Why Traffic Is Not That Important

What some companies do on a monthly basis with their online advertising budget.

Despite the fact this headline will likely infuriate some industry folk, it must be said.

When people think about online marketing, some still see traffic as the all important success metric. In fact, some still call it “hits.” (As in they want to get more hits to their site, which is not the same as unique visits or traffic).  The logic seemed simple - as long as we get plenty of traffic, we’ll get business.

Yes, traffic is great, but more importantly, your website must have an effective mechanism (or strategy) for capturing and tracking leads and/or sales.  Otherwise, traffic is useless.

For example…

Let’s say we launched a search marketing campaign targeting Google. As a result, we get you on the first page of Google. In fact, you now rank in the top 3 for most of your target keywords, which means you could be getting up to 35% of the first page traffic.  This, however, may or may not get you a high Return on Investment.

If you don’t have a strong call-to-action or a user-friendly website (or ignored our recommendations to improve these areas), chances are these people might simply move on. The traffic, therefore, would be wasted.  In other words, your website needs to convert traffic, not just collect it.

It’s common sense, right?

Maybe, but I still come across situations every day even with large sophisticated organizations who are spending a small fortune every month to drive traffic to their website, but don’t give much thought on how to convert. Worst of all, they haven’t figured out their ROI.

Remember, when it comes to online marketing, it’s not just about getting traffic. What happens on your website when people get there is also important.  Most of all, this activity must be tracked and measured or you’re just throwing your money away.

Traffic, on its own, does not help you make better business decisions.

photo credit: TaxBrackets.org