If you look at your site’s traffic statistics and are scratching your head at where some of your traffic comes from, you can bet that it’s likely untargeted traffic. Untargeted traffic means anyone that comes to your website with zero interest in your services from the beginning. Targeted traffic are visitors that have come in from an advertising offer or marketing result, and have clicked on your site because they are interested. Targeted traffic arrives with the willingness to convert, while untargeted is just nosing around.
Untargeted traffic can come from mistakenly clicking a link, friends emailing your site to each other, errant search results, or in the worst case scenario, you might get “scooped” and go viral on a major social networking site like Twitter or Reddit. You should have focused content marketing efforts and rich webpages pulling targeted traffic to your website, but sometimes content can pull unexpected guests. Believe it or not, there are perks to untargeted traffic, and they can actually tell you a lot about your marketing efforts and what you can do to improve them.
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What is targeted website traffic?
Targeted website traffic refers to the number of people visiting a company’s website for a product or a service that it offers. A high rate of targeted traffic can imply a website is attracting potential clients. It’s one of two types of web traffic:
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Non-targeted traffic: Non-targeted website traffic refers to visitors simply looking at a website without express interest in a particular product or service.
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Targeted traffic: Targeted traffic involves visitors browsing a website with a specific goal.
In other words, targeted traffic is those people that visit a website with the intention of performing an action.
Let us give you a couple of examples to understand the difference between the two:
People who visit amazon.com searching for “buy filter coffee machine” are more likely to convert (i.e. make a purchase) than people who enter amazon because they want to view the latest offers.
Why is targeted traffic important?
Targeted traffic is important because it can help a company:
Increase conversion rates
The primary reason digital marketing requires more targeted traffic is to increase conversions. Conversion refers to the process of a potential customer becoming a paying client. Targeted visitors are likely to convert, which means an increase in leads, sales and email subscribers. After gaining a reliable customer, marketers might create content to persuade this individual to subscribe to an email list and encourage repeat visits.
Improve brand reputation
Happy clients may be more likely to visit your website regularly, which can enhance your brand reputation. Today, people search for information from online sources to fulfill their needs.
Search engines or pay-per-click advertising can direct prospective consumers to a company website where they expect to quickly find the solution for which they’re searching. Providing the experiences visitors expect can help them enjoy their experience and improve their opinion of the company. They may also refer others to the website, further expanding the positive brand opinion.
Create opportunities for repeat sales
Customers often purchase from businesses and individuals with whom they’ve experience collaborating. When targeted visitors find the products and services from your website, they may return in the future, creating repeat sales. Returning customers can also help grow a business.
Lead to a decrease in customer acquisition costs
As consumers continue to access websites on their own, marketing businesses can save money on customer acquisition efforts. The targeted traffic can accomplish the goals of other advertising efforts. This means the advertising team can focus on allocating those resources to other parts of the business.
How to get more targeted website visitors
You can carry out digital marketing campaigns to help create targeted traffic for a website. Here are some steps that might help you do so:
1. Optimize your website for search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy to help an article or website appear higher in search engine results. It plays a significant role in driving targeted traffic toward a business. This can help increase the number of visitors to a website.
2. Build backlinks
Backlinks describe when one website links to another. Having several links from established organizations can show your content is trustworthy, which can expand the reach of your website and attract qualified traffic. Networking and adding backlinks in exchange for backlinks on another website can both be useful techniques for building backlinks.
3. Launch search paid campaigns
Another strategy for improving targeted traffic quickly is to use advertising platforms for which you pay. These can allow you to run paid advertisements to promote a website in response to a specific keyword on search engines. Unlike SEO that attracts traffic for free, the advertising platforms charge users each time a consumer clicks on the content in a campaign.
4. Use targeted social media advertisements to draw traffic
Today, social media networks often target consumers directly with advertisements. Professional social networking platforms can help you promote content and increase traffic. Different platforms have different strategies for advertising to attract traffic. For example, some websites might prefer short links and reward them with higher viewership.
5. Create video tutorials
Tutorials can be an effective method to produce free organic-targeted traffic. Many people use social media and video-sharing sites for entertainment and research. You can create helpful tutorials and videos that attract customers, then link a website’s content in the description.
6. Target visitors again with social media ads
One way to appeal to visitors and transform them into potential clients is to launch re-targeting campaigns. This type of advertising focuses on those who spend time on a company website, then spend more time on social media. A social media ad for this category of individual may be an effective method for increasing conversions because:
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Visitors are already familiar with company products
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Ads might show previous customers a previously unavailable item that they want to purchase
The method often works best by re-targeting those who take action while on the website.
7. Engage online
Engaging in online groups and on industry-relevant websites can help you gain more targeted traffic. Here are some ways to do so:
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Answer questions people ask in online groups
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Comment on blogs and social posts
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Participate in online discussions that relate to your field
The more you participate in matters that relate to your industry, the more exposure you can get. This can translate to more targeted traffic to a company website.
8. Invest in content marketing
Content marketing focuses on creating valuable content that might engage viewers, even without relating specifically to a product. Investing in content marketing can generate highly targeted traffic from a specific audience.
Here are some tips to help you create a successful content marketing campaign:
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Perform keyword research to establish what most visitors look for on search engines.
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Develop SEO campaigns targeting the most useful keywords.
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Research what individuals in your target audience enjoy watching online.
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Produce similar content.
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Include links to a company website that might encourage those watching to visit without specifically focusing on the connection.
You need to understand the difference between targeted and untargeted traffic. You can find a lot of traffic packages available through wholesalers you select according to your demographics and requirements. One of the most common and expensive mistakes is purchasing a wholesale traffic package with no demographics in the agreement. Targeted traffic is interested in what your website is offering. This can be a product, service, review or useful information.
Untargeted traffic is fairly useless because your visitors will be untargeted. This means they are probably not interested in what you are offering with a slim chance of becoming one of your customers. Make certain your focus is placed on targeted traffic including the demographics available with PPC advertising before you enter into an agreement. A good example is buying traffic from the United Kingdom when the focus of your business is local consumers in California.
Contrary to popular belief, untargeted traffic can be a good thing in small quantities. A few extra hits a day can be great, if you know how to use them. You can do your analytics homework and figure out what search results and traffic sources are bringing people to your page. You can get creative and ask visitors to opt-in to a mailing list for your services, or for anything they might find interesting—you have their email, feel free to ask them what they want to see! As long as untargeted traffic isn’t eating up your monthly hosting fees, it can be an interesting source for new conversion writing strategies and business inspirations.
Purchasing untargeted traffic regardless of how cheap is costly and completely useless. Your business will not receive any of the benefits you are interested in with untargeted traffic.
Ready to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Website?
Now that you have these tactics in your toolbox, you should be able to put together a simple strategy for getting more people to your site. Remember, though, that this isn’t a one-off exercise, nor do you have to try everything at once or use only one tactic at a time.
Try something. See if it works. If it fails, stick at it a little longer but bring something else into your roster. Most importantly, make sure the technical aspects of your site are running smoothly — if you need targeted audience, for example, we’ve got plans to suit any budget!
PRO TIP: We run Facebook/Instagram, Google/Youtube, Linkedin, and Native Ad traffic for lots of different businesses, and would love to help you! Click here to learn more!
