What Is High-Quality Website Traffic & How Do I Get More of It?

Not all internet traffic is created equal. While traffic quantity is obviously important, traffic quality is what gets you customers.

Both quantity and quality of traffic are important for a high-performing website. High quantities of traffic mean brand awareness and online visibility. High-quality traffic, however, can mean a higher ratio of conversions and sales.

There are a few ways traffic and conversions can play out:

• You start out with 300 visitors/month + a 1% conversion rate = 3 leads/month
• You raise traffic to 1,000 visitors/month + keep a 1% conversion rate = 10 leads/month
• You keep traffic at 300/month + raise conversion rate to 3% = 10 leads/month
• You raise traffic to 1,000 visitors/month + raise conversion rate to 3% = 30 leads/month

We’ve talked about raising traffic quantity before - check out this article on ways to increase traffic. Now, let’s talk about raising traffic quality to increase conversion rates.

What Is High-Quality Traffic?

High-quality traffic is traffic that resonates with the buyer persona of the customer you’re trying to reach. Because these visitors fit your buyer persona, we know that they:

1. Are interested in your content
2. Are more likely to convert
3. Are or will be looking for your product
   
   

How Do You Know if Your Traffic is High-Quality?

Some good indications include:

1. More conversions
2. More engagement across channels
3. More sales stemming from online sources
   
   

How Do You Get More High-Quality Traffic?

There are several factors that impact traffic quality. Some are dependent on the visitor, some on the search engine, and some on your strategy and implementation. Here’s what you can do to get more high-quality traffic

1.  Choose highly relevant keywords for your web pages, headings, content, meta descriptions, and image alt text.

These keywords should include both long-tail and short-tail options, and also follow these rules.

2.  Modify your keywords with industry, location, and other descriptive keywords to filter out low-quality traffic.

If you want to target certain demographics, locations, job roles, or other specific criteria, use words that appeal to those groups.

If you only offer insurance in Pennsylvania, try keywords like “insurance in PA” or “Pennsylvania insurance.”

3.  Make sure your content shows up when and where buyers are looking. 

Of course, this includes search engines, but don’t forget social media, industry websites, forums, and other sources. You can reach your target audience with a mixture of owned, earned, and paid media.

As a reminder -- Getting high-quality traffic is only the first step. Traffic alone won’t increase sales or revenue. For more info on the other aspects of developing a stronger strategy, check out some of our other posts:

• Visitors to convert on your website
• Marketing and sales alignment
• An inbound sales strategy to close the deal

Editor's Note: This blog post was originally published on June 28, 2017, and was updated on Feb. 21, 2020 to reflect current insights and resources.