What is Web Traffic?

Want to know how many people are visiting your website? Take a closer look at web traffic. In this lesson, we'll define what that means, and consider some metrics you should be monitoring.

Sitting in Traffic

2017 promises to surpass an internet milestone. This is the year that statisticians say there will be more internet traffic during a 12-month period than in all the previous years the internet has been in existence - combined. In short, that means there are a lot of people perusing the internet for everything, from news to shopping to recipes and more.

Web traffic comes from people who visit your website.

This surge in web traffic can be attributed to the vast amounts of information and opportunities at our fingertips today. But, what exactly does web traffic constitute? And, how can you figure out what piece of the traffic pie your site is getting?

Just like traffic on a highway refers to the number of cars traveling down the road, web traffic is the number of web users who travel to any given website. Each person who logs on to a website is recorded as a visit or session, with a starting and ending point, thanks to behind-the-scenes communications between a user's device and the website itself.

Web traffic is specific to each page of your website as well, so whether you have a one-page site or a 50-page site, each of those pages’s traffic is configured independently of all other pages.

For example, Alice decides to log on to her hair salon's website in an attempt to schedule an upcoming appointment. Not only is Alice considered part of the web traffic on the homepage, but also on the scheduling page that she accesses after clicking on the appropriate page link. For the website owner, Alice's actions - along with all the other web traffic - can be compiled into a report to show how much web traffic the site is receiving. This makes it easy to see how many people are (or aren't) visiting so you know how popular your website is.

How Do I Monitor Web Traffic?

Monitoring web traffic isn't as complicated as it might sound initially. In fact, it can be pretty simple - and free! You might be asking, ''Why do I need to monitor my web traffic? I'm making sales (or getting sign-ups, etc.).'' Here's why:

You can monitor how effective your site is.
You can figure out how long visitors are sticking around.
You can see which pages are triggering visitors' interest.
You can monitor the impact of your marketing efforts.
You can determine where web traffic is coming from (such as social media sites).
You can increase the efficiency of your site overall.

Monitoring Web Traffic

Now that you know WHY you should monitor web traffic, it's time to tackle the HOW.

One of the simplest ways is sponsored by a website you may visit daily yourself. Google Analytics offers many free tools for monitoring web traffic. There are, of course, paid monitoring tools as well, such as AWStats, eLogic and Site Meter. Whichever tool you prefer, here are specific categories you'll want to take a look at:

track visitors to your site and monitor what they do when they get there. This will help you drive up traffic and increase conversions

“Most firms’ websites fail to perform because they ignore their objectives when creating a web strategy or don’t measure how well their online marketing performs against their targets,” reveals Peter Hawtin, founder of web marketing agency Brand New Way. “You need to monitor if your site is meeting your objectives by measuring key performance indicators.”

What to track with web analytics

There are a plenty of meaningful things you can measure with an analytics package.

The first thing most businesses measure is the number of visitors their website receives. Most analytics packages will show two different statistics:

· Total visitors (also called sessions). This figure counts each visit to your site, even if the same person has returned more than once.

· Unique visitors (also called users). This figure filters out repeat visits, so each person is only counted once.

Another common measurement is the number of page views. This counts how many different pages have been viewed on your website.

Where are your visitors coming from?

Knowing how your visitors found your site is crucial, because it enables you to pinpoint which of your online marketing activities are effective.

One of the main ways websites receive traffic is from links on other sites. These are called ‘referrers’ and their data is very valuable. For instance, if a review gets posted about your business and it contains a link to your site, your referrers will show you that the review exists.

Another source of website traffic is search engines. You’ll want to know what search terms people are typing in to find your website, and where search engines rank your business and its competitors.

Web analytics relating to search can often be enlightening because visitors may be arriving via keywords and search engines you’re not aware of.

If you are running marketing campaigns or adverts, you can specifically track traffic from those campaigns using analytics. You should have an objective in mind, and you can attach it to your campaign in order to see how well it performs.

“Small businesses often don’t have the resources to do all types of online marketing, so they need to see where it's most worthwhile, and direct resources there,” explains Hawtin.

As well as telling you which channels visitors have used to find you, web analytics can also pinpoint their location. This can be useful if you plan to target customers in a particular area.

Although analytics packages can tell you where your visitor has come from, they don't collect any personal information - so you can't identify who they are. However, most do place small files called cookies on people's computers, so you may need to notify visitors under the EU cookie law.

Monitor how visitors use your site

How visitors use your site speaks volumes about the quality of its content and navigation. Analyzing this will help you to develop the site and improve your conversion rates.

“Find out what proportion of people coming to your website do what you want them to do and convert to your desired objective,” says Hawtin.

Your objective will usually be to persuade a visitor to complete a key action - known as an 'Event' or 'Goal'. For instance:

·         ‘Liking’ a post on Facebook

·         contacting you via a 'submit form'

·         placing a bid on eBay

·         making a purchase

For example, you can create a goal which will track when someone makes a purchase and how much they spend.

You can also track visitors who fail to complete. This can help you identify problems with your online order process. If conversion is low, you can look at the ordering process to determine how you can make your site more user-friendly or ‘sticky’.

“By simplifying an online application form or installing faster payment software, people will spend less time on your site but you’ll get a higher conversion because they’re more likely to complete the process,” explains Hawtin.

You might discover that parts of your website content are ineffective. If your website is content-driven, you will want to improve or update it more regularly.

However, your objective may not be as straightforward as getting people to spend more time on your site.

“There’s no point getting the results of your web analysis if you’re not going to do anything,” he concludes. “But if you interpret your results and make a one or two per cent improvement to them each quarter, it’s worthwhile.”

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