One thing that is very useful to track is traffic sources. Knowing the source of your traffic can accomplish a lot – such as avoiding fraud, learning where to market your products and services, and how to get in front of your customers so that you can get more traffic and create a bigger reach for your products and services.
Investigate Traffic Sources
When you investigate your traffic sources first look at which URL is sending the most traffic. Go check out that URL. Is it a legitimate site? Do you know why they linked to you? Did you post a guest post, was it an affiliate link? How did the site refer you? Is this a good source of qualified traffic? All traffic is not created equal. You may be getting hits that will not convert. You may even be getting hits that are spam.
What to Do About Referral Spam
Sometimes, you will get referral traffic that is really spam. It’s designed to make it look like you’re getting a lot of traffic and it will mess up your numbers. If you discover that you are getting referral spam, you can use the tools within Google to stop the traffic from counting in your analytics. Just do a Google Search for removing referral spam from your reports. You can also use your Host to block specific URLs from access to your site.
Put More Content in Front of Your Audience
When you find out where the traffic is originating, you can also then decide whether you can put more content there so that you’ll attract more of this audience. You can also use that place as a starting point to find more places to ensure that your link is seen. For example, what other pages does this site link to? Some of those pages may also be of interest to that audience – why not get your content distributed to them too?
Write More about the Topics that Attracted Them
The other thing you’ll discover when you study your referral traffic is the type of content that’s getting the most click-throughs. Regardless of where the link originated from, what type of content is getting clicks? Do you see a specific topic jumping out or a pattern? You can use this information to create similar content.
When you use the information about referral traffic as a means by which you choose the right content to attract your audience, you’ll start getting more accurate at producing and placing exactly what your audience needs and when they need it. You’ll get even more traffic and develop a wider reach, and you’ll also provide more relevant material at the right time and place for your audience.
Next Steps
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