More traffic on site? It not always is good news

It is one of the fundamental goals of SEO, but we must be careful how we achieve it because it can have negative effects on our business. When it comes to traffic, in fact, we cannot evaluate just the amount, and sometimes increasing the volume entering the site is not good for SEO and business.

Site traffic must be of quality

As for the traffic, then, the classic search for quality is also valid, the term that in the SEO field contains all the positive aspects to be achieved through optimization.

And so, although the generation of more traffic to a website remains one of the important aspects of SEO through all the techniques and interventions of optimization (from strategic editorial plans for content to off-page activities and so on) and if organic traffic is one of the basic KPIs for determining the viability of a project, “it is also important to remember that the increase in organic traffic does not necessarily translate into a sharp positive“.

This is the thesis of Natalie Hoben, who from the pages of Search Engine Journal leads us to the discovery of seven scenarios in which getting more traffic might not bring benefits to a company and indeed represent a problem.

1. The page does not match the user intent

The first case concerns the mismatch between what users want and what we offer on the page and, therefore, a problem of mismatch between our content and the search intent.

When a visitor is looking for a specific query he has in mind a precise objective: if a page on our site has a high position on Google for that query and receives clicks, not intercepting his intent can create a not positive experience for the person, that will likely leave the site quickly and return to search results.

As Hobben explains, “we know that Google’s algorithm constantly improves to show results that best match a user’s query, but it’s not 100% perfect” and so these mismatches can happen.

When they happen, the potentially positive element – the user who, in search of something, arrives on the site and generates more traffic – can turn into a series of negative signals to the Google algorithm, such as higher bounce rate, metrics of stay time on the lower site and so on, which indicate that the result of our site is not the ideal and most pertinent answer for that query or intention.

The solution could be to study the search intent to understand if we can actually satisfy people’s needs, and adapt the content accordingly to fully exploit the visibility achieved on the search engine.

2. Unoptimized site and content strategy issues
   

Bringing more traffic to a site that does not have a well-designed and optimized structure is like “organizing a dinner in a house where each room is a disaster or without having food and drinks ready to serve in time for the event”: in all probability, people will run from the house (the site) and will not be back for a long time.

In the SEO field, having a site that does not rest on a complete content strategy, that publishes badly written content, that “loads at the speed of a turtle or is not optimized for mobile devices” means not enticing users to stay and browse it.

These aspects are so important that, the author recalls, “Google is launching the Page Experience update to better measure how much each web page meets the needs of visitors to organic search”: ultimately, the advice is to arrange and put in order our “SEO house before inviting people”.

3. Aiming for conversions, not traffic
   

The two previous points clarify Natalie Hoben’s position in the eternal debate between what matters most to the SEO between organic traffic and conversions: the author, in fact, would prefer “attracting one hundred thousand visitors to a site and having 50% of them convert, rather than two hundred thousand visitors and a conversion rate of 25%”.

The goal of an SEO strategy “is not simply to collect more traffic“, because stopping at this “we would eliminate one of the most important (if not the only) aspects of the role of an SEO, increase the ROI for companies“.

So, if site traffic increases, but at the same time the conversion rate does not also improve, we are not “really getting the best organic results”.

4.   The site receives negative press 

Sudden traffic increases may also depend on causes that we would probably prefer to avoid: if the activity is under control or receives negative press, having peak visits is certainly not a winning factor, because this wave is linked only to the current case and scandal.

It is therefore important to know how to evaluate traffic and also study the context in which the brand moves, to have a holistic point of view with which to understand the movements.

5. Traffic spread on multiple channels
   

Moving beyond the boundaries of the organic channel, the article points out other situations where attracting more traffic is not ideal for SEO purposes: for example, if we are directing traffic through other channels, even for a fee, toward an unoptimized site (for content, technical aspects or user experience factors), this can backfire on us.

Our “PPC counterparts could pay a higher cost per acquisition and drive more traffic to a page that quickly encourages users to quit”.

6. Non-human or not-desirable traffic 

It is essential to pay close attention to the sources and traffic channels in Google Analytics: if the visits do not come from human beings but from spambots, an increase in traffic would not be a positive move.

It is estimated that 37% of site activity is created by bots, and less than half of this activity of bots is legitimate: spam traffic “is a generally illegal type sent to a site, which distorts and inflates traffic data”.

7. Wasting precious resources

Sometimes, an increase in website traffic can put resources to the test: we may “have a really solid informative content that brings a lot of traffic, but if it is not relevant to the public you may end up with unwanted consequences”.

It can, for instance, cause server problems or result in “a very real cost for front line staff and customer service agents who have to respond to phone calls, emails, chats and contact requests from people who are not likely to become customers“.

It is therefore important, the author suggests, “to ensure that the leads you are bringing from research are relevant and also with high intent”.

Generating value, non only traffic

In conclusion, Natalie Hoben’s final suggestion is to focus on “generating value” and not simply increasing traffic metrics: not all visitor numbers have the same weight and are equally significant, and although increased traffic is a key aspect of search engine optimization, it should not be isolated from the more general context of the business.

Without added value – an attractive content that attracts more users and leads them to explore other pages of the site, an improvement in optimization that leads to more conversions and so on – traffic will remain only a vain statistic.

On the contrary, the quality of traffic and the actions that users take “must be at the forefront in every optimization” that we do, so as to ensure that the site will truly be able to benefit from visits.