One important analytic that provides valuable insight to
marketers is page referrer. Page referrer is a visit characterization analytic
that determines where the user of your website came from in the first place. “When
someone clicks on a hyperlink to go to a new page on a different website, [Google]
Analytics tracks the click as a referral visit to the second site. The
originating site is called a ‘referrer’ because it refers traffic from one
place to the next (Bashara) .”
Reviewing referral paths can “hold the key to the most
popular tweets, influencers, and content for your business.” In Google
Analytics this information tells you where most of your traffic is coming from,
which has the potential to let you know if there is information on another site
about your business, for instance an article, and also if campaigns you are
running elsewhere on the Web are driving traffic to your page. In this image you can see the majority of this
website’s referrals come from stumbleupon.com, followed by Facebook.
(Kissmetrics)
To get a clear picture of the value of referral traffic you
can’t just look at the source; it is also important to take into account bounce
rate, new visitors, and time spent on the page from those referred users. In
the example above if users from stumbleupon.com came to the website and then
left quickly, but the Facebook users came, stayed for some time, and engaged
while they were there, Facebook becomes a more valuable referral source for the
website despite sending fewer users (Bashara) .
Knowing where your superstar users are coming from can help
make marketing decisions a little easier, too. Knowing where your target customers
are hanging out on the Internet can be tricky. There are so many websites, blogs,
and social sites that cueing in on just a few to spend ad dollars on is
difficult. Using referral analytics may help. If a website or blog already is
already sending a large chunk of traffic to you this may mean that a lot of
likeminded users can be found there. Advertising on the site may lead to new
customers and ultimately more engagement on your site.
Looking at where traffic is coming from may also help with
content creation for a site. For instance if a large chunk of users are coming
Pinterest they may be in search of design-heavy, photo-rich content. But, if more
users are reaching you from Twitter it may be wise to write shorter articles
and use more pull-quotes in the design to help readers get to the point more
quickly. Enabling users to quickly share content on their preferred platform is
also key. Don’t bury the “Pin It” button if you are seeing tons of traffic on
your site from Pinterest.
Referrals from other sites may also serve as opportunities;
after all you are likely creating content for like-minded consumers if there is
a constant flow of users back and forth. Consider partnerships, guest bloggers,
or sponsored content to help enrich the relationship and make the most of the
increased traffic (Wallace, 2013) .
It’s clear that there are some straightforward ways to use referral
traffic to your advantage and also some that require a little more thought,
long-term review, and planning. No matter which you choose it seems like a
worthwhile measure that should be reviewed fairly regularly in order to get a
solid picture of who your online collaborators should be.
References:
Bashara, R. (n.d.). What Is Referral Traffic in
Google Analytics? Retrieved January 24, 2016, from Chron Small Business:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/referral-traffic-google-analytics-53168.html
Kissmetrics. (n.d.). What You Can Learn from
Referral Paths in Google Analytics. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from
Kissmetrics Blog:
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/referral-paths-in-google-analytics/
Wallace, T. (2013, November 27). 4 Ways to Optimize
Your Referral Traffic. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from Mashable:
http://mashable.com/2013/11/27/referrals-metrics/#Ol5ew_pSRaqX
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