The Facts About Targeted Web Site Traffic

You hear it all the time. "You have to get targeted web site traffic." Can't argue with that. The problem is, not everybody agrees on what "targeted" web site traffic really is. While I am not suggesting that the views presented in this article are by any means the be all and end all, I hope that these opinions and observations will give you some food for thought. As to this article being about "facts" of targeted web site traffic, well, I'll let the reader decide if indeed they are factual or just opinion. Testing will be your only real clue.

The so called "technical" definition of targeted web site traffic is traffic that specifically is looking for the product or service that you happen to be selling on your web site. Seems simple enough, wouldn't you say? On the surface, it would appear that there could be no argument as to what targeted web site traffic really is. Well, I'm going to blow that theory out of the water with an example of "targeted" web site traffic that isn't so targeted.

You're running an Adwords campaign. Your product happens to be a natural cure for acne. So in your Adwords campaign you use the following keywords, acne, acne cure, acne treatment, acne remedy. You're pretty new at this so you leave it at those few keywords. Now, on the surface, it would appear that these keywords will get people who are interested in what you have to offer to your site. Except there's a major flaw in this "targeting" of keywords. You've left out one very important word. Know what it is? It's the word "natural" which is after all the treatment you're offering. So what do you think is going to happen? People are going to come to your site, see that your treatment is "natural" and turn away because they don't believe in natural cures. They want some strong medicine to get rid of their acne.

Now, you have to admit, Adwords advertising is probably one of the most targeted forms of advertising that you can use, and yet in this case, you're not really getting targeted traffic to your site. At least it's not as optimized as possible.

Granted, this is a rather extreme example. You would like to think that somebody running an Adwords campaign for a natural acne cure would use the word natural in their ad. But not everybody is an expert at Adwords advertising.

The problems with targeted traffic get even more complex when you have a web site that doesn't deal with just one particular product or service. What do you think will happen if your web site is an entertainment web site that doesn't really specialize in any one particular thing. Let's say you have movie reviews, a section on DVDs that you sell through Amazon, music reviews, and so on. You may get people coming to your site who are interested in the general category of entertainment, but you have no idea what these people are specifically interested in. They may ultimately find nothing on your site that they are interested in since entertainment is such a broad category.

My point is this. Your targeted traffic is only going to be as targeted, or pinpoint, as the kind of site that you have and the quality of your advertising, even under the best of conditions.

This is why so many people complain that their site is getting lots of visitors but not making any sales. The problem may very well be that the traffic they're getting isn't as targeted as they think.

So, do your homework. Make sure your ad campaigns are solid. Make sure your site description is as clear as possible so that people have a good idea of what they'll find when they get there. The better job you do on these things, the better your "targeted" traffic will be.

To YOUR Success