Understanding Traffic Sources

Website traffic can be divided into four main categories. Understanding these sources is essential for developing a comprehensive marketing strategy.

The Four Categories of Traffic

1. Search Engines: This is "organic" traffic that comes from people finding your website through search engines like Google. This is often the largest and most sustainable source of traffic for a well-optimized website.
2. Incoming Links (Referral Traffic): This is traffic that comes from other websites linking to yours. This can include links from blogs, directories, and other online publications.
3. Direct Traffic: This is traffic that comes from people typing your URL directly into their browser. This is often a sign of brand recognition and repeat visitors.
4. Advertising: This is paid traffic that comes from sources like Google AdWords, banner ads, and other forms of online advertising.

A General Rule of Thumb

While the specific breakdown will vary from site to site, a general rule of thumb for a commerce-based website is an even split between the first three categories:

• 1/3 from search engines
• 1/3 from incoming links
• 1/3 from direct traffic

This provides a useful framework for estimating the total traffic you can expect to receive. If you can estimate the traffic you can get from one source (e.g., search engines), you can then use this rule of thumb to estimate the traffic you can expect from the other sources.