Most web analytics platforms like
Google Analytics and
ahrefs.com, utilize an algorithm and flow chart based on the referring website or URL parameters that determine the source of website traffic.
Below is a breakdown of all sources:
Direct Traffic
Any traffic where the referrer or source is unknown. This happens when user know the brand or url, they just type the address in a browser. Well known brand like Apple, visitor most likely to type
apple.com in browser rather than searching it on
google.co.uk. Brand awareness and easy domain name will increase this type of website traffic. Also networking, live events, presentations will increase direct website traffic.
Email Marketing Traffic
Traffic from email marketing that has been properly tagged with an email parameter. You can't increase social media followers or search rankings over night, but you can reach more people using email marketing. However due to strict law in digital marketing there are limitations.
Organic SEO Traffic
Traffic from search engine results that is earned, not paid. Spike in organic search column means keywords and other SEO techniques are working fine. According to
google.com, high quality content is an must have item to increase organic search traffic as you will be competing with 10M+ pages that are relevant to your target phrase. Check this article to find out
How to make your site more visible in Google search results
Paid Advertising Traffic
Traffic from search engine results that is the result of paid advertising via
Google AdWords or another paid search platform. There are various types of paid advertising including social ads, pay per click, retargeting and banner ads. Just pick your platform, set a budget and create your ads that's it. This option is good for bringing traffic but expensive to run.
Referral Traffic
Traffic that occurs when a user finds a site through another site other than a major search engine. This is also known as backlink. Getting referral traffic for a newly published site is tough but it can be increased by writing regularly on forums aand referring to own post or website. Also consider submiting your site to all relevant directories.
Social Media Traffic
Social media traffic is generated from social media activities such as Facebook post, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram etc. Writing quality posts on social media will attract traffic to your site. I asked a friend at
orderinn.co.uk to share estimated traffic from the social media segment and it turned out to be 53% of the total traffic.
Other Traffic
If traffic does not fit into another source mentioned above or has been tagged as "Other" via URL parameter then it will be classed as "Other" traffic. If you work on above mentioned steps then it is more likely you will see traffic in this category. This category is hard analyze as not much information is attached.
How do I find out information about my website traffic sources?
To track traffic sources of your website use web analytics platforms like
Google Analytics - FREE . You can also take paid option like
ahrefs.com or
semrush.com to get more in depth information about your website traffic.
