Why Your Business Needs 3 Traffic Sources

Do you know what your most reliable traffic sources are?

So many people tell me and maybe you’ve even said it before:

“If only we had more traffic, I’d make more sales”

If it were only as simple as that! The truth is,  business owners who say “if only we had more traffic” usually can’t identify their most consistent traffic sources, and often rely on a single traffic source for the majority of their business. Any day Google, Facebook, Bing or any other provider of traffic can change their rules (they often do several times per year) and you could lose all your traffic in a heartbeat. Every business that uses the Internet to win customers must have at least 3 traffic sources, they are:

The Golden Boy

The Golden Boy is your go-to traffic source. It should already have been scaled and it brings you a good amount of sales each month. You don’t require too much effort maintaining it but spend a few hours per week or month ensuring it trots along and grows. Your Golden Boy is where you make the most amount of sales with the least amount of effort. Typically this source of traffic would be

• Google (SEO or paid search),
• email marketing
• or word of mouth.

The Contender

The Contender is your second most valuable traffic source but is out of reach from the Golden Boy. Each week it brings you targeted traffic but not enough for your business to survive if it solely relied on it. The Contender is where you should be spending some of your free time to identify any problems that are stopping you from progressing this channel further. The Contender traffic source should have the potential to one day to become your next Golden Boy. Typically this sort of traffic would come from platforms such as

• Facebook,
• Twitter,
• Yahoo,
• Bing,
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Google
• or banner ads on websites.

The Wildcard

Your Golden Boy and Contender traffic sources never change, they are always a single platform. The Wildcard on the other hand can be any number of platforms and may change from week to week or month to month. The Wildcard is a new traffic medium you’ve yet to explore but you feel it may have capabilities to help your business. You’ll give the Wildcard a run out for a couple of weeks to see if you get anything meaningful results. While this traffic source doesn’t yet bring you leads or sales, it is always worth testing out new platforms because if you get there before your competitors, you can stand to make a very good ROI for very little spend. Wildcard platforms are typically new advertising networks like

• SnapChat,
• Periscope,
• Reddit
• or content networks.

Who is your Golden Boy, Contender and Wildcard?

If your business relies on a single source of traffic, you’re living dangerously. No matter the size of your business, you should always have 3 mediums to drive traffic to your website. There should be your bread and butter which requires limited input from you. Next up should be a secondary medium you’re trying to master and sit-up along side your Golden Boy. Finally, you should always be on the lookout for new and innovative ways to reach your audience, as it’s not uncommon for a Wildcard to become a Golden Boy in a matter of weeks. Who is your Golden Boy, Contender and Wildcard? Or do you rely on a single source of traffic for all your business? If you want to understand more about your traffic sources to your website, how you can identify which ones are working best for you, and how you can optimise them, you may want to think about our SEO and Google Analytics workshop.