Users who visit your website or social media account become part of your online traffic. Therefore, segmenting the kind and amount of traffic that a website receives can determine the company’s stance in terms of online presence and popularity. Furthermore, the functionality of the website, the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns and tactics can be evaluated by analyzing the website nature and proportion of the website traffic as well as audience segments and their type.

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More than knowing how many users visit your website or the quantity of website traffic you receive, knowing the intent and purpose that the users visited with is important to scheming successful future marketing strategies and collecting relevant data. Data-driven decisions in every step of a business only give it a better chance of success. Online traffic can be clubbed into five broad categories:

1. Organic traffic – Users directed through search engines and unpaid promotions come under organic traffic. Although organic traffic is supposed to be free, achieving a search engine optimized website can require an initial investment.
2. Direct traffic – Users who reach the website through bookmarked URLs or autofill of website recommendation or those who have typed in your company URLs come under direct traffic. They have not been redirected and are mostly returning users who have had previous experience with your company or website. Visitors who have clicked through links to your website from other documents such as word or excel will also be considered direct traffic. 
3. Paid media and search – Search campaigns and ads from search engines or paid promotions on social media gain extra exposure. Users who reach your website through such ads become paid traffic.
4. Referral traffic – When users reach your website or social media account through links from different pages, emails, websites, or accounts; they fall under referral traffic. 
5. Social traffic – Website traffic gained from links on social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc., can be considered social traffic.

How to tackle online traffic?

Online traffic needs to be segmented to arrive at a plausible conclusion on what kind of traffic the website is attracting. So, with that information, the next step of what can be done to attract the right kind of traffic can be determined. Traffic segments can be new or 1st time visitors, returning visitors who can be customers or potential customers. 

Visitors segregated according to demographics and geo-location or IP address, and the nature of devices such as mobile phones, tablets, desktops, etc can also be parts of traffic segmentation. Understanding the traffic that your site brings can help you scheme strategies that increase conversion rates. Some of the latest tools for increasing and tackling website traffic are:

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• SEMrush – Online marketing is made easier and more comprehendible with SEMrush. It has been ranked as one of the top online marketing tools with integrated analysis and intelligence software. In addition, it has helped companies increase the ROI (return on investments) as an all-in-one online marketing kit for both your website and social media accounts. 

Features – SEO, PPC, SMM, competitive research, content marketing, campaign management, public relations, marketing insights, rank tracking, keyword research, link building.

• Google analytics – The free service Google offers for various insights and analytics for websites has helped companies worldwide. Almost 30 million websites have used google analytics as it has an automated procedure of collecting, configuring, processing, and reporting data in comprehendible formats or as dashboards. 

Features – Creating customized reports, collaborating with other tools and platforms, internal site search data, demographic and geographic info of users, and tracking conversions.

• Adobe Analytics – It is a multichannel data collection tool that helps build marketing strategies with its latest tracking, analytics, and predictive analytic technology. 

Features – Content creation and management, experience management, data and insights, customer journeys, digital marketing.

• Matomo – Offering better privacy and protection, Matomo delivers data with no limitations and becomes a close substitute for google analytics. 

Features – Analytics, personal info tracking, open-source, intranet analytics, log analytics, cloud services. 

• Ahrefs – The company specializes in optimizing backlinks, indexing more than 12 trillion backlinks. With SEO tools, data collection, and predictive analytics, Ahrefs has been one of the leading website management and optimization tools.

Features – Website management, rank tracking, keyword research, content creation, content management, site exploring, site audit, domain comparison, batch analysis, email alerts, SEO software, traffic checker.  

• Amplitude – The product analytics software helps track user experience and behavior, perfect for website traffic data collection and analysis. Behavior cohorting and buyer persona creation are also undertaken, making the job of managing a website easier. 

Features – Target product promotion, funnel conversion, product intelligence, user or traffic analysis and data collection, user behavior, buyer persona creation, and segmentation. 

• BuzzSumo – Increasing traffic from social media sites can be facilitated through data from BuzzSumo. From content research to production, management, and social media insights, BuzzSumo does it all. 

Features – Backlink analysis, social media insights and analytics, content curation, competitor analysis, media coverage reports, content strategy, crisis alerting and management, content research, monitoring, digital PR. 

Increasing website traffic is made possible by collecting data and implementing data-driven marketing schemes. As a result, more brands and companies have invested in website management, design, and data collection from their traffic. 

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