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. In Part 3 we examined how to drive direct traffic. In Part 4 we examined organic traffic. Now we are going to focus on referral traffic. Again, I use Google Analytics, however, any tool you have should be sufficient as long as you can track referral traffic.

So what is referral traffic? Referral traffic is what you get from all of those backlinks we created with my list of 122 bookmarking sites (make sure you check that out!) and my list of 15 social networks. It is the traffic that visits your site using a link from another site. Referral traffic requires a lot of initial legwork to build, but, it is probably the best type of traffic to use to really build your site. Referral traffic tends to come back if your content is good and they tend to tell others about your site.

If you haven’t read the first parts of this series, I encourage you to read those sections so that you can understand how to create a baseline idea of your current traffic before you start your referral traffic efforts. If you are the type of person who just wants results and doesn’t want to know about the details, then you probably won’t need that additional information. It may still be useful, however, to take a look. After all, more knowledge is better than less knowledge.

The first thing you need to understand about referral traffic, or rather the first thing I’m going to tell you, is about PageRank. A quality backlink is one that not only gets traffic for your site - it also allows you to build PageRank. PageRank is Google’s measurement of importance of your site. Now PageRank doesn’t mean that you will get traffic, but, there are situations in which having a good PageRank will be beneficial for you. For instance, if you decide to start reviewing other sites, many agencies that pay you for this set your rate based on a combination of things and they typically include PageRank. This can be good and bad. You can build PageRank easily, but, if you don’t have one right now, then you are out of luck. The key, is to build links to your site from sites that have some page rank - the higher the better. Google’s algorithms make determinations about the importance of your site based on the number of PageRanked sites that link to your site. Sites that have higher PageRank that link to you add value to your site.

Let me explain a few additional things about referral traffic. When you submit your articles to a site like Blog Catalog or Blogging Zoom or Blog Engage, a few things happen. First, those sites are going to provide you with back links like I explained above. The next thing that happens is that other people start to visit your site. These people will become your friends, your acquaintances, your commenters, your partners, your critics, your sources of inspiration and many other things.

So what exactly do you need to do to build referral traffic? You need to first make sure that you have great content. When I say great content, I mean that you need articles that really offer value to people. Not articles like, “I Have No Traffic..Help Me”. I’m talking about articles that take people by the neck and say, “You Have To Read Me Because I’m Really Going To Help You!” You need these types of articles because a lot of the sites you are going to submit to won’t result in actual traffic if you don’t. I’m sure most of you have heard of StumbleUpon.com. This site is an excellent resource for building traffic, however, if the articles you place on that site are not good, people will come and go off of your site quicker than a drop of water evaporates in a fire. You need to have something of quality to attract people and draw them in.

Using your sites RSS feed is another method of generating referral traffic. Many sites, like Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog will look at your RSS feed and publish that information on their site in your profile. This is a great way to build links.

The importance of building referral traffic cannot be underestimated. You can easily build the traffic and once you do, you must maintain it with quality articles. In the final part of this series, I’m going to give you a step by step list on what you should do to build your traffic. This will be a summary for all of those people who think that I talk, or rather type too much.

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

Part 3 - How To Create Campaigns To Drive Direct Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success

Part 4 -How To Get Organic Traffic To Your Site And Measure Your Success


Posted By Kila Morton


 

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