Are You Looking for Traffic or Sales?

What are your goals when you write an article online? Are you striving to get a lot of traffic or to convert sales?

There are two main reasons that people write articles online. One reason is to spread the word about a cause, issue, or facts. The second reason is to earn money through clicks or sales. Sometimes you can do both with the same page.

One of the key factors we look for when assessing whether an article is successful at achieving its purpose is the traffic it attracts. This can be measured by analytical statistics which track visitors' behavior on websites. However, traffic alone is not a good measure of an article's success. It is way more important that your article is reaching the people that you are trying to reach, and that those people are interacting with the article in the way you want them to. In the case of an sales article, that interaction would be actual purchases (sales conversions).

Traffic Does Not Always Equal Sales

Traffic vs. Targeted Traffic

Many people think that their articles are successful because they are attracting a lot of traffic. However, you can have a million people finding your article a day, but if your article is not achieving its purpose then you have failed. Traffic alone is not going to make you successful. Traffic alone will not create sales from your page. Targeted traffic will.

Targeted traffic is traffic that has reached your page due to search terms that match your content. For instance, if a person is looking for "how to make a snowball" and they reach your page on "how to keep snow off your roof" they will not read your page, even though they landed there, because it does not have the information that they are looking for. This would count as traffic to your page, but it would not give you influence or sales. So if 500 people a day found your page that way, the majority of that traffic would be worthless to you. It would not spread information to people about how to keep snow off your roof, nor would it sell any related items to keeping snow off of rooftops.

However, if the same 500 people would land on your page because they wanted to know how to keep snow off of the roof, then you would find that you would have a good level of influence as well as sales conversions. Therefore, the most important thing about traffic is that it is the right kind of traffic. In essence, just 10 people who are actually looking for your information is much better than 500 people who are not looking for your information.

Success is Determined by Your Imput

Targeted Traffic Leads to Sales Conversions

In order to achieve sales conversions from your article, you will need enough targeted traffic. Even if you are getting targeted traffic, you will not convert every reader into a buying customer. The percentage of readers that convert into customers will differ depending on the subject matter of your article, the time of year, and how rare information on your topic is.

Converting Readers into Buying Customers

To make sales from your articles, you will be most successful if you write a product review, write a personal use of a product, or show how a product will be used in a project or program. Then you will need to attract readers who are searching for the item you are writing about. The best way to attract these readers is through keyword research and matching your keywords in your article to the search terms that are used by these readers.

Once the person lands on your page, there are many ways to help convert them into a buying customer. Some of these are:

Using clear, concise text to describe what you are selling
Showing attractive pictures of what you are selling
Offering several chances for the customer to buy
Explaining the benefits of buying this item
And linking directly to the item you are selling from your page

Updated: 09/28/2014, lakeerieartists

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CherylsArt on 06/06/2012

Nice and simple information. I like that.

tribute_to_erasmus on 04/23/2012

really useful information. Thanks!

Marie on 03/18/2012

You're so right about targeted traffic. Many of my most profitable articles only get a handful of visits per day yet make consistent sales. Other articles get hundreds of visits and never make sales because readers are just looking for information.

Anamika on 02/14/2012

For me both are equally important. A good amount of traffic is an indication that your article is appreciated and brings a boost in income as well.

Guest on 02/11/2012

Oh it's so true that traffic does not equal sales! good tips!

Sheri_Oz on 01/30/2012

I need to reread articles like this several times till it finally sinks in . I think I finally got it. Thanks.

katiem2 on 12/30/2011

Great tips on getting both traffic and sales. Thanks, Katie

lakeerieartists on 12/29/2011

@poshcoffeeco I think you were. And that brings up another point. Don't you feel good that you found what you were looking for? That is what your reader should be left with.