Week 9: Types of Search Traffic

Today I will be defining and explaining the significance of a few different types of search traffic. Organic Search Traffic is one area that allows creators to see if their content is trending or popular. What is it? Organic Search traffic is the result of search engine results that is unpaid, in other words, it is earned traffic. It is commonly stressed to attempt to increase your organic traffic being that it is a main channel as well as the most natural.

Another channel is direct traffic. This is traffic generated through unknown sources. Examples of this would be traffic from saving the URL, bookmarking a site, adding the site to favorites on a browser or even sharing website links through emails. By using tools such as google analytics, they automatically track the sources of traffic, and if no source is found it becomes classified as direct traffic.

Paid search traffic is very straight forward, meaning that visits came from paid advertising of the website owner. How does this work? Often times, websites have paid advertisements appear at the top of searches with the help of Google AdWords. This system has creators pay for their advertising to appear given certain keyword searches. Note that paid search traffic can come from many platforms, as Google is a common example. Keep an eye out for these traffic trends, especially after major changes or new content is published!

Week 7: Trends and Relevance

Keeping up with trends can be a huge advantage for content creators because it can generate more traffic as well as keep the content relevant. Here are a few simple ways to stay updated on trends:

• Follow/Subscribe to other content creators
• Use industry tools (ex. Google trends) 
• Read up on large brands 
• Network and communicate with peers in the industry

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Google Analytics offers incredible data to answer nearly every question regarding your website. You can even change date ranges to see the influence of change over a certain period if desired. This allows you to see trends within your audience, but it is also important to look "big picture". 

Investing time into keeping up to date with trends helps creators make the adjustments needed, and also provides a little direction of what content is relevant. Additionally, using tools such as Google Analytics or optimizesmart.com are great for answering any question regarding your website such as exit rate. Trends can be tricky depending on the audience, but staying ahead of the trend curve is a huge competitive advantage! 

Week 6: Significance of Keywords

Today I would like to discuss the importance of of keywords and what role they play. Keywords are a huge factor in search engine ranking. Depending on what the user searches for, the keywords used in the search applies to the content of each website creator, thus ranks each site. The sites with high rankings are placed at the top of your search. How does this relate to keywords? Keywords are a significant factor in for browser search results. 

What is an organic search? An organic search is an unpaid search result based on keywords of the search, links and other factors. Websites like Facebook are using PPC advertising which is the exact opposite of an organic search. Organic searches are important because they are relevant and interested users. Meaning, the searcher is looking for content or products relevant to yours. On the other hand, PPC advertising can sometimes bring users that are completely uninterested to your website. These are some key factors to understand and monitor for generating traffic and business.