Continuing our series of posts on website analytics and your traffic sources, today’s post will cover referral traffic.  Unlike search traffic where someone has gone to Google, Bing, Yahoo or another search engine and done a search, referral traffic refers to when a user has clicked on a link to KTC Digital from another site on the internet.  Many times, this is a link that one of our clients put on their site, a press release, Facebook, Twitter, etc.   We can assume that the user already has some idea what they’re going to get based on the anchor text of the link.  Based on that fact, this is a GREAT type of traffic to have.  They’re actively seeking you out!

It’s important to understand your referral traffic.  If you see that you’re getting a ton of traffic from a particular site, especially when it’s not a site that you’re familiar with I’d definitely suggest you go check it out!  If you’re using Google Analytics you’ll be able to drill down and see the exact URL that is sending you traffic.  Hopefully it’s a great link and it’s referring to you in a positive light.  However, it could be a negative link.  If that’s the case you now know about it and can react to it accordingly.

Here’s Google’s take on referral traffic:

The information in this report lets you see which domains (and pages in those domains) are referring traffic to your site, how much traffic they’re referring, which landing pages are the most popular referral destinations, and the extent to which those referred visitors interact with your site.

If you’re trying to build a traffic stream from referrals, you want to know which domains are successful sources. For example, if you’re posting videos on YouTube in order to raise brand awareness, you want to see whether those videos are driving visitors to your site, and consequently whether youtube.com shows up as a top source of referrals.

You can read the full Google Anayltics entry on referral traffic here.

Reviewing the KTC Digital referral traffic report for 2012 shows us some interesting links:

• KillTheCan.org – One of our oldest clients dedicated to helping people quit chewing tobacco.  They’ve got a link to us in the footer of their site.
• Facebook.com – The social media giant.  We post all of our blog posts there and interact with our fans.
• The Ratsnake – Another KTC Digital client who puts on an annual race to remember a fallen friend.
• ProhibitionRepeal.com – The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States has been a client for years.  We built this site years ago to help raise awareness about the history of prohibition.
• Bostwick Design – our newest client.  They’ve got a link to us on their credits page.  Thank you!

In all of these instances you can see how the traffic is being drive back to our site.  We’re referenced as vendor, a friend, etc.  We get the vast majority of our business through these types of friendly and professional referrals.  Build a great site and great relationship and you’ll be getting this site of referral traffic in no time!

Do you need help understanding your referral traffic?  Let us know.  We’d love to help you understand where you’re getting your traffic from and to help you get MORE to drive your business!