What is SEO referral traffic?

Referral traffic that originates from other news and relevant industry websites, is a constant source of visitors to a website. It is the result of useful, high quality content and written recommendations that send users to a suggested website or online resource. It can be promotional or non-promotional. It is not regulated by an “on / off” button as in the case of pay per click or paid social traffic. It is constant due to the fact that the content is seo optimized and discoverable for months, even years, after it has been produced. 

Why invest in building referral traffic?

Internet referral traffic is a byproduct of SEO and PR. There are three main reasons why it is one of the best revenue channels:

1. Security: It protects the revenue profile of a business during times when Google experiences “mood swings”. In other words, when SEO traffic goes down, referral traffic remains steadfast. 
2. Excellent ROI: Referral traffic converts because it is an endorsement of what other sites and businesses think of your brand. It is has one of the highest conversion rates and has elements of social proof and influencer marketing at it’s core. 
3. Lasting benefits: The benefits of both social and pay per click marketing is temporary. Referral traffic that originates from reliable news sources will last for months, if not years. The cost per click will never change and it will assist your business in reputation management and conversion. 

What is the value of good referral traffic to a business?

This can be very subjective. But below is a case example of a business with a monthly turnover of $250K. Notice how organic search & referral combined provides 60% of it’s total revenue. 

What does the link profile look like for a business that receives referral traffic?

In this particular case, the company has more than 2000 domains linking to it. Some, like the Wikipedia links were completely organic results, whereas many others, like iheart.com, Jpost, Latribune, Techtimes, were all the result of SEO optimized PR. 

How can Sitetrail help your business build referral traffic?

A revenue profile like the above is highly desirable but not everyone has what it takes to build such a safe position for their business. It will require several months to put the right assets in place. It is not a “turnkey” solution like pay per click.

When we compare just how well referral traffic performs compared VS pay per click, it is understandable why the strategic digital marketing plan of any sustainable business will include the aggressive pursuit of both referral and organic SEO traffic. 

So is referral traffic right for your business? Absolutely yes, but let’s establish to what extent you’re ready to pursue it:

The research is clear. DO NOT THINK for a second that anyone can hire an agency for 2 weeks, sit back and decide yes “it worked” or no, “it failed”. It requires a long term mindset and a strategic approach.  A week by week knee-jerk survival mindset will not suffice. The timeframe that 80% of businesses require to build momentum is 3 to 12 months. 

Case Study Fact: To generate $1.2M in annual revenue from referral & SEO traffic, the business in our example has spent $72K over 12 months. They did not spend $1K on a magic bullet. 

The reality is, that with a small weekly news and PR / SEO link building package like this it can take up to a year to see good referral results, whereas our accelerated monthly SEO/PR combined plan will probably take at least 3 months before substantial results occur. 

It is clear across the board that this is one of the best channels for any business. The question of whether management is ready to pursue this as a strategic pilar, depends the ability to shift mindsets from “fighting” to “making war”. Pay per click may win a fight, but solid strategic digital marketing will always rely on strong referral and organic results to win the war. If this resonates with you and you’d like one of the most experienced teams in the world, below are the most appropriate solutions to order: