Traffic
Website visits, measured in terms of page views, sessions, or unique visitors, are a key metric. Traffic can come from search engines, ads, social media, backlinks, or direct visits. Quality is more important than quantity. It's better to have fewer people who are genuinely interested than many random visitors who leave immediately.
Traffic is the most frequently cited figure, yet least understood. Ten thousand visitors who don't ask any questions are worth less than two hundred who do. That's why the source of the traffic is more important than the number of visitors.
Separate at least four sources: organic search, direct visits, referrals from other sites, and paid ads. For example, 3.000 visits per month, 2.400 of which are direct, sounds good but is usually a measurement error or internal traffic. 800 visits, 600 of which are organic and with an average visit duration of 2:30 minutes, provide a much healthier foundation for everything else.
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