Referral traffic is the section of traffic that comes to your website from another source through a link to another domain. Analytics automatically detects traffic before it arrives on your site and displays the domain names of these sites as referral sources in your reports.
With web traffic, “referral” is like a recommendation from one website to another. Google Analytics helps you visualize these referrals, which will increase your understanding of how customers will find your website and what they will do once they get there. Referral traffic can be a strong indicator that external sources are highly valuable in helping your business achieve its goals, for example, proving that your Facebook page really adds value or adds a number.
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What is referral traffic?
Referral traffic is the way the Google search engine reports your site visits from outside sources. When someone clicks on a hyperlink to a new page on another website, Analytics tracks that click as recommended for another site. The site of origin is called the “referrer” because it refers to the traffic coming from one place to another. Referral traffic is one of three statistics tracked by Google Analytics. Others are search traffic - visits from the search engine - and direct traffic to the domain.
Just go through the video below explaining referral traffic.
How do you generate referral traffic?
Google Analytics can help you track incoming website activity by linking the links you create, bookmarking the sites you submit, and removing links from the social media posts you make, such as Twitter. Google looks at the source of traffic and reports statistics about user behavior. Referral traffic may also take the form of tracking code placed on other websites, which may include banner ads such as AdWords, which refer to a specific marketing campaign associated with the site.
How can you see referral traffic sources?
Viewing referral traffic sources is like logging into your Analytics account. On the left side, click “Traffic Sources” and then “Referrals”. A graph showing the traffic over a period of one month is displayed. Below this, a table displays the domain names indicating the traffic coming to your site, as well as statistics on how visitors respond to their search.
What statistics does referral traffic show?
Analytics provides statistics such as bounce rate (how many people visit your website but leave without spending much time), percentage of new visitors to your site, and the average time users spend from the referral source provided. According to Google, one way to find out what traffic source your best creator is is to search for values that are important to you. For example, if you want readers to see your articles, look at statistics such as pages per visit and time spent determining which sources provide the best traffic to your site.
How is referral traffic tracked?
Referral traffic is sent through the user’s browser, so this information is tracked and sent via the HTTP referrer. This referrer identifies where the user is coming from as well as where they are currently. When someone clicks on a link to your site, the browser sends a request to your server. The request will contain a field containing data related to the last destination of the person. Google Analytics captures this data and reports it to you as a referral domain (such as Twitter.com or Facebook.com).
7 steps to generate more referral traffic
Here are the 7 best options to generate more referral traffic organically.
1) Publish your website in online directories
Submitting your website to online directories is one of the easiest ways to get referral traffic, but you do not want to publish your website to every directory. Instead, focus on the ones that are most relevant to your industry or generate the most traffic. Whether you are a veterinarian in St. Louis or a supportive living facility in Daytona Beach, Moz has you covered. They provide a free resource to find top directories by category and city.
After you submit your website to the top directories for your city and industry, I will focus on finding directories that can generate some serious traffic. How do you know which directory accomplishes this? It’s as easy as doing a Google search.
2) Publish on review websites
Review websites are a great source for getting referral traffic. These visitors have already gone through stages of awareness and observation about the buyer’s journey. They have now reached the decision stage and are comparing vendors or products. What is the best time to introduce your product or service to them for consideration?
Getting listed on a review website depends on whether you are a B2B or a B2C company. If you search for “St. Louis Roofing Company Reviews”, there are 3 websites you might want to list if you are a roofer: HomeAdvisor, BBB, and AngelList.
B2B Businesses can be very difficult to feature on review websites. A lot of times you have to “pay to play”, which means you basically have to pay to appear at the top of the review list.
3) Publish guest blog posts
Guess what? You are currently looking at Step 3 of 7 to get more referral traffic to your website. This is correct. You are reading a guest blog post by HubSpot Partner Agency Leap Clix. Guest blog posts create many opportunities to get referral traffic to your website.
