent source of website traffic for several reasons.
Firstly, these ads are often displayed above the organic listings resulting in a high Click Through Rate.
Secondly, Google Search Ads are Inbound meaning that potential customers are more likely to find you when searching for the products or services your company offers, hence they are more likely to convert.
Thirdly, these Paid Ads are instant, the moment you activate a campaign you will start receiving website visitors. As time progresses these campaigns can be optimised to obtain better results by learning from the data received.
Fourthly, Paid search ads are a great way to complement your SEO. If you are struggling to get good results for certain keywords organically you can set up an ad for these keywords.
Fifth, Google Search Ads are highly targeted. You decide which Landing Page you wish to send potential customers to for each Ad based on the relevance to your keywords. For example, if your company offers five different services, you can create 5 different Ads using specific keywords related to each service and link each ad to the relevant service page on your website.
Six, Google Search Ads are charged on a cost-per-click basis, so you only pay when a potential client clicks on your ad and is taken to your website. Don’t worry Google allows you to set budgets so you don’t overspend.
Google Display – Remarketing
What is Google Display traffic?
Google offers a service where you can place image or video-style ads on “other” websites that are members of the Google Advertising Network. These ads are great for Brand Awareness and driving first-time visitors to your website.
You have probably seen these ads popping up all over the internet.
What is Google Display good for?
Google Display ads serve two main purposes
1: Brand Awareness, it’s generally accepted that a customer may need to interact with your Brand 7-9 times before deciding to do business with you, these ads place your Brand in front of potential customers.
2: Driving Traffic, Display ads are inexpensive and drive traffic to your website.
Display Ads are more of a top-of-funnel tool utilised to drive first-time visitors to your site, the “Click Through Rates” on these banner ads are quite low and do not provide great conversion rates.
Remarketing is the ability to show targeted Display ads to someone who has already been on your website. Using Display ads in Remarketing is a great way of encouraging someone who has already visited your website to come back again – encouraging them along the buyer’s journey.
Social Organic
What is Social Organic Traffic
Social Organic traffic refers to website visitors who have clicked on non-paid links in any of your Social Media platforms that have taken them to your website.
Is Social Organic a good source of traffic?
In our study, Social Organic contributed a healthy 16% of the website traffic, but it is highly skewed towards certain industries and resulted in a very low percentage of goals. It’s a great tool for creating Brand Awareness and attracting large numbers of “Top of Funnel” website visitors, but the traffic is of low quality.
Social Paid – Remarketing
What is Social Paid Traffic?
Social paid traffic is similar to Social Organic in terms of attracting large numbers of “Top of Funnel” site visitors but provides a better conversion rate than Social Organic. Social paid traffic comes from people who click on Paid Ads on Social Media Platforms.
Is Social Paid traffic a good source?
There is no such thing as a bad source of genuine website traffic, excluding spam and nuisance bot traffic. Paid Social is a cost-effective method of driving large numbers of website visitors that can be utilised to “fill the funnel”. A low percentage of these visitors convert immediately, but they may return later via other sources and become customers.
We can also make use of remarketing on Social Platforms to encourage people who have already visited our website to return, this helps to improve brand awareness during the Buyers Journey.
Email – Automation
What is Email traffic?
Email traffic is visitors driven to the website via links in Emails that you send out to subscribers and customers. As we operate within Europe we do need to adhere to GDPR and obtain permission to send emails that’s why it’s so important to start building a permission-based mailing list from day one. It takes time to build. We do not recommend buying mailing lists as these are firstly, not permission-based and secondly, are often of low quality.
Why is Email traffic so good?
Email marketing is one of the best tools to drive traffic to your website. People have subscribed to your mailing list and have expressed an interest in your products or services and are permitting you to communicate with them. Email lists can be further segmented according to various criteria which makes them highly targeted according to the subscriber’s specific interests.
Emails can also be automated reducing administration an example is the Cart Abandonment email reminding a potential customer that they have left something in their basket and encouraging them to return and complete the purchase or an automated email asking a customer for a product Review two weeks after they placed an order.
According to our data Email visitors punch well above their weight, contributing only 3% of the overall traffic, but are responsible for almost 10% of the total revenue generated making it the most effective source of website traffic offering low costs and incredible return on investments, but to build an effective mailing list you do need to drive traffic to the website in the first place which requires the use of the other sources.
Why do you need to use multiple sources for website traffic?
The online marketing funnel is a game of big numbers and small percentages, we aim to drive and attract large numbers of new website visitors at the top of the funnel while striving to improve the conversion percentages through the funnel and encourage visitors to return. The average e-commerce conversion rate according to Shopify is 2.5% to 3% so if you want to get 100 sales you need to attract approximately 4000 website visitors.
Making use of all the different sources of website traffic helps to attract relevant visitors at all stages of the buyer’s journey and ultimately improves the conversion rates.
Social Media and Display ads attract potential customers at the early Awareness stage at the top of the funnel, they keep the funnel full.
Organic and Search Ads attract potential customers further along the journey at the Research stage and tools like Remarketing and Email campaigns help at the final Decision-Making stage.
In real life there is a lot of cross-over between the stages and back and forth between them, the buyer’s journey is not linear and varies depending on the complexity and cost of the product or service, but the basics remain the same – you need to have a strategy in place that covers all the stages in the buyer’s journey.
Each source of traffic contributes to and supports the other sources synergistically. Visitors who come to your website from Social Media are unlikely to convert immediately but may subscribe to your mailing list or return at another time via Google Organic means to perform further research. They would not have been aware of your existence in the first place if it wasn’t for your advert on Social Media.
Driving large numbers of visitors through Display and Social Ads to a website that offers poor-quality content (SEO) and does not collect email subscribers will suffer from low conversion rates.
Concentrating on only one or two sources will result in an online presence that suffers at various stages of the Buyer’s Journey with insufficient new visitors at the top of the funnel poor quality content for the research stage or lack of conversions and return visitors at the bottom of the funnel.
Each step is like a link in a chain, if one link breaks the whole chain breaks.
Optimising and utilising marketing tools for every stage in the buyer’s journey and implementing an effective conversion rate optimisation strategy on your website will enable your company to grow at a far greater rate and more cost-effectively, it’s cheaper to improve the funnel efficiency than it is to keep attracting new visitors.
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