Buy Website Traffic or Build Website Traffic

When it comes to generating traffic for a website there are essentially two methods – buying or building. In either case, the important aspect is that the traffic targeted to both the content you provide and the product or service that you offer. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages and can be combined into an effective online business marketing mix used to generate sales and improve conversions.

Buying Traffic

There are many methods of buying traffic for a website. Any form of online marketing that guarantees an amount of traffic, or number of clicks to your website, for a set amount of money can be considered buying traffic. This rigidity can provide a transparent method to increase website visibility and track your marketing ROI but the impetus should always be on finding sources of targeted traffic.

The Benefits

From Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to any other method of buying website traffic, one of the biggest benefits is its transparency. A website owner knows exactly how much they will need to spend in order to generate a specific amount of traffic. This allows for the accurate assessment of ROI and enables you, as a vigilant website owner and marketer, to sort the profitable wheat from the costly chaff. Methods such as PPC can generate traffic immediately, even for the newer website.

The Pitfalls

Unless managed properly, buying website traffic can be a very costly business. Many sources of website traffic pay little heed to how well targeted that traffic is, and poorly targeted traffic will not generate good net results. That is, your website will generate more traffic but you will not see an improvement in sales and your website ROI is more likely to take a significant tumble than a marked increase.

Building Traffic

Building traffic is a more organic approach and is most typically associated with SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. By optimising a website or by becoming an active member in online social communities it is possible to build seemingly limitless supplies of traffic. The long term success of building traffic can see your website traffic continue to increase long after you have put in the initial leg work.

The Benefits

Effective traffic building techniques, that specifically generate targeted traffic, can continue to generate new visitors over an extended period of time. While it does require continued work to generate a regular stream of incoming visitors, many methods of building traffic can help improve your website visibility, generate positive website branding, and give a very generous marketing ROI.

The Pitfalls

These methods can build a lot of long term traffic for comparatively little investment. However, short term gains are generally quite small and require a lot of work in the first place to build up a solid basis to work from. Some ongoing work is required in order to continue to generate the best results and to continue to increase traffic levels above and beyond those that are first created. Finally, there are no guarantees; no minimum and no maximum gains that can be achieved through these forms of building traffic.

Combining The Two

Buying and building traffic both have their advantages, and are certainly not mutually exclusive. A website can benefit from PPC as well as SEO and SMO traffic generation in a powerful marketing mix. This combination can provide excellent early traffic results as well as continued generation of new visitors and it can even encompass very powerful website branding.