In a previous post, I talked about my love for website analytics and gave a brief explanation of the different traffic sources that you may see when reviewing your website analytics. Today’s post will be focusing specifically on search traffic. Search traffic is when a user has gone to a search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) and done a search. They have then followed one of the results and landed on your site. This is an awesome type of traffic to get, as many times it’s someone who has not done business with you or your site in the past has found you and is looking for something more. Another great thing about search traffic is that it’s FREE!
The beauty of SEO (search engine optimization) is that when it’s done right it will bring you some outstanding visitors that are looking for just what you’re selling. OK, maybe not selling, but at least what you’re talking about on your site. And let’s be honest, if you’re producing quality content that people are interesting in reading and sharing, then in all likelihood you’re talking about your business or the topic of your site.
If you dive into your search traffic, you’ll see that it’s segmented into two different types: organic and paid. Organic is what we’re going after when we engage in SEO activities. It’s also referred to as “natural” search. Paid search are the listings that show up at the top and right of Google searches and are just what they sound like… paid advertisements. There are a variety of ways to go about paid inclusion, but the most widely used is the PPC (pay per click). Essentially, when someone clicks on your ad, you get charged. How much depends on the word you’re bidding on. Costs can range from a few cents per click up to hundreds of dollars. This is driven by how many searches are performed for a particular word, and how many other people want to be listed (competition). For example, if we do a Google search for “KTC Digital” there are 1.5 million results returned. When we do a search for “digital marketing agency” that number jumps to 75 million results. As such, bidding on the term “KTC Digital” would be much cheaper than bidding on “digital marketing agency”.
Organic (natural) traffic on the other hand is completely free to come by (if you don’t count the cost of optimizing your website). Taking a look at your search traffic you can start to understand what search terms are driving traffic to your website. Looking at our keyword report shows some interesting results:
- branchout request – https://www.ktcdigital.com/2012/02/facebook-app-branchout-should-you-be-branching-out/
- wifi logo – https://www.ktcdigital.com/2011/12/wi-fi-is-great-but-protect-your-privacy/
- essential wordpress plugins – https://www.ktcdigital.com/2012/04/essential-wordpress-plugins/
- best web browser – https://www.ktcdigital.com/2012/05/which-web-browser-is-best/
- how much should you pay for your website – https://www.ktcdigital.com/2012/01/how-much-should-you-pay-for-your-website/
This is certainly not an exhaustive list, and I’ve filtered out KTC Digital branded terms (when someone searches for “KTC Digital, KTC, KTC Digital Marketing, Greg Bellan, etc.). When you’re creating your web copy, whether it’s in the form of a blog post, a new page on your website or even a newsletter, email or Tweet keep in mind the keywords that you’re using. All of these things can drive search traffic to your website.
Do you need help understanding your search traffic? Are you not getting the type of organic search results you’re looking for? Let us know. We’d love to help you understand where you’re getting your traffic from and to help you get MORE traffic to drive your business!