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 In Part 1 of our multipart series on building web traffic we focused on defining and identifying the 3 types of traffic that come to our sites. In Part 2, we examined the tools necessary to count and track the traffic coming to our sites. Now we are going to focus on breaking down the information we have collected, analyzing that information and then using it to drive traffic to our websites and blogs. I’m going to use the Google tracking system in this article. I encourage you to use Google too since the information it provides is in-depth. We are going to analyze each type of traffic separately starting with direct traffic.
We know that direct traffic is the result of people directly typing our web addresses into the browser. So how does a user know about our site if they were not directly referred from another site or someplace else? Here are some of the principal ways that direct traffic makes it to your site.
Indirect referrals -
Word of mouth
Directly asking people to come to your site in forums
Direct promotion - Direct mail
Telephone marketing
Email marketing
Familiarity -
People type the address in because they have visited the site before and they know enough to come straight there now
So now that we know some of the principal ways that direct traffic makes it to your site AND we know that we can track direct traffic via Google, we can create campaigns specifically to drive direct traffic and then directly track their results using our tools. The first step to doing this is to analyze our average amount of direct traffic. Analyzing the average amount of traffic allows you to create a baseline reference that you can then use to separate your normal direct traffic from the traffic you get from your promotional activities.
Getting The Average Number Of Direct Traffic Per Day
Total # Of Direct Visits / Total Number Of Days For The Total # Of Direct Visits
If you have 125 direct visits across 4 days, your average amount of direct visits per day is 31.25. That number provides you with a baseline measurement for determining how many new direct visits you are going to get from your promotional efforts. Once you have this, you need to decide on what you are going to do and you need to record your activities.
Record your activities from the very first day you start direct marketing. This is going to be the first day you use to determine your average increase in visitors. To do this using the figures we started above, you are going to calculate the total average across the same amount of days that you institute your program and your cutoff date. So let’s say that you start your efforts on a Monday and stop them on the following Thursday. Measure your total traffic and divide it by 4 days. This is the number of traffic per day. Now you are going to subtract the number we came up with before from this number. This will be how we can approximate how successful our efforts have been. Make sure that you use the exact 4 days that you used initially. If you initially used Monday through Thursday, then choose Monday through Thursday to do your promotion. This method isn’t 100% because there are always refinements that can be made, however, it will give you the ability to get a loose picture of how successful your efforts are and what works and doesn’t work for you. Also understand that I’m using 4 days as an example. You will probably want to give your efforts more time to be successful.
Here are a few ways to generate direct traffic to your site.
Start off by talking to people. Make a goal for yourself of telling a certain amount of people per week about your site. Getting people interested by talking to them is a great way to get them to visit your site.
Advertise your site in your local City Paper. This costs money, however, it is doesn‘t cost a lot. A great ad will attract people to your site.
Sponsor a local event along with other similar businesses. This will also require money.
Make up flyers and pass them out at businesses related to your site. If your site is about wedding cakes, go into a florist and ask if they will allow you to leave your flyers there. Contact dressmakers and ask them the same thing. By connecting yourself to other businesses, you may be able to attract people to your site. Make sure you offer the people who help you link love on your site. Give something to get something.
Have bumper stickers and t-shirts advertising your site made up. Wear the shirts as much as you can and put the bumper sticker on your car. Just make sure it is the kind that comes off easily.
Ask people to promote your site. Let’s say that you are creating a ringtone site. Your teenage neighbors would probably love to play a part in the promotion of your site if it means they can get a few free ringtones. Use the people you interact with to promote your site as much as you can.
I published an article some time ago about connecting with old friends through sites like Reunion.com. Reconnecting with these old people and telling them about your site is a great way to get traffic. If you had a lot of friends in school and college the traffic could turn out to be substantial. If you didn’t, don’t stress yourself out. There are other ways to generate direct traffic.
Remember, we are only focusing on direct traffic - not referral traffic. Getting direct traffic is much harder than getting referral and organic traffic because you have to do more than just sit in front of the computer. Generating quality direct traffic takes more physical effort than getting any of the other traffic types. However, direct traffic tends to become repeat traffic if they find something interesting. If you put in the effort to generate quality direct traffic, you will see good results. This, however, is only one part of the traffic equation.
If you aren’t willing to go after direct traffic, then organic traffic and referral traffic are your best bet. We are going to examine each of these methods in detail in future articles.
Links To Prior Articles In This Series
Part 1 - A Basic Overview Of The 3 Types Of Traffic That Come To Your Site
Part 2 : Google, Wordpress And Joomla Tools To Help You Track Traffic On Your Website
Make Money Without Spending Money- Part 1: Make Money Off Of People You Used To Know
Posted By Kila Morton
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