Article / Definition: Site Traffic

"Traffic" is a general term for the amount of visitors that a site receives in a given period of time. Traffic is a the time-honored measuring stick for how successful a site is at attracting visitors - the more traffic, the more successful the site. Traffic can come from several sources, and a good site cultivates all of these:

• Referrals from generalized search engines and directories
• Referrals from topical / specialty search engines and directories
• "Direct hits" from external sources such as URL's on pens and company stationery
• "Direct hits" from word-of-mouth recommendations
• "Direct hits" from repeat visitors

Conversions are almost always a percentage of total traffic, so obviously the more traffic the better. In addition, the ability to cite respectable traffic figures can sometimes make or break a business deal, a request for a reciprocal link on another site, etc.

Traffic figures can usually be easily derived from the basic site statistics package offered with most site hosting packages.