High-Quality Web Traffic vs. 'Meh' Traffic: Using Inbound Marketing

You plop down at your computer on a Monday morning for a quick look at your website’s traffic. 

Let’s say you’re using HubSpot’s analytics. You click the “sources” report for your business website and BAM! 

Your website traffic is through the roof and you feel the sudden urge to break into dance.

Don't break out the tap shoes just yet. It's important not to overlook one piece of critical information: sales leads generated. 

An increased amount of views automatically resulting in increased sales is a common myth about site traffic. And "how to get more website traffic" isn't exactly a phrase you'd want to search if you're looking to increase your number of sales-qualified leads.

Whether “good” for your website equates to 50 hits or 50 million, all that traffic is virtually useless if it’s not being ushered through your inbound marketing funnel. It’s not “good” if people are visiting, poking around for a few minutes, and leaving without taking action or at least providing contact information. 

You could increase web traffic if you pump money into PPC advertising or boosted social posts. But if you need high-quality web traffic, there’s a roadmap to get there (or rather a roadmap for buyers to find you).

How Is High-Quality Web Traffic Defined?

To be considered high-quality web traffic, the visitors must resonate with the buyer persona that your marketing efforts target. If your visitors match your buyer persona, you automatically know that they are:

• Interested in your educational content
• More likely to convert
• Considering your product as a solution to their problem

Just ranking high for a popular keyword and gaining additional blog views doesn't help your bottom line. High-quality web traffic is the key to a successful digital marketing campaign, and inbound marketing is your most effective way to achieve it.

Build High-Quality Web Traffic With Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a specific take on content marketing, which involves crafting media to promote a brand across multiple channels. Major brands like Coca-Cola, Whole Foods, and Nike are outstanding at this. 

But let’s have a closer look at LEGO. In today’s world, it’s essentially a media company that happens to make building blocks for kids. Every LEGO movie or storyline partnership with the Star Wars and Marvel comic brands are actually huge pieces of content intent on advertising to the masses. 

(Click here for several more examples.) 

Inbound marketing is more educational. Every buyer has a journey, and they are set on making an informed decision.

It comes as no surprise that most consumers do at least some online research before buying anything these days. That number increases for B2B consumers. 

Makes sense. Who wants to be wrong? Worse yet, who wants to be wrong and lose money in the process?

As an inbound marketer, your job is to help them study along their journey from: 

• Awareness that they have an issue
• Consideration of how to solve it
• Decision on doing business with a certain company 

Tackle this by producing remarkable online content and leveraging it through multiple online media channels to find your ideal buyer (a fictional character called your buyer persona) wherever he or she “lives” in the digital world. There’s a legion of options: 

• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Whitepapers
• E-books
• Testimonials
• Social media
• And much, much more 

Most people start with blogging as a base, using other methods and channels to supplement, optimize, and recycle content. Your goal is to craft material educating the buyer on anything from FAQs or industry trends to specific services or products your buyer seeks. 

Companies that blog 16 or more times per month attract 3.5X more web traffic than those that blog 4 times or less per month. Combine blogging with social promotion and SEO, and you’ll be much more likely to attract your target buyers to your site to take action.

High-Quality Content Drives High-Quality Web Traffic

Buyers today crave a nurturing relationship. Inbound marketing is a soft, comforting blanket of information. 

Whether your model is B2B or B2C, bombarding people with annoying ads and other intrusive forms of marketing just doesn’t work anymore. (Did it ever?) Most people will literally ignore you, and you'll create a negative association with your brand.

Don’t believe me? Think about your own personal experiences:

• How often do you find yourself skipping YouTube ads?
• How many pop-up ads do you click on when shopping?
• Do you click on ads that appear as you scroll on social media?
  

I'm willing to bet the majority of people have similar answers to these questions.

What does that mean for traditional advertising? It can be a fool’s errand, often times with a hollow promise of ROI. What’s more, the annoyance makes people avoid your brand like they’d avoid an awkward conversation with an ex in the grocery store. (Admittedly, the face masks make it easier.) 

You want to be a stud, a Casanova, the Tom Brady of branding, the Michael Phelps of content. You want to be memorable. You want them to never want you to leave (except for Tom Brady, of course. He's free to go). 

Using Inbound Marketing

You need to be an inbound marketer. It turns “meh” website traffic into the high-quality web traffic your company needs.

If you want to learn more about creating high-quality web traffic, then check out our free guide on 5 basic ways to increase website traffic:

Editor's note: This article was originally published in June 2017 and was updated in March 2021.