Increasing web traffic is only the first step to improving results. Getting that website traffic to convert is the next challenge. There are ways to increase web traffic, especially if you’re willing to buy display ads and/or increase your paid search spend. You can even pay for social media traffic via StumbleUpon, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Testing multiple traffic sources is important but understanding which sources convert the best will help improve your bottom line.

Align Traffic Sources and Goals

Ultimately the goal of any website is to sell something. Whether it’s immediate and the sale happens today, or the sale happens one year from now over the phone, websites play a part in the research and lead generation process. You may be selling a product, an idea, advertising impressions, or trying to generate leads. Keep your goals in mind as you develop strategies to increase web traffic. You’ll want to target different traffic sources depending on what your goals are. If you’re selling advertising impressions, then buying traffic via StumbleUpon may increase your bottom line. But if your goal is to generate leads, this traffic may be worthless.

Measure Web Traffic from Various Sources

Google Analytics allows you to measure traffic sources to see how they’re performing relative to each other.  There is a ton of insight that can be gleaned from these reports. Ultimately you’ll want to increase spending on traffic that’s converting and either reduce spend or reconfigure the experience visitors receive from unprofitable sources. Change up the landing page, or the call to action to see if the underperforming traffic source becomes more profitable.

Test Multiple Sources to Increase Web Traffic

Testing different traffic sources is one of the most valuable things you can do as you look to improve the bottom line. You’d be surprised at the results and it’s one of those things where you may never know until you try. Facebook has worked great for some local businesses that need to connect with their community while also working for large corporations who are trying to reach a more national audience. There are probably also an equal number of companies locally and nationally who’ve tried to increase web traffic from Facebook with minimal results. Again, you’ll never know whether or not it works for you until you test it.

You can also test buying ads from related sites, not only sites that are directly related to your vertical, but also sites which attract a similar audience. There are plenty of tools (Google Ad Planner, Quantcast, Compete) which look at demographics as well as audience profiles and can recommend some sites that you likely have never considered advertising on. The worst thing that happens is you spend a few dollars on trying to increase web traffic, even if it has no improvement on the bottom line, you at least gain brand awareness. Best case scenario is you find a new traffic source that drives targeted traffic and ultimately conversions.

Always test different traffic sources. You may be surprised which medium ends up converting the best, helping to improve your bottom line.