External links (like the two in this paragraph), author bios, and calls-to-action (below this post) are usually found on most blogs. If you can find a post on a well-known industry website, you will benefit from referral traffic and links to your site. It is best to focus your efforts on websites that are considered thinkers in your industry. Learn more about guest blogging
Here are some tips to keep in mind when guest blogging:
Pay attention to websites related to your industry - unless you talk about camo no one likes to read about fall fashion trends in blogs about guns and ammunition.
Keep the target audience in mind when writing - most blogs have strict guidelines for guest bloggers. SEO v/s SEM.
Write content in your name - after all, you do not want your work to be credited to anyone else.
Links to Influencers - They can also observe and assist in promoting your guest blog post, thereby increasing the referral traffic it generates.
4) Take advantage of social media
According to the Social Media Examiner, 89% of marketers suggest that social media is more exposed to their business. In addition, 75% of people find that their website traffic increases as a result of their social media efforts. Top 7 social media platforms used by marketers like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest. Being active on social media is not just trendy; This is a strategy that many marketers use to get more traffic, leads, and sales.
Every time you tweet, share, like, or pin a piece of content you are creating an opportunity to drive referral traffic to your website. Additionally, you increase the chances of your content appearing at the top of Google. 58% of marketers using social media report improved search rankings. As I said earlier, referral traffic not only brings more potential customers to your website, it also helps SEO.
You create the opportunity to drive referral traffic to your website when you tweet, share, like, or pin a piece of content very often. Additionally, you increase the chances of your content appearing at the top of Google. 58% of marketers using social media report improved search rankings. As I said earlier, referral traffic not only brings more potential customers to your website, it also helps SEO.
5) Comment on the blog
The most frequently asked question is “Does blog commenting help SEO?” This will not only help with SEO but will also generate more referral traffic for your website. According to Neil Patel, his 240+ comments on the blog have generated nearly 4,000 visitors to his website. Commenting on a blog will definitely increase your referral traffic; Make sure you do not fill the web with too much spam. Here are some tips for inexperienced blog commenters:
Make sure your comments are valuable - no one likes to complain or brag. If your comments are negative or promotional in nature, keep them to yourself.
Pay attention to blogs that allow links in the comments - keep in mind that you are trying to get more traffic. To do this you need to add a link to your website
If you are not the first, you are the last. - Like search engines, if your link tops the list of comments, you are more likely to generate more clicks and traffic.
6) Be active in industry forums
Online forums are a great source for potential leads and customers but are often overlooked as a marketing ploy to generate traffic. As with blog comments, you should focus your efforts on your niche forums and always try to add value without too much publicity. Below I have outlined some steps and tips to get the most out of forum marketing:
Make sure the forum is active - do not waste your time on forums that do not post new posts in a month.
Register using your brand name - you need to make sure that people associate your comments with a memorable brand name. Create a signature with a call-to-action link - how you drive traffic to your website.
Use real-life examples - don’t just give your own advice. No one wants to know. Try to add value using your personal experiences.
Share your resources - Start a new thread with a link to a resource that you think may benefit the group. If you are proud of particular content, other people are more likely to enjoy it as well.
7) Publish infographics
When asked to choose the most important form of content for their business, 37% of marketers chose Visuals. The reason is very simple. Humans have less vision than goldfish and it is easier for the brain to utilize the image than the text group. Also, you may have noticed that the cute puppy movie is getting more and more likes from 100+ pages of industry reports.
The great thing about infographics is that they help people understand complex data with simple visuals. The goal is to share, like, and pin your infographic on social networks and get others to embed it in your articles (as I did above), thereby creating links to your website.
In addition to your own website, there are many other websites where you can post infographics. One of my favorites is Pinterest. After all, Pinterest websites are responsible for 5% of referral traffic, second only to Facebook. Pinterest gives you the option to link your infographic to your website and make it easier to share on other boards.
That is all about referral traffic. Hope you find this article informative. Don’t forget to share and leave comments. Thank you
