Direct vs Search vs Referral: The 3 Types Of Web Traffic Explained
Website traffic can come from a number of sources. All of these sources can be divided into three types of web traffic: direct traffic, search traffic and referral traffic.
It’s important to understand where your traffic is coming from, or at least where it should be coming from. Certain industries are more likely to get their traffic from certain sources - if you’re not getting much traffic from these places, it could be worth assessing why and improving this.
Below are the three different types of traffic compared, how much traffic you should ideally be getting from these sources and how to attract more traffic from these sources.
What is Direct Traffic?
Some visitors may reach your site directly by typing in your website address and hitting search. This is known as direct traffic.
For most small businesses, direct traffic makes up no more than 20% of overall traffic. Big companies and companies with memorable website addresses may get much more than this.
In order for a visitor to directly search your website address, they must already know your website address. By focusing on marketing tactics that build brand awareness, you can increase direct traffic - this could include featuring your website address on flyers, incorporating it into radio jingles or using PPC ads.
A lot of direct traffic may also be from return customers. Some companies such as online clothes stores or online game websites should be expecting to get a lot of return customers and therefore a lot of direct traffic (ideally 20 -30%) - if not it could be worth promoting incentives to get people coming back .
What is Search Traffic?
Search traffic involves any visitors that stumble across your site via search engines like Google and Bing.
In the case of most businesses, search makes up the bulk of traffic - in most cases, over 50%. Obviously, this depends a lot on how high you rank on search engines.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the best strategy for boosting your rankings and increasing traffic via search engines. This involves using a number of different tactics such as creating a fast and mobile-friendly website, regularly creating keyword-rich content and generating backlinks from other sites. In most cases, it’s worth hiring an SEO company to help with this.
Paid search engine ads may also contribute to traffic from search engines (some website analytics features may make a distinction between ‘organic search’ and ‘paid search’ when analysing traffic sources). This includes paying to display your website listing as an advert at the top of the rankings when certain search queries are used.
What is Referral Traffic?
Referral traffic includes any visitors that are referred to your site through other sources beyond search engines. This includes:
Clicking on a link on another website (such as an affiliate blog post or a news article)
Clicking on a link in an email
Clicking on a link shared via social media
Clicking on a PPC advert that leads to your website
Scanning a QR code with your phone that then opens up your website
Referral traffic makes up over 20% of traffic. Social media typically makes up a big chunk of this. Some analytics features will separate ‘referral’ and ‘social’ traffic so that you can tell exactly how much traffic is coming from social media.
Product-based businesses typically get more referral traffic (20 - 30%), while service-based businesses typically get less referral traffic (below 20%) and more search traffic. This is because people tend to search for services, while products are more likely to be discovered through adverts and guides.
To boost your referral traffic, make sure to invest more into services like link building, social media marketing, email marketing and PPC advertising. Printing QR codes on flyers, posters and signs is also recommended.
