Should I listen to pitches that promise to build traffic to my site?

• There are web people out there making a pitch to buy their service to build more direct traffic. Is there a distinct direct traffic approach, or is this disguised as organic traffic without a referrer?

Answer:

I love this question because far too often people don't question the value of traffic and think all traffic is good. And, in reality, some traffic can actually be damaging. Let me explain.

Direct traffic can be many things, but it's specifically used to describe when someone types your domain into the address bar or uses a bookmark to come directly to your site. We here at SEN get a lot of direct traffic because we have a lot of long time loyal members who don't need to find us in the search results or from another site.

So, direct traffic is generally a good indication of a loyal audience and a solid brand presence. If you're doing strong brand marketing campaigns then that can result in great direct traffic - think things like billboards, radio commercials, flyers, apparel, etc. Unfortunately, direct traffic can also be easily manipulated. It can be generated by a bot, for instance, that won't ever buy anything, or subscribe, or do anything else of value — but it will register as traffic. And if you get a flood of bot traffic then it can overwhelm your server and slow down you site = Bad traffic.

So, without exact details on how they are going to generate this traffic, or whether it will be targeted to your market's audience, it's pointless to discuss and is most likely of no value whatsoever.

Traffic for activity-sake is costly and pointless. It matters greatly who is visiting your site – not all traffic is of equal value, not by a long shot!

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