Aug 6, 2019
As we are moving into the third quarter for this fiscal year, we all are taking a look at summaries and reports about how marketing and SEO strategies have been used and the impact they have had over the last year. By creating SEO reports, we have been able to identify where our traffic is coming from and how we are going to treat it differently based on resources. Often, people make the mistake of grouping internet traffic into a singular category, but this ultimately hurts your ability to improve your marketing strategies and to understand who your current audience is. But, what does it mean when traffic is increasing?
There are a few different avenues of traffic that need to be identified. The first type of traffic is known as direct, and this refers to people who type in your company name into a Google search because they know exactly what you do, and they want to work with you. Next is organic traffic which comes from people who type in a general search, like staffing collections, and they are sent to your website as a result of the Google search. A paid avenue is the result of any paid marketing campaigns that draw people to your website; a clear distinction should be made between organic and paid because your company is paying for your ads to be shown rather than naturally being pulled to the top of the list by Google. Though our company does not often pay for traffic outside of social media, there is nothing wrong with paid traffic, as long as it is helping to attract your target audience. Referral traffic comes to you by having a link to your company’s page on another website, like a blog, and people are directed back to you. The best way to understand this type of avenue is by thinking about a pie recipe that you see on a social media site. You may click on a recipe on Facebook or Pinterest but then you will be directed to the actual webpage that the recipe was originally posted on. The last kind of traffic is social; this refers to people who reach your company through your presence on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
When we took a look at our SEO report, our direct traffic increased by 24%, or 450 people, due to a telemarketing campaign we implemented over the past year. Our organic numbers showed that around 113 people, and this was exciting because the higher organic traffics means that people who could have gone to our competitors are instead choosing to work with us. The last 44 people came from the other category; this means that there was not a significant enough amount coming from any avenue to create the distinction.
It is important that you treat each avenue of traffic differently and we will explain why in the coming weeks, but, for now, keep in mind that we use different techniques to bring the right kind of people to our website. We want our traffic to consist of people who are searching for staffing and recruiting collections. Though it may sound appealing to try and cast a wide net in order to increase your numbers, drawing in the wrong type of business creates more work for yourself.
The most important piece of advice we can give you on SEO reports and how to know where your traffic is coming from is do not overthink it. These reports are simple and should be used to clearly define and identify your audience and the traffic avenues being used. Also, these reports should be simply applied. If the report is clear, you should know what avenues work and where the new leads are coming from. For example, if you see more traffic from social avenues, then you can enact plans to increase other ones.
Our next episode will explain how and why each type of traffic should be treated differently, but until then if you need help tracking your traffic or increasing it, then please contact Ally Cole and her expert team at ally@elocglobal.com.
Quote 1: By creating SEO reports, we have been able to identify where our traffic is coming from and how we are going to treat it differently based on resources.
Quote 2: Though it may sound appealing to try and cast a wide net in order to increase your numbers, drawing in the wrong type of business creates more work for yourself.