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What do websites need?
Did you say “Traffic”?
Wrong answer!
If you read blogs, forums and twitter comments you would be forgiven for thinking that “traffic” is something you can turn on and off like a tap. Turn one way and you get a burst of traffic like a fire hose, turn it the other and you get a drip-drip-dribble, or all the way and it switches off entirely.
While some people find it useful to think in these terms, actually it holds back most people because this way of imagining sends you to make some pretty dodgy decisions.
Recall that part in the Matrix where Neo is told “There is no spoon”? Well, think there is no such thing as “Traffic”.
Instead of traffic, think of living, breathing human beings arriving at your site.
- Why?
- Where from?
- What are they looking for?
- What will they find?
- Where will they go next?
When you think of “traffic” you think of herding, you imagine a “flow”, but there is no flow, just individuals. Understanding those individuals is the key to getting more people to visit, and crucially, get them to do something mutually beneficial (like buy your stuff).
Still don’t believe me? OK, buy some traffic. You can buy it at eBay, on forums, it’s easy to find. $50 for a gajilllion “hits”. Think that will be $50 well spent? Even if you monetize with CPM ads you will likely not see a cent in return, because most ad networks are savvy to junk traffic and block suspicious IP addresses.
Even Adwords is not a guaranteed faucet style traffic source because the human beings clicking your ads (or not) are impacted by all kinds of things outside your control, not least your competition, but also increasingly what is going on in the news.
As I try to tell my SEO friends, stop optimizing for search engines and start optimizing for people. That is my secret route to online success in 2009!
