Better SEO Through Google Analytics Sources Overview
If you use Google Analytics to track your site’s performance, there’s a little graphical display pie chart called Traffic Sources Overview that gives a breakdown of where your site’s traffic is coming from. I use it to provide an indicator of where I need to focus my traffic generation energy.
There are three sources:
1. Direct Traffic
2. Referring Sites
3. Search Engines
You know how all those financial wizards tell you that you need to diversify your investments? It’s the same concept here. Most people will see search engines as the majority of the pie, and that can be a bit dangerous. If you see search engines representing more than 75% of your traffic, you’re completely vulnerable to shifts in ranking algorithms. Remember the Florida update back in late ‘03? That algorithm change ruined the holidays for many that were totally dependent upon natural rankings.
The lesson learned? Don’t let search engine traffic represent too much of your overall traffic mix. Publicize your site through articles, links, press releases, social media. Heck, take your publicity offline and find ways to raise awareness to your site through other media.
And here’s the funny little side effect… as traffic increases through referring sites and direct traffic, it becomes a real battle to keep the search engine traffic down. Remember, search engines (Google in particular) are completely devoted to giving a good user experience and if they see that you’re getting so much traffic from other sources…. well, they want in on that.
