Driving traffic to your website is important, but you need a way to measure that traffic. After all, if you’re using several methods to drive traffic, how will you know which one is working if you’re not tracking? How will you know which methods aren’t working without stats to go by?
The good news is that tracking your website traffic is now easier than ever before. You can use a tool like Google Analytics (free) or Clicky (free trial) to see your stats. You’ll want to pay attention to four key metrics…
Look at your most popular content. This gives insight into what content your visitors are consuming and what pages they enjoy the most. It can spark new content ideas and show you which pages on your site could use some sprucing up.
Note your traffic sources. Use this metric to determine where you’re getting the most traffic from.
Are your Facebook Live videos sending a lot of traffic? Are your Instagram posts delivering new visitors to your site daily? Once you know which social media networks give you the most traffic, you can focus most of your marketing energy on them.
You should also look at what other sites are sending you traffic. Are you still getting traffic from that podcast interview you did ages ago? Is your blog post on a friend’s website still sending you plenty of fresh traffic?
Check the tech. Most analytics software can show you what device and which browser visitors used to access your site.
Pay attention to this data. You might be surprised to learn a lot of your traffic is coming from mobile gadgets like tablets and smartphones. With this knowledge in mind, it might be time to make sure your landing pages and blog posts load quickly across various devices.
Peek at search terms. Some analytics software will also show you what keywords users typed into a search engine to find your site. This data helps you see what your visitors are hoping to find when they arrive.
If you see a certain search term repeated frequently, you may even want to consider building some content around it.
For example, if you run a website for new moms and discover that most people are using the keyword ‘how much formula’ then you can create a blog post about how much formula to give a baby as they grow. This is a simple way of giving value back to your users and capitalizing on the traffic you already have.
Traffic is the lifeblood of your website. It’s what allows you to build an amazing online business. But don’t be fooled into thinking that you can only get paid traffic. The truth is there are plenty of legitimate ways to send traffic back to your website for free.