The 3 Types of Website Traffic For Your Business
We hear it from clients all the time, “I don’t get enough traffic to my website, where do I start?”
It starts with understanding the different types of website traffic.
To put it in the simplest terms, there are three types of traffic:
Traffic that you earn (organic traffic)
Traffic that you control (paid traffic)
Traffic that you own (free traffic)
Let’s break down each one.
1. Earned Traffic
Traffic that you don’t pay for, you earn it by putting forth the effort to attract other people to your funnel. This is often referred to as “organic” traffic. This can include the following:
Social media
YouTube
TikTok
Snapchat
Blog posts (your site, medium.com, LinkedIn articles, etc)
Podcasts
Your own podcast
Guest appearances (pro tip: Leverage a podcast booking service such as podcastbookers.com)
TV new segments
Newspaper / Online Article / Trade Publications
Press Releases (see “20 free press release sites” handout)
SEO (If DIY)
Direct Mail
Word of Mouth
Earned traffic is a long-term strategy, as it can take a little longer to “earn” the audience’s attention. Over time, it can become the #1 revenue generator for your business. We advise you to bridge that time gap with controlled traffic (traffic that you pay for).
How Do I “Earn” Earned Traffic?
Over time, and strategically. It can happen by accident, but that’s an even slower process to get to where you want to go. Here are a few ideas from SEO Edinburgh to “earn” more organic traffic.
Create content worth sharing
Invest time in social media (go Live!) and blogging
Leverage a social media management platform such as agorapulse.com or sendible.com
Deliver results – earning word of mouth
2. Traffic That You Control
Otherwise known as “paid traffic” or “paid media” such as:
Google ads
Google display network/banner ads
Social media ads
Facebook / Instagram ads, LinkedIn ads, Pinterest ads, Twitter ads
YouTube ads
Bing ads
Reddit ads
This traffic strategy is the fastest path to new revenue when done correctly. If you’re not advertising your business, it’s tough to stay in business. Particularly, in a hypercompetitive business environment that you might be in.
3. Traffic That You Own
This is the most valuable traffic to you because your list is your asset and nobody can take that from you. You own it. It’s your list of potential customers which can include:
Your email list
Your SMS/text list
Other lists
Your direct mail list
Your FB messenger/chatbot list
What’s the Value of a List?
You can follow up with your leads and customers anytime you’d like
What’s your list worth?
Your list is worth 1$ per month for each name on your list – minimally (if nurtured and marketed to correctly)
Every market is different (context) but start with this metric
How much is a lead worth? Would you pay $1-$5 per?
Scenario: spend $5k to get 1000 email leads ($5/per). break even after 5 months.
Growing your list is the most important thing you can do.
Here’s the biggest lesson of all. All earned traffic, all paid traffic should add more people to your list…either as a lead or as a customer.
Recommended Path: Earn the Traffic Until You Own the Traffic
1. Earn: Choose a platform you can commit to being consistent on, being valuable to your target audience (FB, IG, LN, YT), i.e. FB Live, share across other platforms, promote it to your Lead System (next lesson) to grow your list, leads, and sales.
2. Control: Drive paid traffic to your Lead System to grow your list, leads, and sales.
3. Own: Follow up with everyone who subscribes with value-added email content worth reading and sharing.
Our mantra is effective marketing creates new revenue. Marketing shouldn’t be an expense when it’s done correctly. If you want help with any of this, reach out to us today, and schedule a call.